Saturday, July 28, 2012

IGN covers "Bill the Boy Wonder"

"It's time to sing the praises of Batman's secret co-creator, Bill Finger."

So says the subhead of a deftly crafted IGN article on Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.
Thank you, Joey Esposito! (In fact, that subhead could have been the subtitle for the book itself, though it is already quite long enough, thank you very much.)

Here are some of my favorite (unedited) comments and, where applicable, my responses:

confission44
I don't really think that this article fairly represents Bob Kane. Bob Kane has been quoted in several different interviews giving Bill Finger credit for his part in the creation of batman mythos. If anything dc should get the heat for not acknowledging Finger.

mstrjedi40
Agreed [re: confission44]. I've actually seen three of said interviews where Bob Kane specifically names "Bill Finger" for creating some of the specifics concerning our beloved caped crusader. That and Bob Kane NEVER came off as the type of person to want to steal someone's creative spotlight. DC is more to blame here than B.K. IMO.

my response to confission44:
Yes, but Kane did not publicly acknowledge Finger's role till Finger had been dead 15 years. To me, that is inexcusable.


my response to mstrjedi40:
Again, Kane did not credit Finger till long after Finger's death. What's more, in the 1960s, when Finger publicly revealed his role in Batman (without hostility to Kane, I might add), Kane accused Finger of LYING. Steal someone's creative spotlight? That was Kane's occupation.

FanBoy117
Nobleman and Finger i appreciate the effort u put into creating my favorite hero and comic series Batman;)

Rain_Spider
I read & reviewed this book for the publisher before it was released to the pubic. I gave it 5/5 for it's courage & it's presentation.

confission44
I dislike the fact that marc nobleman makes himself sound like a self righteous person who just wants people to know the truth about Bill Finger's part in Batman's creation, but he is doing it to get paid!!

my response:
We all want to do work we love, and it's a bonus if we can get paid for it. By the way, I spent four years on this project before a publisher made me an offer. There was never any guarantee I would make a dime on this; meanwhile I offer plenty of my research on my blog for free.


Winterdenni
It's a little hard to take this article too seriously, when you consider that almost everything about Batman was directed lifted from Zoro.

my response:
Finger openly cited his influences, and my book acknowledges that as well. And there are, of course, significant differences between Zorro and Batman. I'd say one of the biggest is that Batman has a psychological reason to do what he does.

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