tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6611875170009784219.post1030551221508513834..comments2024-03-15T12:42:11.939-04:00Comments on Noblemania: Response to one belief that Bill Finger should NOT be credited for
BatmanMarc Tyler Noblemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10732005290440645718noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6611875170009784219.post-18384392235475274212016-11-24T21:56:52.514-05:002016-11-24T21:56:52.514-05:00I have yet to read the post you are taking issue w...I have yet to read the post you are taking issue with, so I'm contributing my own thoughts here, which may very well coincide with his. Kane promised Sullivan a superhero, Kane delivered one, and Sullivan bought it. DC paid Kane. DC didn't know or care what if any assistants Kane used on his own dime. That much is fact. <br /><br />What Kane did to inspire, beg, cajole, or pay for ideas he could use is open to debate. Kane was using Finger to ghostwrite earlier strips, so no doubt he turned to "his" writer to work on the new assignment, and he likely paid him for it. What if he had turned to a wife, his mother, a neighbor kid, a barber, for their opinions on the costume? Are they creators now? Finger lifted the script of "The Case of The Chemical Syndicate" practically intact from a Shadow story. Does Walter B. Gibson get creator credit? <br /><br />I don't argue that Finger didn't contribute amazing stories and great ideas. But sometimes, when you're just a hired part of the construction crew, you don't get to put your name on the building no matter how great a job you do.Bob Rivardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09345116240123706105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6611875170009784219.post-7050514580750648282016-11-23T18:45:19.908-05:002016-11-23T18:45:19.908-05:00And, Marc, apologies for misspelling your name abo...And, Marc, apologies for misspelling your name above!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07671240339478725776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6611875170009784219.post-9251650569114575772016-11-23T18:38:06.289-05:002016-11-23T18:38:06.289-05:00Mark,
I certainly couldn't have asked for a m...Mark,<br /><br />I certainly couldn't have asked for a more thorough point-by-point response, which I thank you for; I had hoped to get an opposing viewpoint to my post, and you are perhaps THE authority of record on this particular dispute, with a clear passion for it and more-than-ample facts to support your position.<br /><br />I knew when I published the piece I was taking a controversial stance, as most who are in the know about this matter have ardently and vocally supported the case for Finger's shared creatorship credit for years (decades, even). As you likely surmised from the post itself, my intention was not to denigrate or downplay Finger's creative contributions to the character and mythos -- far from it -- only to take an objective step back and question whether he is, in fact, deserving of attribution by every meaningful metric. I think we both agree that it's a BIG DEAL to anoint someone the co-creator of ANY artistic work, certainly one as culturally impactful as Batman, and, in this particular instance, so many years after the fact. And if Finger himself didn't fight for credit or make a claim to creatorship, publicly or privately, shouldn't THAT be taken into consideration? (And I'm assuming that's the case based on your assertion that Bill didn't "out himself," but feel free to clarify.) For the record: I am not a Kane defender, either -- not that I've been accused as such -- though he HAS been, rightly or wrongly, vilified in this matter to an almost cartoonish extent as a credit-hogging huckster who proactively hid his best kept secret, Finger, from public view. I'll let YOU be the judge as to whether or not that portrayal is just; I can't speak to it except to say that surely Kane's own misgivings, as expressed in his autobiography, paint a portrait of a more complicated man, and a more complicated business relationship, than the one of comic-shop folklore?<br /><br />Regardless, the debate, I suppose, is moot: Bill Finger's name now sits alongside Kane's as creator of Batman. But let's hope it ends there. Let's hope the NEXT phase isn't to get Kane's name removed from the byline altogether. If he had as little to do with the character's conception as many of Finger's supporters insist (and for the sake of argument, I'll stipulate that they are correct), there would certainly be just cause to do it. And THAT'S what I find unsettling about posthumous creatorship augmentation: It sets a precedent whereby uninvolved parties -- often generations removed from the artists whom they are campaigning either for or against -- get to decide who gets credit for a particular work of art, altering the (admittedly very possibly inaccurate or incomplete) historical record in the process. (I'm not sure, by the way, the Thirteenth Amendment, a piece of federal legislation that affected millions of lives as well as the course of history, is an apt comparison to what was a private business contract; even if Finger's lack of credit WAS an injustice, it's a false equivalency.) THAT'S the larger issue that troubles me, and we've now seen two cases of it in a row: first Kane/Finger, and now Shakespeare/Marlowe. And if this marks the beginning of what's about to become a pattern -- one that may very well (hopefully) not come to pass -- we need to establish stringent burden-of-proof criteria that MUST come with challenging and possibly changing the creatorship attribution of a given work of fiction. I'm not saying it should NEVER be done -- and, hell, maybe it WAS warranted in Finger's case (history has spoken on that one) -- but it's a power that should be exercised EXTREMELY judiciously. That's what I'm lobbying for.<br /><br />In closing, I absolutely echo your sentiment of thanks on this holiday weekend for Batman, for Bill, for Kane, and for a healthy culture of friendly debate. After all, we're ALL fans here...<br /><br />Happy Thanksgiving, my friend,<br /><br />SeanAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07671240339478725776noreply@blogger.com