Batman Picture with my caption
I had wrote a post before about Bob Kane and how he never gave Bill Finger credit for Batman. Much less the financial share Bill Finger should have got.
Look at my blog category on DC Comics: Batman’s Creators, Kane screwed over Bill Finger to read that article.
I recently read a good article in 3 parts by another blogger. The link above is part 3 and the most interesting, and if you need only one part to read, that is the one. Included on his page are some nice graphics and specifics.
While I agree with what he is saying, I think he was too harsh on Bob Kane, and using today’s terms and ideas on a time period that was different.
As I mentioned, I don’t think it was fair what happened to Bill Finger and he should have got co-credit and his financial share.
But with that said, the link and post talks mostly about Bob Kane and how he picture swiped his art and ideas off other artists.
That will be the point of this post and how he is being harsh and not looking at it from another perspective.
For a rebuttal I’d say:
1. Sure Bob Kane swiped a lot of art. But really is that an unforgivable sin? Maybe Kane realized he was not a good artist and just did not have the ability to really draw well. So he did the best he could and yes he swiped art. But I do believe as I once heard him say, that he spent hours at the table drawing. At least early on.
He probably took others art to make up for his lack of ability. So I really can’t fault him a lot if that is the case.
Plus he was not the first to swipe and he won’t be the last. Look at Greg Land today. This guy uses computer programs to swipe his art. Not even to trace but to turn a few clicks of the mouse to make his art.
2. Don’t forget comic creators back then were ashamed to be in comic books. It was an art form looked down upon and creators were not proud of their work.
Why put your best effort forward? A lot of creators then were just doing what they can to pay that months bills. The idea of making great work was not a prominent notion that all creators aspired to.
3. Comics were cheap disposable entertainment back then. Issues were meant to be forgotten and thrown out, not collected.
Why create all-original art every month, if next month a new issue was out and your previous work meant to be forgotten. So why not take artistic shortcuts?
4. No one knew back then they were creating comic book icons or thought I’d last this long.
5. All things considered, the creators paid back then were not paid a lot of money for their work. At least compared to other jobs back then. The more pages and stories you made, the more you got paid.
So why not take a few shortcuts and produce as much work as you can in any given month?
Overall sure Bob Kane swiped his art and ideas. But you know what, in the end does it really matter where the source material came from?
Because the overall final product and published issue was a new creation. Swiped art and all, the final work was a unique story, greater and different from it’s source material.
And Batman outlasted all of it’s swiped source material and became a unique character of his own. Not many remember the swiped source material and those books, but many fans remember these Batman stories collected in the DC Archive format and other Batman story reprints.
Plus swiped art or not, is that really going to take your enjoyment out of the issues? Or do you just want to be entertained and read some enjoyable Batman stories?