Batman & Bill Page #4

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Bill took all this and

put it in a crucible

and mixed it together

and brought this

deeper sense to stories

that up to that point were

considered somewhat frivolous.

The aspects of

the character, man,

that Bill brought to

it, like the notion

of a little boy in the

city with his parents

who get gunned down,

and at a young age,

that's what he's

going to take with him

for the rest of his life.

And the dude is

just a human being

who's just a guy.

That's it, got no superpowers.

He's got some

pretty nifty things

in his belt and stuff,

but he's relentless.

He's a creature of passion.

It's a character that

kind of keeps you reaching.

It's a character

that people build

their moral compass upon,

or, "That's my guy."

That's what makes

Batman so beautiful.

You don't get there

without Bill Finger, man.

Batman

Week after week,

the Caped Crusader

copes with the tricky

traps of vicious villains.

The breakout culturally,

as well as simply

in the ratings books,

was the 1966 Batman

television series.

See the Dynamic Duo

dangle from new

heights of danger.

Careful, Robin,

it's quite a drop.

This was not the

dark and serious

creature of the night

as created by Bob Kane

and Bill Finger.

It caused quite a stir

in what was the beginning

of the pop art phase

of America's culture.

Be with Batman and

Robin twice weekly

in color, of course, on ABC.

Starting with the debut of

the Batman TV show in 1966,

Bill and Bob's

trajectories diverged

even more starkly

than ever before.

You know, Bob was

just going up, up, up,

and Bill was really plummeting.

The TV show changed

Bob's life dramatically

because that's where he got

a big payout for Batman

which made him wealthy.

You stopped drawing the

comic book in the '60s,

and what happened, did

you sell the rights then?

No, it wasn't that,

when I stopped drawing,

I never sold all the rights.

I own a piece of the Batman.

And so you still have...

you still have a

copyright on Batman?

Well, everyone wants to

know that, don't they?

I'll let you figure it...

I'll let you figure it out.

I answered it before,

a piece of it.

A piece of it, okay.

It's a pie.

It's a pie that's cut up.

(chuckling)

After the Batman TV show,

Bob was able to parlay that

into some degree of celebrity

without being directly involved.

He was in full-on peacock mode

displaying himself as

Batman's real-life alter ego.

He wanted to be famous, right?

I mean, which was odd

because most creative people

in our industry

just... they did it

for the creative reasons

because they were

just manic artists.

But I got a sense

outta Mr. Kane,

that it was like a plan

and, "Oh, I got to do artwork

to get the quasi-celebrity,"

which was sort of

reverse engineering

from what most of us do.

We just go, "We do art,

and oh, by the way,

people think we're

famous, oh, cool."

And then I started

painting Batman oils

and I have other

non-Batman art,

and I've had shows all over

the world with my art.

So he starts doing a series

of Batman lithographs,

and he's pushing

these lithos as his,

and, again, he's got

another ghost artist

who's, you know, actually

doing these lithographs.

Bob made his careers

by having other

people do the work

and putting his name on it.

That was his...

That was his strategy.

It was Bob Kane's pictures

you saw in magazines

and newspapers.

It was about Bob Kane's

art gallery showings.

Bob became one

of the first-ever

comic book celebrities.

The Batman TV show did

almost nothing for Bill.

The significance of it was

that Bill was the

only writer from comics

who wrote an episode

of the TV show.

Actually, the Batman

show that he co-wrote

with his friend

named Charles Sinclair

was his only

published Batman credit.

We did a Batman TV thing,

and "The Clock King's

Crazy Crimes,"

thank you very much.

And Bill thought of

all kinds of gimmicks

for clocks and time.

When we got confirmation

that we had sold to Batman,

Bill was kind of digging

his toe in the sand

and hemming and hawing,

and I knew he had

something on his mind.

Finally, I said, "Come on, Bill,

what the hell's on your mind?

There's something eating you.

What is it and how

can I help you?"

Well, it was the

billing on the show.

Bill said, "Could I just

this once get top billing?"

I said, "Sure, why not?"

Bill Finger,

at that point in time,

had a little

black-and-white TV set.

I said, "Bill, you've

got to see this thing

in color," you know.

So I called a friend at ABC,

and we went and sat in

a client viewing room...

and saw this Batman thing,

Bill and I, on a big color set.

Bill was

thunderstruck, you know?

I don't know if he

actually had any tears

running down his

cheeks, you know,

but I think he

came pretty close.

Bang, he saw his name,

you know, top billing

in color on a big TV screen.

I mean, this was

like the high point

of his creative life.

Most of the Golden Age writers

began to be phased out

by the middle and

latter '60s at DC.

A new era of talent

were coming in,

fans who were becoming

the new writers of comic books,

the new artists of comic books,

and people from the

original generation

were finding it

harder and harder

and harder to adapt.

The company was saying,

"Just because they may have

co-created or written these

characters back in the '40s,

we need young, fresh blood."

Who cares if Bill

Finger writes Batman?

There seemed to be

a lack of respect

for his body of work.

I mean, that's how some

people would interpret it.

This was not just a guy

who created a character

that we've used a few times.

This is a guy who

created an entire world

that we are milking to the bone.

So I can't even

imagine what he felt.

He spent the rest

of the '60s writing,

but not Batman, not even comics.

He wrote carpentry articles,

he ended up writing for

the Army Pictorial Center.

So he was always

struggling for money.

He was under strain,

I think he was

skimping on medications.

I don't think

he was eating well,

and he was sliding,

and I couldn't do

too much about it.

He was just getting by

and slogging through

and watching his

character get bigger

than ever before and

being more detached from it

than ever before.

My very first comic convention

was the 1973 New York City

July 4th Com Convention

at the Commodore Hotel,

and the keynote speaker

of that convention

was Bob Kane, and

I was a Batman fan!

And I remember

standing in the back

of this packed ballroom

where Bob Kane

was a little speck

in the distance on the stage.

But what do I remember hearing?

"I created Batman,

I created Robin,

I created the Joker,

I created the..."

"I, I, I, I, I..."

that's what I remember.

And the thing is is that

we didn't know at the time,

but Bill Finger was still alive

in the summer of '73,

probably on his last legs.

So what really upsets

me about Bob Kane

is that right up until

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