| Bob Kane | |
|---|---|
 Kane posing with aBatmobile painting in 1966 | |
| Born | Robert Kahn (1915-10-24)October 24, 1915 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 3, 1998(1998-11-03) (aged 83) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Area | Writer,Penciller |
Notable works | Detective Comics |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Signature | |
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Robert Kane (néKahn/kɑːn/; October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1998) was an American comic book writer, animator, and artist who createdBatman and many other early related characters forDC Comics. He was inducted into thecomic book industry'sJack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993 and into theWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996.
Kahn was born in New York City.[1] His parents, Augusta (née Tuchman) and Herman Kahn, an engraver,[2] were ofAshkenazi Jewish descent.[3][4] A high school friend of fellow cartoonist and futureSpirit creatorWill Eisner,[5] Robert Kahn graduated fromDeWitt Clinton High School and then legally changed his name to Robert Kane.[6] He studied art atCooper Union before joining theMax Fleischer Studio as a trainee animator in the year of 1934.[7]
He entered the comics field two years later, in 1936, freelancing original material to editorJerry Iger'scomic bookWow, What a Magazine!, including his first pencil and ink work on the serialHiram Hick.[8] The following year, Kane began to work at Iger's subsequent studio,Eisner & Iger, which was one of the first comic book "packagers" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the newmedium during its late-1930s and 1940sGolden Age. Among his work there was thetalking animal feature "Peter Pupp"—which belied its look with overtones of "mystery and menace"[8]—published in the U.K. comic magazineWags and reprinted inFiction House'sJumbo Comics. Kane also produced work through Eisner & Iger for two of the companies that would later merge to form DC Comics, including the humor features "Ginger Snap" inMore Fun Comics, "Oscar the Gumshoe" forDetective Comics, and "Professor Doolittle" forAdventure Comics. For that last title he went on to do his first adventure strip, "Rusty and his Pals".[1]
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In early 1939, DC's success with the seminal superheroSuperman inAction Comics prompted editors to scramble for more such heroes. In response, Bob Kane conceived "the Bat-Man."[9] Kane said his influences for the character included actorDouglas Fairbanks's film portrayal of the swashbucklerZorro;Leonardo da Vinci's diagram of theornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings; and the 1930 filmThe Bat Whispers, based onMary Rinehart's mystery novelThe Circular Staircase (1908).[10]Bill Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938. An aspiring writer and part-time shoe salesperson, he had met Kane at a party, and Kane later offered him a jobghost writing the stripsRusty andClip Carson.[11][12] He recalled that Kane
...had an idea for a character called 'Batman', and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of ... reddish tights, I believe, with boots ... no gloves, no gauntlets ... with a smalldomino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign ... BATMAN.[12]
Finger said he offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl and scalloped cape instead of wings; adding gloves; leaving the mask's eyeholes blank to connote mystery; and removing the bright red sections of the original costume, suggesting instead a gray-and-black color scheme. Finger additionally said[13] his suggestions were influenced byLee Falk'sThe Phantom, asyndicated newspapercomic strip character with which Kane was familiar as well. Finger, who said he also devised the character's civilian name,Bruce Wayne, wrote the first Batman story, while Kane provided art. Kane, who had already submitted the proposal for Batman at DC and held a contract, was the only person given an official company credit for Batman's creation until 2015, when Bill Finger was officially named a co-creator.[14] Comics historianRon Goulart, inComic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger".[15]
According to Kane, "Bill Finger was a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning. He wrote most of the great stories and was influential in setting the style and genre other writers would emulate ... I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective."[16]
The character debuted inDetective Comics #27 (May 1939) and proved a breakout hit. Within a year, Kane hired art assistantsJerry Robinson (initially as aninker) andGeorge Roussos (backgrounds artist andletterer). Though Robinson and Roussos worked out of Kane's art studio inThe New York Times building, Kane himself did all his drawing at home.[17] Shortly afterward, when DC wanted more Batman stories than Kane's studio could deliver, the company assignedDick Sprang and other in-house pencilers as "ghost artists", drawing uncredited under Kane's supervision. FutureJustice League writerGardner Fox wrote some early scripts, including the two-part story "The Monk" that introduced some of The Batman's first "Bat-" equipment.[18]
In 1943, Kane left the Batman comic books to focus on penciling the dailyBatman newspaper comic strip.[8] DC Comics artists ghosting the comic-book stories now includedJack Burnley andWin Mortimer, with Robinson moving up aspenciler andFred Ray contributing some covers. After the strip finished in 1946, Kane returned to the comic books but, unknown to DC, had hired his own personal ghosts, includingLew Schwartz[19] andSheldon Moldoff from 1953 to 1967.[20]
Bill Finger recalled that
Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob. As I said, Batman was a combination of [Douglas] Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea.[12]
Kane, who had previously created a sidekick for Peter Pupp, proposed adding a boy named Mercury who would have worn a "super-costume".[21] Robinson suggested a normal human, along with the name "Robin", afterRobin Hood books he had read during boyhood, and noting in a 2005 interview he had been inspired by one book'sN. C. Wyeth illustrations.[22]
The impetus came from Bill's wanting to extend the parameters of the story potential and of the drama. He saw that adding a sidekick would enhance the drama. Also, it enlarged the readership identification. The younger kids could then identify with Robin, which they couldn't with Batman, and the older ones with Batman. It extended the appeal on a lot of levels.[22]
The new character, an orphaned circus performer namedDick Grayson, came to live with Bruce Wayne as his youngward inDetective Comics #38 (April 1940) and would inspire many similar sidekicks throughout the Golden Age of comic books.[23]
Batman's nemesis theJoker was introduced near that same time, inBatman #1 (Spring 1940). Credit for that character's creation is disputed. Kane's position is that
Bill Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer. Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of the Joker. That's the way I sum it up. [The Joker] looks likeConrad Veidt—you know, the actor inThe Man Who Laughs, [the 1928 movie based on the novel] byVictor Hugo. ... Bill Finger had a book with a photograph of Conrad Veidt and showed it to me and said, 'Here's the Joker'. Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it. But he'll always say he created it till he dies. He brought in aplaying card, which we used for a couple of issues for him [the Joker] to use as his playing card.[24]
Robinson, whose original Joker playing card was on public display in the exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at theJewish Museum in New York City, New York, from September 16, 2006 to January 28, 2007, and the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum inAtlanta,Georgia from October 24, 2004 to August 28, 2005, has countered that:
Bill Finger knew of Conrad Veidt because Bill had been to a lot of the foreign films. Veidt ... had this clown makeup with the frozen smile on his face (classic). When Bill saw the first drawing of the Joker, he said, 'That reminds me of Conrad Veidt inThe Man Who Laughs.' He said he would bring in some shots of that movie to show me. That's how that came about. I think in Bill's mind, he fleshed out the concept of the character.[25]
Robinson added, however, "If you read the Batman historian[E. Nelson] Bridwell, he had one interview where he interviewed Bill Finger and he said no, the Joker was created by me—an acknowledgement. He can be credited and Bob himself, we all played a role in it. ... He wrote the script of that, so he really was co-creator, and Bob and I did the visuals, so Bob was also."[26]
According to comics historianLes Daniels, "nearly everyone seems to agree thatTwo-Face was Kane's brainchild exclusively".[27]Catwoman, originally introduced by Kane with no costume as "the Cat", was partially inspired by his cousin, Ruth Steel.[28][29] Kane, a frequent moviegoer, mentioned thatJean Harlow was a model for the design and added that "I always felt that women were feline".[30] Kane created theScarecrow and drew his first appearance, which was scripted by Finger.[31] Kane also created the original incarnation ofClayface.[32] According to Kane, he drewthe Penguin after being inspired by the then advertising mascot ofKool cigarettes—apenguin with a top hat and cane. Finger, however, claimed that he created the villain as a caricature of the aristocratic type, because "stuffy English gentlemen" reminded him ofemperor penguins.[30]
In 1966, Kane retired from DC Comics, choosing to focus onfine art. As Kane's comic-book work tapered off in the 1960s, he parlayed his Batman status into minor celebrity. He enjoyed a post-comics career intelevision animation, creating the charactersCourageous Cat andCool McCool, and as a painter showed his work inart galleries, although some of these paintings were produced by ghost artists.[33] DC Comics named Kane in 1985 as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publicationFifty Who Made DC Great.[34] In 1989, Kane published the autobiographyBatman and Me, with an updated editionBatman and Me: The Saga Continues, in 1996.[35]
Kane worked as a consultant on the 1989 filmBatman and its three sequels with directorsTim Burton andJoel Schumacher.[36][37]
Stan Lee interviewed Kane in the documentary seriesThe Comic Book Greats.[38]
Kane married his first wife, Beverly, in the 1940s,[39] and the two divorced in 1957.[40][41] They had a daughter,[39] Deborah.[1] Kane married his second wife, actress Elizabeth Sanders Kane, in 1987.[42]
Kane died November 3, 1998, atCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, at age 83.[1] He is buried atForest Lawn Memorial Park in theHollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California.[43]
Kane was a recipient of theInkpot Award in 1977,[44] was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994[45] and theWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996.[46] He was added to theNational Comics Awards' Roll of Honour in 1999.[47]
On October 21, 2015, for his work in motion pictures, he posthumously received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, at 6764Hollywood Boulevard.[48][49]
Kane's work is housed in collections in New York City'sMuseum of Modern Art,Whitney Museum of American Art, andSt. John's University.
Kane married his first wife, Beverly, in the 1940s; the couple had a daughter...
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