Bill Finger


Milton Finger, known professionally as Bill Finger, was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, and the co-architect of the series' development, who mostly worked as his ghostwriter. Although Finger did not receive contemporaneous credit for his hand in the development of Batman, Kane acknowledged Finger's contributions years after Finger's death.
Finger also wrote many of the original 1940s Green Lantern stories, featuring Alan Scott as the original, and contributed to the development of numerous other comic book series

Early life

Bill Finger was born in Denver, Colorado in 1914 to a Jewish family. His father, Louis Finger, was born in Austria-Hungary in 1890 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1907, while his mother Tessie was born circa 1893, in New York City. The family also included two daughters, Emily and Gilda. The family moved to The Bronx, New York City, where during the Great Depression Louis Finger was forced to close his tailor shop. Finger graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx in 1933.

Career

Comics

An aspiring writer and a part-time shoe salesman, Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938 after having met Kane, a fellow DeWitt Clinton alumnus, at a party. Kane later offered him a job ghost writing the strips Rusty and Clip Carson.

Batman

Early the following year, National Comics' success with the seminal superhero Superman in Action Comics prompted editors to scramble for similar heroes. In response, Kane conceived "the Bat-Man". Finger recalled Kane:
Finger offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl instead of the domino mask, a cape instead of wings, adding gloves, and removing the red sections from the original costume. He later said his suggestions were influenced by Lee Falk's popular The Phantom, a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was also familiar, and that he devised the name Bruce Wayne for the character's secret identity. As Finger described, "Bruce Wayne's first name came from Robert Bruce, the Scottish patriot. Wayne, being a playboy, was a man of gentry. I searched for a name that would suggest colonialism. I tried Adams, Hancock ... then I thought of Mad Anthony Wayne." Kane decades later in his autobiography described Finger as "a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning ... I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective." Finger biographer Marc Tyler Nobleman described, "Bob showed Bat-Man to Vin — without Bill. Vin promptly wanted to run Bat-Man, and Bob negotiated a deal — without including Bill."
Finger wrote both the initial script for Batman's debut in Detective Comics #27 and the character's second appearance, while Kane provided art. Batman proved a breakout hit, and Finger went on to write many of the early Batman stories, including making major contributions to the Joker character. Batman background artist and letterer George Roussos recalled:
Robin was introduced as Batman's sidekick in Detective Comics #38. When Kane wanted Robin's origin to parallel Batman's, Finger made Robin's parents circus performers murdered while performing their trapeze act. Finger recalled:
Comics historian Jim Steranko wrote in 1970 that Finger's slowness as a writer led Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth to suggest Kane replace him, a claim reflected in Joe Desris' description of Finger as "notoriously tardy". During Finger's absence, Gardner Fox contributed scripts that introduced Batman's early "Bat-" arsenal. Upon his return, Finger created or co-created items such as the Batmobile and Batcave, and is credited with providing the name "Gotham City". Finger wrote the debut issue of Batman's self-titled comic book series which introduced the Joker and the Catwoman. Among the things that made his stories distinctive were a use of giant-sized props: enlarged pennies, sewing machines, or typewriters. Two of the prevalently featured trophies in Batman's Batcave, a full-size animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex and a giant replica of a Lincoln penny, were both introduced in stories written by Finger. He was one of the writers of the syndicated Batman comic strip from 1943 to 1946.
Eventually, Finger left Kane's studio to work directly for DC Comics, where he supplied scripts for characters including Batman and Superman. A part of the Superman mythos which had originated on the radio program made its way into the comic books when kryptonite was featured in a story by Finger and Al Plastino in Superman #61. As writer of the Superboy series, Finger created Lana Lang, a love-interest for the teenage superhero. Continuing his Batman work, he and artist Sheldon Moldoff introduced Ace the Bat-Hound in Batman #92, Bat-Mite in Detective Comics #267, Clayface in Detective Comics #298, and Betty Kane, the original Bat-Girl in Batman #139. Finger wrote for other companies, including Fawcett Comics, Quality Comics and Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics. Finger created the All-Winners Squad in All Winners Comics #19 for Timely.

Batman villains

In 1994, Kane gave Finger co-credit for creating Batman's nemesis the Joker, despite claims on the character by artist Jerry Robinson:
Robinson countered that he created the Joker to be Batman's larger-than-life nemesis when extra stories needed to be written quickly for Batman #1 and that he received credit for the story in a college course. Regarding the Conrad Veidt similarity, Robinson said:
Finger provided his own account in 1966:
The Penguin debuted in Detective Comics #58. According to Kane, he drew the Penguin after being inspired by the then advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes — a penguin 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 of emperor penguins. Kane introduced the Scarecrow and drew his first appearance, which was scripted by Finger. Finger and Kane introduced Two-Face in Detective Comics #66. The Riddler was created by Finger and Dick Sprang in issue #140. The Calendar Man was another villain created by Finger without input from Kane.

Green Lantern

Finger collaborated with artist and character creator Martin Nodell on the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who debuted in All-American Comics #16. Both writer and artist received a byline on the strip, with Nodell in the earliest issues using the pseudonym "Mart Dellon".
According to Nodell, Finger was brought in to write scripts after Nodell had already conceived the character. Nodell recalled in an undated, latter-day interview:

Screenwriter

As a screenwriter, Finger wrote or co-wrote the films Death Comes to Planet Aytin, The Green Slime, and Track of the Moon Beast, and contributed scripts to the TV series' Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip. He also cowrote a two-part episode "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes / The Clock King Gets Crowned", airing October 12–13, 1966, in season two of the live-action Batman TV series. It was his first public credit for a Batman story.

Credit

Artist Bob Kane negotiated a contract with National Comics that signed away ownership of the character in exchange for, among other compensations, a sole mandatory byline on all Batman comics. Finger's name, in contrast, did not appear as an official credit on Batman stories or films until 2015. Finger began receiving limited acknowledgment for his writing work in the 1960s; the letters page of Batman #169, for example, features editor Julius Schwartz naming Finger as creator of the Riddler.
Additionally, Finger did receive credit for his work for National's sister company, All-American Publications, during that time. For example, the first Wildcat story, in Sensation Comics #1, has the byline "by Irwin Hasen and Bill Finger", and the first Green Lantern story is credited to "Mart Dellon and Bill Finger". National later absorbed All-American. National's practice in the 1950s made formal bylines rare in comics, with DC regularly granting credit only to Kane; William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman, under his pseudonym of Charles Moulton; and to Sheldon Mayer.
In 1989, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation, and wrote, "Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero ... I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say. 'I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'" Comics historian Ron Goulart has referred to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger".
Finger's contemporary, artist and writer Jerry Robinson, who worked with Kane from the beginning, said, " had more to do with the molding of Batman than Bob. He just did so many things at the beginning, ... creating almost all the other characters, ... the whole persona, the whole temper." Batman inker George Roussos, another contemporary, said, "Bob Kane had rough ideas, but Bill was the man behind Batman." A DC Comics press release in 2007 said, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for DC predecessor National Comics." Likewise, DC editor Paul Levitz wrote, "The Darknight Detective debuted in #27, the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger."
Writer John Broome and penciler Gil Kane created the comic-book villain William Hand, a.k.a. Black Hand, as a tribute to Finger, on whom the character's name and likeness were based.
In September 2015, DC Entertainment announced Finger would receive credit on the 2016 superhero film and the second season of Gotham, following a deal between the Finger family and DC. Finger received his first formal credit as a creator of Batman in the October 2015 comic books Batman and Robin Eternal #3 and Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis #3. The updated acknowledgement for the character appeared as "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger".

Awards

Finger was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999. In 1985, DC Comics named Finger as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great. In his honor, Comic-Con International established in 2005 the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, which is given annually to "two recipients — one living and one deceased — who have produced a significant body of work in the comics field. Finger posthumously received an Inkpot Award in 2014.
On December 8, 2017, the southeast corner of East 192nd Street and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx was named "Bill Finger Way". The corner was chosen for its proximity to Poe Park, where Finger and Kane used to meet to discuss their Batman character.

Legacy

Finger is the subject of the Hulu original documentary, Batman & Bill, which premiered in 2017.

Personal life

Finger was married twice. He and his first wife Portia had a son Frederick. After their divorce, Finger married Edith "Lyn" Simmons in the late 1960s, but they were no longer married when he died in 1974.
Finger's friend and longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair found Finger dead at his home at the condominium Allen House at 340 East 51st Street in Manhattan. The cause of death was occlusive coronary atherosclerosis. Finger had suffered three heart attacks, in 1963, 1970 and 1973. Although it was long believed by Sinclair, and others, that Finger was buried in an unmarked potter's field grave, his body was actually claimed by his son, Fred, who honored his wish to be cremated, and spread his ashes in the shape of a bat on a beach in Oregon. The first story of the issue Batman #259 in December 1974 would be dedicated to Finger's memory.
Fred Finger died of complications from AIDS on 13 January 1992, but he had a daughter, Athena, born two years after Bill Finger's death. She and her son are Finger's only known living heirs, and as such she successfully challenged Warner Bros. to credit Finger as co-creator of Batman.