Who is Bill Finger
Bill Finger wrote Batman’s first story and invented most of what surrounds the character, and for the rest of his life his name appeared on none of it. Bob Kane had the contract that guaranteed sole credit; Finger had the typewriter. The grim tone, the detective angle, the cowl-and-cape costume, the Joker, Robin, Gotham City, the Batmobile, the Batcave are his. He died in 1974 uncredited and nearly broke. DC added his name to the official credit line in 2015, forty-one years later.
First comic work: Detective Comics #27
Finger's first comic work is also one of the most important debuts in the medium: [Batman](/characters/batman/) in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), which he scripted. His contribution started before the script. Kane's original pitch was a "Bird-Man" in a red suit with rigid wings; Finger talked him into the grey-and-black palette, the scalloped cape, the full cowl with no visible face, and the idea that the hero should be a grim detective rather than a colorful acrobat. The character who debuted was, in design and tone, largely Finger's revision.He wrote uncredited because Kane had signed a 1939 deal giving himself the sole “created by” line. Finger was the first of many ghosts on a feature the contract said was Kane’s alone.
The Joker, Robin, and Gotham
Across the next two decades Finger built the world. He co-created or named the [Joker](/characters/joker/), Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face, [Robin](/characters/robin/) (Detective Comics #38, 1940), and Commissioner Gordon. He coined "[Gotham City](/lore/gotham-city/)" for the previously unnamed setting, and co-created the Batmobile and the Batcave. When people picture Batman's world, they are mostly picturing Bill Finger's writing.Credit restored, 2015
Finger died in 1974 with no creator credit and little to show for the most valuable character in comics. The campaign to fix that ran for decades, helped by Marc Tyler Nobleman's 2012 biography and advocacy from Finger's granddaughter. In 2015, DC agreed to add him to the credit line: "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger," on the comics and on the films and television going forward. It is the highest-profile credit correction in comics history.Bill Finger’s Impact on Comics
Finger is the cautionary tale the rest of these creator pages keep circling: the person who did the defining work and got none of the recognition, because the credit system rewarded the signature on a contract over the words on the page. His case is the reason “created by” lines are now contested ground across the industry. For Batman specifically, the practical takeaway is simple: the character most people think of as Bob Kane’s is, in nearly every element that lasted, Bill Finger’s.
