Who is Bob Kane
Bob Kane pitched Batman, drew his first appearance, and made one shrewd move that defined his career: in 1939 he signed a contract giving himself sole “created by” credit and a cut of the character forever. That deal made him wealthy and famous as Batman’s creator. It also wrote his co-creator, Bill Finger, out of the story for the better part of a century. Born in 1915, Kane is a genuine co-creator of the most valuable character in comics and, at the same time, the reason the man who did the defining work went unrecognized.
First comic work: Wow, What a Magazine!
Kane entered comics in 1936, freelancing for editor Jerry Iger's Wow, What a Magazine!, with early pencil-and-ink work on the humor serial Hiram Hick. For the next few years he drew filler and funny-animal strips, ordinary apprentice work for the young comic-book industry. Nothing in it predicted that his next pitch would become a global icon.Batman's debut: Detective Comics #27
In early 1939, with DC looking for another hit after [Superman](/characters/superman/), Kane pitched a new costumed hero. His first sketches were a red-suited figure with stiff, bird-like wings. He brought in [Bill Finger](/creators/bill-finger/) to help, and Finger's redesign, the grey costume, the cowl, the scalloped cape, the detective framing, produced the Batman who actually appeared in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). Kane drew it; Finger wrote it.Then came the contract. Kane, still in his early twenties, secured a 1939 agreement with DC guaranteeing him sole creator credit and a financial stake. It was extraordinary leverage for the period, and it held for decades.
Bob Kane’s Impact on Comics
Kane’s importance is real and double-edged. He co-created Batman and drew the debut, which is no small thing. But his lasting mark on the industry is the credit arrangement: a young artist out-negotiating his publisher to lock in sole credit, then defending that credit against the collaborator who arguably did more. The 2015 restoration of Bill Finger’s name, “Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger,” is the industry formally amending Kane’s deal four decades after his collaborator’s death and seventeen years after his own. For collectors, none of this dims Detective Comics #27, which remains one of the most valuable comic books in existence.
