 All About Art
Bob Kane and the Creation of Batman
published: January 2007
By Tamar Burris, Contributing Writer
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The debut of the Batman television series in January 1966 brought to the small screen one of our beloved superheroes. However, long before the TV series, the billionaire Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman were regulars on the newsstands. Unlike Superman and other superheroes, Batman is an ordinary person without extraordinary powers who costumes himself like a bat to fight crime in his hometown of Gotham; the public went wild for this regular guy savior when he debuted in a 1939 comic strip. And, arriving on the scene alongside the superhero he created was a new comic book legend named Bob Kane.
Robert Kahn was born on October 24, 1916, and changed his name to Kane when he was 18 years old. He came up with the concept behind Batman shortly after beginning his career with National Publications (now DC Comics) in 1936. The comic book creator, who referred to himself as a doodler rather than an artist, once said that his inspiration for the Batman character came from drawings of a flying machine done by Leonardo da Vinci. Such characters as Sherlock Holmes, The Green Hornet and The Phantom also influenced the doodler.
While he worked with studio partner Bill Finger, it is Kane who is officially credited with the creation of Batman. In exchange for a byline in the Batman comics and other compensation, Kane quickly signed away ownership of the character to DC Comics. However, he remained an influential part of Batmans evolution, and his name has been featured on nearly every Batman story, whether it is a comic, TV program or feature film.
Kane died on November 3, 1998, at the age of 83.
Written by Tamar Burris, a former elementary school teacher who now works as a freelance writer and curriculum developer for PBS, the Discovery Channel and other education-related companies. Sources: Warner Brothers The New Batman-Superman Adventures, http://www.batman-superman.com/bobkane.html; Wikipedia Bob Kane, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kane
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