To research Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and visual mastermind behind Batman, the first person I tracked down was Bill’s longtime friend and writing partner, Charles Sinclair.
And although I would end up contacting more than 200 others after Charles, he remained one of my most valuable sources, not to mention one of the most generous.
He knew Bill outside of comics. He knew Bill outside of work in general. At one point, he and Bill were roommates. And fortunately for me, his memory seemed remarkably vivid for an 82-year-old (at the time, which was 2006).
Thanks to Charles, I found Bill’s second wife, whom almost nobody else knew about. Thanks to Charles, I learned the details surrounding Bill’s death, the true story of which literally nobody else I contacted knew about. Thanks to Charles, I’m now the awestruck owner of this.
Charles was a bridge to the real Bill, allowing me to write the book that, appropriately, will be published by Charlesbridge.
(While everything I wrote in this post is sincere, yes, the whole thing was just a set-up for that last line.)
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