Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Bill Finger’s sole Batman credit in his lifetime

In 25 years of writing Batman stories, including some of the most popular ever, Bill Finger was officially credited as a writer (or co-creator) precisely zero times. (By that I mean in a credit box within a first-run story. In the 1960s, editor Julie Schwartz, bless him, did sneak Bill’s name into the backmatter at least a couple of times.)

One time only, Bill did get to see his name prominently displayed on a Batman story—but it was not in print. Bill was the only writer of Batman comics who (with Charles Sinclair) also wrote an episode of the 1966 TV show...the show that made Batman’s popularity go mainstream. (It was the two-part episode introducing the villain the Clock King.)



Small screen was big time on one level, but in the grand scheme, small solace for a marginalized career.

Speaking of TV credits, here is what the credits for the landmark Batman: The Animated Series could’ve looked like if things had played out differently…fairly:


courtesy of @hrguerra

Note the order.

3 comments:

Bill said...


Oh, the order was immediately noted (and approved). The credit looks great onscreen. Maybe, someday...

Also, I believe Bill Finger has one onscreen credit for an episode of the Super Friends TV show from the early 1970s. I have the set on disc and I am sure I saw his name credited with writing that episode.

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Bill, first I am hearing of Bill writing SUPER FRIENDS! Any chance you can find the episode? If any, it would have to be the first season (1973), because he died in 1974.

He also allegedly wrote one or some of the '60s Filmation DC superhero cartoons.

Bill said...


Marc, now that you bring up the Filmation DC super-hero cartoons, I believe it was that I was thinking of. In fact I'm pretty sure it was an episode of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN.

But, no worries, I have both shows on DVD and will confirm the Bill Finger sighting, this weekend!

He also deserves to have that credit added to his IMDb resume, which I will submit, once I determine which episode of which show it is. Whew!