Monday, August 11, 2014

Bill Finger and creators rights in “New York Times”

On 8/6/14, The New York Times ran an article about the rights of comics creators. It was written by Dave Itzkoff, whom I’ve been following on Twitter, so it was especially fun to hear from him. (We’d not been in direct touch before.) And, of course, it’s an honor to be quoted in the Times (my first time)—especially with respect to Bill Finger.


One of my quotations, however, is missing a pivotal word:

“My doing all this is not because of some belief that I will be able to change things. I know I can’t. But I set out to make the story more well known, so that there is a well of public support, which does have an effect. That can sway people.”

The
word gone AWOL is “alone,” which should be inserted between “I” and “will be able to change things.” As is, the statement makes me sound somewhat self-defeatist, which is the opposite of the case.

Though Bill co-created Batman in New York (in 1939), it wasn’t until 1995 when his name first appeared in the city’s (if not the country’s) most distinguished paper
. Even then, it was hardly substantial—simply a quotation from his Steranko interview.

It wasn’t till last year (2013) when Bill got an article that did more than mention him in passing.

And this was in response to a mention earlier the same year in which he was originally misidentified as “Joe” Finger.

One of these days, Bill’s name may be in a front-page Times headline as it deserves. Until then, I am happy with any other coverage he can get.

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