Bill Finger Appreciation Group is appreciated right back

The Bill Finger Appreciation Group interviewed me on film in 2009...even before I had sold my Bill Finger manuscript.

In the wake of the big Bill Finger news, the BFAG posted this kind message:

Yet again, I must thank Derek Wolfford who in creating the BFAG has gone above and bat-yond in helping raise awareness in grand style of the legacy of Bill Finger. And as a designer, he has also helped me personally: here (Bill-related) and here (not).

Always bears repeating: if you’re a Batman fan, you’re a Bill Finger fan. 

And if you’re a Bill Finger fan, you, too, owe a debt of gratitude to the Bill Finger Appreciation Group. 

Noirish tributes to Bill Finger's most iconic creations

Courtesy of the thorough and tireless and stylish Bill Finger Appreciation Group:

 Batman

Robin (Dick Grayson)

 Green Lantern (Alan Scott)

Joker

 Catwoman 


Penguin

 Commissioner James Gordon


Lana Lang

Riddler

Wildcat

Bat-Mite

Catman

A profile now recognizable among Batman fans

Bill Finger Appreciation Group on Facebook (again)

Thank you to Derek Wolfford and all members of this group for your ongoing support.

This second acknowledgement—like Bill receiving credit for Batman—is long overdue.

More backlash on lack of Bill Finger Google doodle

Why no Google doodle for Batman co-creator Bill Finger on his 100th birthday yesterday?

Google has not responded to that question.

Possibilities:

• Because the campaign, however fervent and far-reaching, started too late for Google to design/schedule it?
• Because Bill is not officially credited?
• Because DC Comics got involved?
• Because Google prefers to acknowledge non-milestone birthdays (82nd, 103rd, etc.)?
• Because Google somehow didn’t see this as a cultural and moral obligation the way the thousands of fans who emailed them do?
• Because despite their motto, Google is evil after all?

Stepping up where Google let us down, the Bill Finger Appreciation Group not only produced a Google-esque doodle…

…but also a clever rationale behind it:

“We can certainly understand Google’s Olympic-themed doodle as it stands against injustice and discrimination but…that’s exactly what Bill wrote about in his stories. With that in mind, we’ve repurposed the shape of [the 2/7/14] doodle to say thanks to Bill once again for his immense contributions to our culture.”

More protest tweets:

• No Google doodle for Bill Finger. That’s busted.
• So, wait, not only did we not get a Bill Finger Google Doodle, but there wasn’t even ANY Google Doodle today? That is some Finger luck
• I guess Google would rather have no doodle than one about the creator of #Batman, Bill Finger. And just when I was happy with them.
• Given the choice of doing a Google Doodle for Bill Finger or just giving us the finger, it looks like Google opted for the latter?
• It’s incredibly frustrating that Google didn’t recognize the importance of Bill Finger. 
• So disappointing! Thank you for fighting this good fight & bringing Bill Finger’s story to the world!
• Shame Google didn’t come through, but in any case it you did a lot of good work putting the word out there.
• A shame Google didn’t do anything for Bill Finger’s birthday
• That’s truly a shame.
• I keep checking google just in case #BillFingerDoodle #UnreasonablyOptimistic
• My 8th grade students & I are Bill Finger fans! I share your book to inspire them to change the world & follow the truth!
• Way to drop the ball Google.Happy belated Bill Finger.
• No Google Doodle for Bill Finger. Still, let’s celebrate the co-creator of Batman (or the Bat-Man).
• you know this won’t deter batfans, resolve is everything from this point on #justiceforfinger now we go bigger than google!
• We did not get a Bill Finger Google Doodle today, but he still deserves one, so keep asking for it.

Thank you yet again to the untold thousands who joined this grassroots movement.

I am thinking we should keep the effort going now to try again for next year…if all of us tweeted about this and sent an email, and asked our networks to do the same, so that Google is getting emails weekly about this…

Bill Finger Appreciation Group on Facebook

I'm long overdue in this announcement: Facebook has a Bill Finger Appreciation Group, with well over 100 members. And also a newer group called, simply, Bill Finger, with, curiously, even more members.

I say "curiously" because the first group offers a regularly updated stream of well-researched content; the second group is a place where fans have proclaimed their respect for Finger but have not, as of yet anyway, displayed anything archival.

Still, two Finger appreciation groups! This for a man who died without comment from the press. I'm a member of both.

The BFAG is run by a class act named Derek Wolfford, who kindly (a word I overuse, I know, but will continue to) interviewed me in Nashville. He is steadily and capably compiling a time capsule about/memorial to/compendium on Finger, pulling material on him from various hard-to-find sources and presenting it all in one place. In a short while, I hope to be able to add to that with posts here.

Spontaneous interview about Bill Finger

At the Southern Festival Books in Nashville on 10/10/09, the Bill Finger Appreciation Group kindly did a brief, off-the-cuff interview with me that touched on Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and my research on Bill Finger. They were kind to let me post it here as well: