"10 Real Life Heroes Who Helped Bill Finger Get Credit" (Screen Rant)

On Screen Rant, Tim Davis has posted an unranked list of people who helped Batman co-creator Bill Finger receive official credit in 2015 (41 years after Bill died and 76 years after Batman debuted). 

The list:

11. (honorable mention) Bob Kane (with a nod to Thomas Andrae); mention is fine, honorable doesn't track

10. the one I live with (see below)

 9. Jerry Bails

 8. Michael Uslan

 7. Jerry Robinson/Carmine Infantino

 6. Lyn Simmons

 5. Charles Sinclair

 4. Travis Langley

 3. Alethia Mariotta

 2. Fred Finger

 1. Athena Finger

The three Jerrys

My school presentation includes both Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, which means the audience must keep straight three Jerrys:

• Jerry Siegel, co-creator/original writer of Superman
• Jerry Robinson, early ghost artist on Batman/co-creator of Robin and the Joker
• Jerry Bails, first known person to interview Bill Finger, revealing him to fandom in 1965

 Jerry (Siegel)

 Jerry (Robinson)

Jerry (Bails)

Jim Steranko tweets

Only four known people interviewed Bill Finger: Jerry Bails in 1965, Tom Fagan in 1965, Jim Steranko circa 1969 or 1970 (for his History of Comics), and Robert Porfirio in 1972. (Bill was also quoted in a 1965 New Yorker piece.)

Bails spread word of what he learned in his interview via a two-page piece he distributed via mail to his personal network. Fagan also wrote an article that was not formally published, but others did see it. Fewer (perhaps almost nobody) knew of Porfirio's interview till much later. Given that some of Steranko's interview was incorporated in a book, it reached the widest audience of the bunch.

During my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I was fortunate to communicate with three of the four men, all of whom were helpful. The other one is the only one still alive—Jim Steranko.

So you can imagine how honored I was to see this:

• Bails died in 2006—mere months after I interviewed him (and, sadly, six years before the book would come out). Without Jerry Bails, we might not know about Bill Finger.
• Fagan died in 2008. The article he wrote based on his interview with Bill ("Bill Finger—Man Behind a Legend") was "lost" but resurfaced in 2009.
• Porfirio died in 2014. His 28-minute interview was recorded on audio and was also "lost," rediscovered in 2008. It is transcribed in Tom Andrae's Creators of the Superheroes.

"A Finger in Every Plot" in "Alter Ego"

If not for Jerry Bails, there might not be Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.

Jerry was the Batman fan who, in 1965, figured that despite what the credit line read, it could not be just Bob Kane writing and drawing every Batman story every month for a quarter-century. Jerry did some digging and discovered that many of the classic Batman stories—including the first, and the origin—came from the mind and typewriter of another man, Bill Finger.

The enterprising Jerry tracked down Bill and interviewed him. He took what he learned and produced a two-page exposé called "If the Truth Be Known or 'A Finger in Every Plot!'" In comics history, this was the Sheet Heard 'Round the World (or, at least, in certain circles around the country). This changed everything. It was revisionist history, but in the right direction.

I've written about Jerry in both my book and here.

But oddly, his influence had not been the focus of an article in the definitive comics history magazine, Alter Ego…until now. Issue #139 (5/16) covers it and reproduces the mimeograph that began to set the record straight.

That is actually Robert Kanigher, not Bill Finger.

And Bill was credited in DC publications prior to 2005.

Thank you to Roy Thomas and Bill Schelly for giving real estate to Jerry (and Bill, of course). And thanks again for giving some to me as well.

How Bill Finger was documented in his lifetime

Most of this has already been covered here, but I recently stumbled upon an encapsulation I wrote several years ago so I am posting it for one-stop shoppers.

Bill Finger was not well documented in his lifetime by either interviews or photographs. Few instances of his actual words have been published. (Upon his death, he received several tributes in DC Comics publications, but no mainstream obituary.)

The best source: he is quoted rather extensively in Jim Steranko’s book History of Comics, Volume 1 (1970). In addition, he spoke on a panel of comics creators at the first “official” comic convention in 1965, which is transcribed in Alter Ego #20, and he is briefly quoted in a short New Yorker piece about that convention.

He is also paraphrased in a now-legendary piece “If the Truth Be Known or ‘A Finger in Every Plot!’” This was written by a comics historian named Jerry Bails for a 1965 fanzine and was the first time most fans learned that someone other than Kane was involved in the creation of Batman.

Only two other Finger interviews were known to exist—but neither had been published. One was buried amid the clutter of famous fan Tom Fagan’s house in Vermont, the other lost in the bowels of a California university.

After years of searching unsuccessfully for the transcription of the California interview, Robert Porfirio, the man who conducted it, found the original sound recording (from 1972) in December 2008. He immediately digitized it and sent me a copy. Thomas Andrae’s book Creators of the Superheroes includes a full transcription. While parts of the recording are unfortunately distorted, it is one of only two known captures of Finger’s voice. (The other is a recording of the 1965 comic convention panel.)

In February 2009, the piece produced from the Vermont interview (conducted in the mid-1960s) also surfaced, along with two personal letters written by Finger—the only ones known to exist.

Aside from the published Bails and Steranko pieces, this material was unknown to most of the comics community.

The only printed interview of Bill’s only child, Fred, was published in a magazine called Comics Interview Super Special: Batman—Real Origins of the Dark Knight in 1989, and though that happened 15 years after Bill died, it is nonetheless valuable primary testimony.

The ones that didn't get away

I’ve blogged about the frustration of certain people dying before they’ve been interviewed about a subject on which they are an authority.

Here’s the flip side.

I began researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman in 2006. A priority was to talk with the people who knew Bill Finger personally, especially people who had never been interviewed about him.

I found more than I was expecting. And because Bill was born in 1914, most of his surviving contemporaries were in their eighties.

As to be expected, some who knew Bill well had died before I started the book—indeed, some before I was an author at all. And eerily, one—George Kashdan—died the very week in 2006 that it was suggested I reach out to him.

As of this writing, five more integral to preserving Bill’s legacy have passed away after helping with my research. And what an illustrious group:

Jerry Bails (died 2006)
Arnold Drake (2007)
Tom Fagan (2008)
Alvin Schwartz (2011)
Jerry Robinson (2011)

Others I talked to who have also since passed away include Martin Nodell (2006), Lew Sayre Schwartz (2011), and Sheldon Moldoff (2012).

I wish these gentlemen—especially the Jerrys—could have lived to see their old friend and colleague further honored in the form of my book. I was immensely grateful for the time they all devoted, and happy that I got to capture a bit of each of them not only for Bill’s sake but for posterity in general.

Ditto that

I consider myself meticulous (sometimes overly so) when it comes to research. So sometimes I’m just as surprised to realize what I’ve overlooked as I am to see what I discover.

Case in point: Jerry Bails’s 1965 fanzine article “If the Truth Be Known or A Finger in Every Plot,” which I’ve already mentioned on this blog.

The only way I’ve seen it reproduced is black type on white background, and I never thought twice about the accuracy of that.

It will most likely be visible in a scene in my 2012 book about Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator, original writer, and motif designer of Batman. Therefore, I included an image of it in the extensive group of visual references I gathered for our illustrator, Ty Templeton. Luckily, Ty thought a step further than I did.

He asked “[Was the fanzine a] magazine, a mimeographed and stapled set of papers, a folded newsprint?”

I asked Jerry’s widow Jean, who (understandably) didn’t know, which sent me asking others who are various kinds of experts on the era or the subject.

One said it had not black but rather purple “ditto printing.” I was then directed to a fanzine collector who has an original copy. He responded almost instantly but he didn’t e-mail me a scan. He mailed me his original. And so promptly that I received it the next day. And so now I know that the article actually looked like this:

Not only is the printing purple but the paper blue.

Yes, this kind soul mailed a stranger his only copy of an irreplaceable piece of pop culture history. Trust and kindness of this magnitude balances out for people who are like this.

Had my book shown this fanzine page in black and white, it would not have been a factual goof of significance. But as I always say, I don’t care how small the detail; if I can get it right, I want to.

Bill Finger as told by those who knew him well

Early Batman artist/ambassador of comics Jerry Robinson on Bill: “Very soft, kind. Naïve, as most of us were. Not outgoing. Reserved but very easy to get to know. We became fast friends. He actually became my cultural mentor.”

“Father of Fandom” Jerry Bails on Bill: “Bill was an avid reader and fan of good fiction, popular fiction, and action movies. He surrounded himself with artifacts and books he loved. He was not a braggart, but was clearly pleased to talk about his creations. He appeared to be more like most comics fans in terms of personality. He lived more in his imagination than in the world of hard knocks. He was not a joke-maker, but he enjoyed telling stories about how he worked. He was very dedicated to his craft. He was not shy, but he would defer to others in conversations. I’d call him considerate and the opposite of overbearing. I had no trouble believing everything he told me.”

Bill’s second wife on Bill: “Very, very warm, very sincere, very hard-working, even though he had problems meeting deadlines. He had a good sense of humor. He was very interested in the theater, and ballet, and classical music. He wouldn’t write any violent comic books. He gave an awful lot of thought to writing.”

Longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair on Bill: “He was the opposite of a sourpuss. Without being wildly jovial, he was a funny guy. Great sense of humor. Liked to joke. He was extremely well read. He deserved a lot better than he got. I enjoyed knowing him, and I miss him.”

Me on Bill: “I miss him, too, even though I never met him.” 

Most of these recollections are culled from personal interviews I conducted. The last two lines of Charles’s comments are paraphrased from Alter Ego #84, 3/09.

Fandom, meet Finger

Speaking of chronology stumpers, there is the matter of Finger’s “outing” as co-creator of Batman. This happened with the article “If the Truth Be Known or ‘A Finger in Every Plot!’” which Jerry Bails wrote and published in the 9/65 issue of his fanzine.

This is scanned from an original, courtesy of Aaron Caplan.

(It was only the year before when Finger was unveiled as a longtime Batman writer, in a comic book letter column written by editor Julie Schwartz.) 

The interview that led to the creation of Bails’s myth-changing article took place sometime in the summer of 1965, when Bails interviewed Finger at Finger’s apartment.

That same summer, Bails also moderated the creators’ panel at the New York Comicon (during which Finger made the statement that is the focus of the previous post).

But which came first, the interview or the panel?

In 2006, I asked Bails. On 6/1/06, he wrote, “I interviewed [Finger] in his Greenwich Village apartment after I met him at that early New York Con.”

On 6/11/06, apparently not remembering the e-mail of just a few days earlier, or perhaps testing Bails’s memory, I asked, “Neither you nor Bill mentioned his [creator] role in Batman at the panel, though—why was that? This was just a few days after you interviewed him in his apartment, right?”

Bails responded, “As I recall, my interview followed the panel. I would think I would certainly have mentioned [at the panel] what I learned [in the interview]. … Are you sure that I didn’t introduce Bill as a creator of early Batman stories [when introducing him as a panelist]…?”

According to the panel transcript in Alter Ego #20 (1/03), which was created from an audio recording of the panel, what Bails said was that Finger had been “a Batman writer from the very first.” So technically, yes, his memory here aligns—on one level. But while I like his use of the word “creator,” there’s a chasm between “creator of stories” and “creator of the character.”

Therefore, at this point, especially when taking into account Bails’s integrity, it would seem that the panel did come first, then the interview.

Yet on 8/13/06, still trying to chisel out the likely sequence, I asked, “I cannot tell if Bill’s appearance at the ’65 Comicon was the first time he was publicly introduced by name in connection to Batman? Prior to that day, was his Batman involvement completely unknown to fans?” (I was obviously forgetting that 1964 letter columns mentioned Bill, but again, only as a writer, not a creator.)

This time, it seems that Bails remembered the order in reverse: “As far as I know, fandom had no idea of his creator role until I interviewed him in his Greenwich Village apartment and we got him to appear on that panel.”

However, upon rereading this statement, it’s not clear if Bails is speaking chronologically. People generally do, but Bails’s wording does leave room for debate: He says “and,” not “when.” In other words, he’s not explicitly stating that he (along with other comics people who were with him at the interview, hence the “we”) got Finger to appear at the panel while at Finger’s apartment for the interview.

Again, at the panel, Finger was not referred to as a creator or co-creator. And “If the Truth Be Known” did not come out until after the panel. So to fans at that comic convention, Finger was an early Batman writer, but not necessarily the first writer, and certainly not the co-creator.

On multiple occasions, Bails’s recall awed me. However, forty years packs a lot into the gray matter and even the sharpest memories can produce a contradiction. When that happens, a writer has to make a judgment call.

So in this case, I believe that the accurate scenario is my initial interpretation of Bails’s 8/13/06 statement—I believe Bails interviewed Finger before the panel and, at that interview, invited Finger to be on the panel.

I believe this mostly because, during the panel, Bails remembers a comment Finger made “the other evening.” Also during the panel, Bails specified that he had been to Finger’s apartment. Though not certain, I do believe Bails once said his first meeting with Finger was for the interview. And considering Bails’s detective nature, it seems consistent to me that he would first conduct a private interview and only then decide (or get the idea) to ask Finger to be on a panel.

Why does any of this matter?

Because it relates to the issue that continues to impede Bill Finger’s legacy: lack of credit.

If the interview had come first, why didn’t Bails refer to Finger as “co-creator” at the panel? It wasn’t because he was afraid of Bob Kane’s response, since mere months later, Bails did publicly give Finger credit for Batman. Perhaps Bails simply wanted the potentially wider impact of revealing the Finger bombshell in writing.

I can’t try for further clarification from Bails. He passed away in November 2006, three months after my last e-mail exchange with him.

I was honored that I had the chance to correspond with Jerry Bails; he was known as the father of fandom, which in practice meant he championed the creators as much as the fans. Regardless of whether it was panel-interview or interview-panel, if not for Bails, we may never have known the truth about Finger.