Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The True Story of Batman and Robin-Win Mortimer-1946


I've seen this little gem on the Net before but couldn't resist posting it again. This is the cleaned up, whitewashed and almost completely fictional version of Batman's creation as told by Bob Kane (maybe) and illustrated by sometime Kane ghost Winslow Mortimer. Seriously, we know now that virtually nothing happened in real life the way it does in this story...but in 1946, just 7 years after the first Batman stories, this was the official version!




12 comments:

Dan said...

I'm amused that this was published in Real Facts Comics. What an egomaniacal jerk Kane was.

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

The bizarre thing is that Kane seems genuinely to have convinced himself that if he work was presented in his name then, in all important respects, he'd effectively done it himself.

When last I knew, DC was maintaining the core myth — that Kane had created the Batman. With Kane gone, I don't know why they don't acknowledge that Bill Finger (drawing heavily on the Shadow and at least somewhat on the Black Bat of Black Book Detective and on Rinehart and Hopwood's Bat) created the Batman.

ScorpioSteele said...

I read somewhere that Kane's contract stated that DC legally had to list Kane as Batman's sole creator.

Richard Ranke said...

Real Fact Comics?This story is as real as their 1947 story about man landing on Mars in the year 1960.(This was in Real Fact #6.)

dave goode said...

Amen!

AirDave said...

Yes. DC seems bound by the agreement with Kane that he is the sole creator of Batman. There is further evidence that he is the villain that turned DC against Siegel and Shuster. Kane is Batman's greatest and most sinister rogue.

Unknown said...

That is correct as far as what I've read in many accounts. Apparently Kane sided with management against Siegel and Schuster and as a reward was allowed to claim all Batman rights.

Brad said...

Ahhhh, dear ol' Bobarino! The William Shatner of comics!

rich240 said...

I believe Bill Finger finally got on-screen credit as Batman's co-creator in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016)

Acri Radio Comix said...

it would be nice if they'd acknowledged that Bill Finger was the genius who put a mother superior's habit on the Shadow.

Dale said...

Bill Finger took what started out as a good idea from Kane and made it better. We have both of them to thank for Batman, but Finger should get way more credit. He and Jerry Robinson created most of the characters and things we love about Batman. But like Neal Adams and a few others much later on, Finger created the Dark Knight and we eventually rid ourselves of the campy crap too. Kane may have given Finger the shaft, but most real fans know that Bill gave Kane the...finger.

Dann said...

Bill Finger fleshed out the initial idea (as did Robinson), but Batman was created by Bob Kane. Fact.