Pulp magazines and movie melodramas had previously offered us various characters called “the Bat,” but the term “Bat-Man” was a clear nod at the publisher’s breakaway hit character “Superman.”
This house ad introducing the Caped Crusader appeared at the end of the Superman story in Action Comics 12 (May 1939), which featured only the 12th adventure of the already immensely popular Man of Tomorrow.
Nor was Batman alone in this nominal homage.
In short order after Superman bowed in 1938, we had Sandman (1939), Ultra-Man (1939), Wonder Man (1939), Hawkman (1939), Hour-Man (1940), Catman (1940), Starman (1941) and many others — including a distaff variation on the theme, Wonder Woman (1941).
It probably seemed natural enough. A fireman, a policeman, a Superman or a Batman — all people who would pitch in to help you out in an emergency.
“National wanted another Superman. But this time they wanted a character they could create in-house and not have to worry about whiny kids asking for raises. So when Bob Kane, a young New York illustrator who had been doing mostly one-pagers for the Major, walked in and asked how much Jerry and Joe were making on their comics, editor Vin Sullivan allegedly gave Kane the weekend to create a new Superman,”
ReplyDelete— Brad Ricca, “Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — the Creators of Superman”
“In a bid to create a comic book character that could match the wildly unprecedented success of National’s Superman — introduced almost a year before and already a merchandising sensation — (Bob) Kane had sketched a dutiful knockoff.”
ReplyDelete— Glen Weldon, “The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture”
Earl Leon Liles wrote:
ReplyDeleteAnd it took ~40 years to come up with Man-Bat? That must have been a slow day at DC.
Jim Thompson wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe Black Bat, a pulp fiction character appeared at the same time, was completely unrelated. Bats were a popular scary image, I guess. DC editor Whiney Elsworth worked out an agreement with BB's publisher where there wouldn't be a long Superman/Captain Marvel style court fight.
Orson Welk wrote:
ReplyDelete-ahem- you overlooked Doll Man (1939).
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin wrote:
My favorite version of the character. Makes the Adam West and George Clooney versions seem like jokes; The Bat-Man should not be a joke.
Joseph Lenius wrote:
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin, but the art here is a joke. And did Kane think changing "Rob't" to "Bob" would make his art better? Only putting his name on the art of Jerry Robinson and others made "his" art better. And it's pretty sad that even Moldoff's bad Batman art was better than Kane's.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteJoe, you and I will have to continue to disagree about Kane's art. This story IS very, very primitive, but he rapidly developed and created the Batman "look". While Robinson brought a smoother, more refined look to the strip, Kane's early work was iconic. I refer you to Jules Feiffer's discussion of Kane's art in his Great Comic Book Heroes. As for the Rob't name, I think that is how Kane signed a lot of his early art before settling in on Bob.