Yesterday may have been Batman Day, but today is Bill Finger Day, commemorating the anniversary of the day that the Dark Knight's co-creator finally got his proper credit from DC Comics. Thank you to Marc Tyler Nobleman, Patron of this blog and author of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman for spearheading the efforts to give Finger his due - and for suggesting I find a way to team him up with Batman!
Love it, Ross. Thanks. To the Billmobile!
ReplyDeleteThis suggests all manner of puns about "giving the Finger," but I do have to say that this is well done from all sorts of angles. It's a bit evocative of when the Flash met Cary Bates and Elliott S! Maggin back in the '60s.
ReplyDeleteDamn, nice!
ReplyDeleteSo, that's what Mr. William Finger looked like in his Golden Age years.
ReplyDeleteI understand there's been a lot of retroactive controversy over whether or not Bob Kane was an egotistical back-stabber, re: grabbing sole authorial credit. And, to a certain extent, the nay-sayer faction loyal to Bill could be right. But, whatever the truth, the fact remains that their brainchild is coming up on his 80th birthday. And the latter's popularity shows no signs of a-Bating.*
So, thanks for this thought-provoking cover, Ross. And, to Bob Greenwade: wouldn't "Fingerman" be a great theme song for a TV series about Bill's crime-fighting adventures.
"Fingerman! Nanananananananananana! Fignerman!"
*Sorry! Burt Ward made me do it. X-D
A lovely and fitting tribute....
ReplyDeleteOh my God, you went there. Ross, this is so far beyond brilliant that it deserves some kind of award or recognition. I hope that Bill Finger's family gets to see this.
ReplyDeleteBill Finger got ignored for his brilliance and co-creation of Batman for far too long. The only other thing I would have wanted to see on a cover like this was a giant typewriter... and there was no way to get that in there.
Lovely. You've made an old man smile a lot today!
Five thumbs up!!! (I guess I must have strange hands.)
ReplyDeleteVery cool concept!
ReplyDeleteLove it, Ross. Great execution, super idea.
ReplyDeleteDoug
Bob, and don't forget when the heroes met Julie Schwartz on Earth Prime
ReplyDeleteTalking of the early days of Batman, DC has decided to collect all of the earliest stories together and release them in trade paperbacks: Volume 1 is in the shops at the moment, and I've got a copy reserved for collection on payday...
ReplyDeleteELS - the Finger family has indeed seen this! Other creators/writers have met superheroes...Grant Morrison/Animal Man is the first to mind.
ReplyDeleteSay, Ross, this suggests another cover - the real creators of Marvel/DC. I can think of a few from DC (Julie Schwartz, Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Elliot S! Maggin, Cary Bates, and all those characters from that old Bat-Mite story), and Stan, Jack (again), Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, and a whole swath of 'em from the Impossible Man Fantastic Four book set in the Marvel offices.
ReplyDelete@ELS: good idea!
ReplyDeleteRoss could even do it as a homage to STRANGE SPORTS STORIES. I can just "pitcher" Stan "The Man" Lee winding up to throw a fast one at "Joltin' Julie" Schwartz.
wow - these imaginary teamups you do are amazing - And it's unbelievable you're able to do one every day! Thumbs up to you, Ross!
ReplyDeleteAppreciated, Rbowser!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see Bill Finger finally getting the credit he's (long over) due, but sadly, the one medium where he is still not acknowledged is the comics themselves. For either legal or other reasons, Kane is still the sole creator listed.
ReplyDeleteLee Houston, Junior - not so! Bill has been credited in Batman comics since October 2015: http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2015/12/top-10-pop-culture-moments-of-2015.html.
ReplyDelete@ MTN: You have put your "Finger" on it, correctly, sir.
ReplyDeleteNow we just need to see Steve Ditko under the Spider-Man mask. :)
ReplyDelete@BG: cue Macaulay Culkin impersonation
ReplyDelete"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
COVER OF THE MONTH!
ReplyDeleteCan we buy a print of this
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I wish I could sell prints of my covers, but Since I amusing existing artwork and characters I do not own, it isn't possible.
ReplyDeleteI understand, still awesome work tho. i would have loved to had one framed up
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