1. At the urging of Nobleman, the online comics fan community, and others, Bill Finger's granddaughter revived the fight to restore his lost legacy, which continued for years.
24 Facts About Bill Finger
1. 2.
Bill Finger was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1914 to an Ashkenazi Jewish family.
3.
Bill Finger's father, Louis Finger, was born in Austria-Hungary in 1890 and emigrated to the US in 1907.
4.
Bill Finger's stepmother Tessie was born in 1892 in New York City.
5.
The family moved to The Bronx, New York City, where during the Great Depression Louis Bill Finger was forced to close his tailor shop.
6.
Bill Finger graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx in 1933.
7.
An aspiring writer and a part-time shoe salesman, Bill Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938 after having met Kane, a fellow DeWitt Clinton alumnus, at a party.
8.
Bill Finger had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings.
9.
Bill Finger offered such suggestions as giving the character a cowl with pointed bat-ears instead of the domino mask, a cape instead of wings, adding gloves, and changing the red sections of the costume to gray.
10.
Bill Finger later said his suggestions to have his eyes covered by white lenses was influenced by Lee Falk's popular The Phantom, a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was familiar, and that he devised the name Bruce Wayne for the character's secret identity.
11.
Batman proved a breakout hit, and Bill Finger went on to write many of the early Batman stories, including making major contributions to the Joker character.
12.
Bill Finger wrote the debut issue of Batman's self-titled comic book series which introduced the Joker and the Catwoman.
13.
Bill Finger seemed to avoid having Batman operate out of a cave in the early stories, to circumvent being too similar to the Phantom and Zorro.
14.
Bill Finger was one of the writers of the syndicated Batman comic strip from 1943 to 1946.
15.
Bill Finger wrote for other companies, including Fawcett Comics, Quality Comics and Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics.
16.
Bill Finger provided an account on the creation of Joker in 1966, though admittedly unsure if it was Robinson or Kane who initiated the initial concept:.
17.
Bill Finger asserted that the creation of Penguin was fully his in the same interview, outright refuting Kane's claims:.
18.
Bill Finger created the Scarecrow and it is believed that Kane penciled his first appearance.
19.
Additionally, Bill Finger did receive credit for his work for National's sister company, All-American Publications, during that time.
20.
In September 2015, DC Entertainment announced Bill Finger would receive credit on the 2016 superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the second season of Gotham, following a deal between the Bill Finger family and DC.
21.
Bill Finger was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999.
22.
Bill Finger's death was not widely reported at the time.
23.
Bill Finger had suffered three heart attacks, in 1963,1970, and 1973.
24.
Athena and her son are his only known living heirs, and her attempts to restore Bill Finger's legacy resulted in Warner Bros.