BATMAN & RUBIN
Adventures of Batman & Rubin LP featuring Marty Allen and Steve
Rossi. It was created and written by Bob Kane (creator of Batman &
Robin).






Bob Kane (October 24, 1915November 3, 1998) was the co-creator
of Batman, although many sources credit Kane as the sole creator of the
character.
He was born Robert Kahn but legally changed his name to the familiar "Kane"
at age 18. An eager young artist, Kane came to the burgeoning comics world
in 1936 with his own book that led to various assignments in the following
years.
Following the success of Superman in Action Comics, editors at National
Publications (now DC Comics) requested more superheroes comics. In response,
Kane created a character called "Birdman" among many, before
settling on "The Bat-Man" which was partly influenced by his love
of Douglas Fairbanks' Zorro and Mary Rinehart's mysterious villain The Bat.
Kane's collaborator/studio writer, Bill Finger offered such suggestions as
giving the character a cowl instead of a simple domino mask, giving him a
cape instead of wings, giving him gloves, and removing the bright red
sections of the original costume, suggesting a grey/black color scheme not
unlike that worn by the Phantom, right down to leaving the eyeholes in the
cowl blank to connote mystery. Finger wrote the first Batman story, while
Kane provided art. Because Kane had already submitted the proposal for a
Batman character to his editors at DC Comics, Kane was the only person given
official credit at the time for the creation of Batman, in a tradition that
was absent in the comic books but was routine in the more lucrative field of
the daily newspaper strips. The character was a breakout hit, but National
sought to improve sales even further.
Editors suggested that the character receive a youthful sidekick whom the
readers could use as an audience surrogate. Kane initially suggested an
impish character named Mercury, while Finger suggested a more down-to-earth
character. The name "Robin" was suggested by Jerry Robinson after
the then popular Errol Flynn movie The Adventures of Robin Hood. (Robinson
also created the the basic concept of the Joker, which was eventually
re-modelled by Kane and Finger into the "Clown Prince of Crime"
that we know of today.)
Kane, the more business-savvy of the Kane-Finger creative team, negotiated
a contract with National, signing away any ownership that he might have in
the character in exchange for, among other compensations, a mandatory byline
on all Batman comics stating "Batman created by Bob Kane",
regardless of whether he was involved in the specific issue. Bill Finger's
contract, by comparison, left him with a monetary pittance and no credit
even on the stories that he wrote without Kane, as was the standard policy
during that era.
Kane's major contributions to Batman were in the 1940s. When DC wanted
still more product than Kane's studio could deliver, DC hired several "ghost
pencilers" to produce "cloned" in-house stories. Eventually,
towards the close of the 40s, Kane hired his own personal "ghosts"
although he would still act, essentially, as an "art director". As
Kane's comic work tapered off later in his career, Kane parlayed his
official status as sole creator of Batman into a low level of celebrity. He
enjoyed a post-comic book career as a painter, showing his work in art
galleries. Even some of these paintings were produced by other, uncredited
artists, now ghost-painting under Kane's name.
He wrote an album The Adventures of Batman & Rubin (Jewish Boy Wonder)
for the team of Allen & Rossi to capitalize on the popularity of the
television show. In 1989 he published his autobiography, Batman and Me, and
a second volume Batman and Me, The Saga Continues in 1996. He made numerous
appearances to promote the first book.
