I ran into one of those old debates again - did Bob Kane draw Batman at all?
Kane fought so hard for so long to hide the work of great artists like Dick Sprang and Jerry Robinson, not to mention Batman's Co-Creator Bill Finger. As more and more came to realize that their favorite parts of Batman came from other creators, speculation arose that Bob Kane never actually did any of the work on Batman. With all those Ghosts in the closet, perhaps he never needed to do more than sign a name and collect the checks.
But, let us remember that Bob did do more than just Batman.
For example, Jumbo Comics was running his Peter Pupp back in 1938. Oddly enough, those were reprints. The strip first ran in the UK in Wags the previous year. So here we have international proof that Bob could draw comics. (No, i don't know what was in his closet. Shut up!)
If the pages seem just a bit "off" to you, it may be because they were printed as Colour Comics. Which is to say, they were printed on orange paper, which looks rather garish and diminishes ease of reading. So i leeched that out and 'upgraded' to black & white -
Um...
I don't have issue #4. I can't tell you what happens next.
But i'm fairly sure no bats were involved...
Kane fought so hard for so long to hide the work of great artists like Dick Sprang and Jerry Robinson, not to mention Batman's Co-Creator Bill Finger. As more and more came to realize that their favorite parts of Batman came from other creators, speculation arose that Bob Kane never actually did any of the work on Batman. With all those Ghosts in the closet, perhaps he never needed to do more than sign a name and collect the checks.
But, let us remember that Bob did do more than just Batman.
For example, Jumbo Comics was running his Peter Pupp back in 1938. Oddly enough, those were reprints. The strip first ran in the UK in Wags the previous year. So here we have international proof that Bob could draw comics. (No, i don't know what was in his closet. Shut up!)
If the pages seem just a bit "off" to you, it may be because they were printed as Colour Comics. Which is to say, they were printed on orange paper, which looks rather garish and diminishes ease of reading. So i leeched that out and 'upgraded' to black & white -
Um...
I don't have issue #4. I can't tell you what happens next.
But i'm fairly sure no bats were involved...
page art by Bob Kane from Jumbo Comics #s 1-3 (1938)
He seems to have been a fairly competent cartoonist when it came to humour strips, but his adventure strips had a lot of swipes from other artists. (Perhaps even his humour strips did too.) It's interesting to note that he used to do his strips at home and then drop them off at the rented office/studio where his inking and lettering assistants worked. Assuming he was actually drawing them and not using 'ghosts' in the early days, I assume he worked from home so that no one could see that he was swiping from other mags. There's an interesting account of Kane at a comics convention in Bill Schelly's 'Sense Of Wonder' book.
ReplyDeleteYeah - as noted, we don't know that he didn't have any ghosts working this one hidden in his closet. And his swipes have indeed been well documented. I figured folks could draw their own conclusions here. They stand odd enough on their own to cover a bit either way.
ReplyDeleteMy own con experience with Bob is pretty simple. We were supposed to have dinner together - he didn't show up.
(There may have been teenage girls involved)
I'm surprised I haven't heard of Peter Pupp before. Looks kind of cool if you like Disney comics. I guess Bob thought that being associated with funny animals would hurt his credibility
ReplyDeleteTypically, Bob only had two concerns - did he get his Credit, and did the check clear?
DeleteBut i could easily believe he got more sensitive about those old strips as time when by and the style his ghosts were aping was more and more often called "cartoony" by the readers.
Oops. "...as time when by..."?
DeleteNope wasn't making chronal based pun, just fingers off in a different direction as i tried to type "...as time WENT by..."