Bill Finger

Who was Bill Finger?

Milton "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development.

In 1989, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation, and wrote, "Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero ... I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say 'I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'" Comics historian Ron Goulart has referred to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger". Finger's contemporary, artist and writer Jerry Robinson, who worked with Kane from the beginning, said, “[Bill] had more to do with the molding of Batman than Bob. He just did so many things at the beginning, ... creating almost all the other characters, ... the whole persona, the whole temper," Batman inker George Roussos, another contemporary, said, "Bob Kane had ideas while Bill sort of organized them". A DC Comics press release in 2007 stated flatly that, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for DC predecessor National Comics." Likewise, DC editor Paul Levitz wrote, "The Darknight [sic] Detective debuted in [Detective] #27, the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger."