Discover how Mort Weisinger tried to prove that Bob Kane didn’t tell the Batman comic storyline in the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the 863rd installment that examines three comic book legends and determines whether they’re true or false. As usual, there are 3 posts, one for each of the 3 legends. Click here for the first legend in this article. Click here for his second legend in this article.
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Comic Legends:
Mort Weisinger tried to prove that Bob Kane didn’t actually draw his Batman comics when Kane added Lou Thayer Schwartz as a ghost in 1948
situation:
truth
Some time ago, I wrote about a strange situation involving Bob Kane’s ghost in a Batman comic book heading into the 1960s. Batman in the 1950s and his 1960s The bulk of the artwork for his comics was by “Bob Kane”, but apparently, with so much artwork produced, Bob Kane did it all himself. no one believed. After all, by the mid-1950s, Kane wasn’t doing it at all, with Sheldon Moldoff doing all the work credited to Kane, but the DC editorial said Kane couldn’t do it. Suffice it to say that we knew that all, but at the same time, changes were only made when DC first settled a deal for Kane to work less on the series, and then finally in 1967. You no longer need to buy artwork from “Kane” (future legends detail a funny story about how Julius Schwartz enjoyed Kane’s lack of involvement in the Batman comic books). .
Why did Bob Kane with ‘Ghost’ hurt DC?
Bob Kane famously signed a sweetheart deal with DC (then National), in fact the company had to buy as many of his Batman films as he could produce, especially with high page rates. In (i.e. I don’t know) was more than the company was paying other artists.. This was part of the general arrangement the company signed with Kane, and Kane sued DC. It was almost certain to avoid agreeing to not. Batman’s copyright, unlike Superman’s Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Kane had almost stopped drawing Batman comic books to focus on Batman newspapers. Any cartoonist of his generation, a man like Kane would have far preferred to be a cartoonist rather than a cartoonist if he had the choice. Kane had to get back to drawing comics around 1945.
And Kane continued to produce Batman stories for DC. He has about one a month…
How many of these stories were saved by Kane’s inkers? I have no idea….
Eventually, however, Kane came up with the idea of hiring a talented artist, Lew Sayre Schwartz, to draw a story for him (Kane still provides Batman and Robin characters in the story). Perhaps to make Kane feel better about this deal? I really don’t know his motives for continuing to draw characters in this era). Schwartz was a much faster artist than Kane, so suddenly, instead of Kane producing his 12 stories a year, Schwartz/Kane produced 20 stories a year, and DC did as many as he provided. Kane’s contract was offered contingent on accepting the pages of Suddenly DC was forced to pay more than before.
How did Mort Weisinger try to prove that Kane didn’t portray Batman?
This did not sit well with Mort Weisinger, the editor of the Batman title at the time. So, as Schwartz detailed to John B. Cook in his excellent interview in his Alter Ego #51 for TwoMorrows, Weisinger continually tried to call Schwartz. Trying to get him to admit that it was his fault that Kane’s production had suddenly effectively doubled. This is mostly because, even though the arrangement benefited Kane the most, he was doing well with this arrangement (again, because the rate was so high that Kane gave Schwartz a 20% cut). Still better money for Schwartz than if he worked alone.
Jack Schiff then took over as editor of Batman titles, though he probably didn’t care either way. Moldoff was doing all the painting (no more Batman and Robin figures by Kane). Again, at this point, Sif didn’t seem to care either way.
But for a while, DC used ghosts to really care about Kane!
Thanks to Jon B. Cooke and the late great Lew Sayre Schwartz for the information.
Check out the TV legends revealed!
In the latest TV Legends Revealed – Were the Mickey Mouse cartoons the last to air on BBC-TV before World War II began? And when the war ended and services resumed, the BBC -Was it the first one aired on TV?
More Legend Staff!
Well, that’s all for now.
thanks to Brandon Humbey As for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo, I don’t actually use it anymore, but I’ve had it for years and it’s still showing up when I look at my old columns, so it’s fair to thank him I think.
Feel free (please!) to write suggestions for future installments! My email address is cronb01@aol.com.and my twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, hear the legend there too! Also, if you have any corrections or comments, feel free to email me. CBR may email me the email he receives about CBLR, which is good enough, but the easiest way to get a correction is to honestly email me directly. I don’t mind the correction. It’s always best to get things right!
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