Robert (Kahn) Kane
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Robert (Kahn) Kane (1915 - 1998)

Robert "Bob" Kane formerly Kahn
Born in New York City, New York, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
Brother of
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died at age 83 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 11 Nov 2020
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Biography

Notables Project
Robert (Kahn) Kane is Notable.

Robert Kahn, later known as Bob Kane, was born in 1915 in New York City. His parents were Herman Kahn and Augusta Tuchman, who were both of Eastern European Jewish descent. He was the only boy in the family, alongside his younger sister. His father worked in the printing business doing composing, and so must have returned home from work with ink on his hands from setting the type. It also appears that he had worked at least some of that time doing printing work for the newspaper business.

When Bob graduated from high school in the early 1930's, he legally changed his name to "Kane" and went on to study art at Cooper Union. By 1934, he was working for the Max Fleisher Studio as a trainee animator. In 1936, he began working in comics, submitting original work to Jerry Iger, some of which was used in "Wow! What a Magazine!" By 1937, he was working at Eisner & Iger's studio, creating comics on demand.

By 1939, the character of Superman had been released by National Periodicals (future DC Comics) and comic studios were scrambling to create the next big superhero sensation. Bob worked hard and developed a proposal for The Bat-Man. The original proposal was a blonde haired, blue-eyed man with a domino mask wearing a primarily red costume and sporting a large bat-wing shaped glider on his back. He presented this idea to Bill Finger (1914-1974), who had come to work as a ghostwriter for Bob on various projects, and often had excellent suggestions. Bill recommended a number of changes, essentially recreating the character to be more dark, wearing dark colors of blue, gray, and black, and not wearing a glider, but having a large black cape that would billow out. He added the bat symbol to his chest and gave him a cowl and developed him into more of a scientific detective than a simple superhero-vigilante. Bob took all this in, redesigned his proposal to take in much of Bill's suggestions and presented Batman to DC. Soon, Detective Comics #27 was released (May 1939) and it was a huge success. Because Bob submitted the proposal, he was given full credit for the creation of Batman, even though Bill had provided a significant amount of the creative ideas behind him.

Bob and Bill continued to work together to develop Batman, and added more to his story, but the demand soon exceeded what they could provide. DC brought on more scripters and artists to assist with the workload, and they often worked out of Bob's studio, while Bob would do his work from home. Unfortunately, Bill was often late on his assignments and as demand grew and deadlines became more and more important, at some point Bob and Bill parted ways. Bob continued to work on Batman comics until 1943, when he switched to work full-time on the Batman newspaper strip. This lasted until 1946, when the strip ended and he went back to comics. However, Bob had secretly brought on his own ghostwriters/artists to help produce the comics and often was not the one doing the actual work. While this was a common business practice, many criticized Bob later for taking credit for others' work.

Bob truly was co-creator of so much in comics lore. He was involved in Batman, Robin, the Joker, the Bat Cave, the Batmobile, Two-Face, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Clayface, Penguin, and more. Without his influence, it is hard to say if Batman would have ever come into existence back in 1939. As he was gaining success in the comics industry, he married his first wife, Beverly. They had a daughter together and would remain together until their divorce in 1957. During the 1950's, comics began to fade in sales, and while Bob remained with them, it appeared that their decline in popularity might be permanent. By the 1960's, he was becoming disillusioned with the comic market, and as comics were just beginning a resurgence in the mid-1960's, Bob decided to retire from comics and work in fine art. He still continued to have his name on projects involving Batman, including the 1960's television series. He appeared in conventions as a guest speaker and maintained his celebrity status as creator of Batman.

Many years later, questions began to emerge about whether Bob was the "sole" creator of all these characters, including Batman. While Bob had maintained all along that he deserved all the credit for his creations, details began to emerge about others who had been ghost writers or ghost artists for many of these that he claimed sole ownership. Eventually, Bob confessed that he had help with much of the work, and gave others credit, such as publicly crediting Bill Finger for the co-creation of Batman. Even with this public admission, he was still considered to be a celebrity in the comics industry for the work he had done, receiving many awards. He received the Inkpot Award in 1977. In 1985, he was named as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication "Fifty Who Made DC Great". In 1989, he wrote his biography, "Batman and Me". in 1989, he was a consultant on the Batman film and its 3 sequels. In 1994, he was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was added to the National Comics Awards' Roll of Honour.

He remarried late in life, to Elizabeth Sanders. They had no children together, but stayed married until his passing in 1998. He died at the age of 83 and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California. Years later in 2015, he was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions.

Sources

  • "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7DR-7PS : accessed 30 April 2021), Robert Kahn in household of Herman Kahn, Bronx (Districts 251-500), Bronx, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 346, sheet 26B, line 62, family 548, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1474; FHL microfilm 2,341,209.
  • "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ5V-RF3 : 7 January 2021), Bob Kahn in household of Herman Kahn, The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 3-1411, sheet 61A, line 25, family 432, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2496.
  • "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JP78-Z46 : 7 January 2021), Robert Kane, 03 Nov 1998; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).




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