Bob Kane, Part Two: The Swiper ~~ A “Comical Wednesday” Post

Okay, fellow babies, after last Wednesday's lonnnnnng post about Bob Kane and the origins of Batman, I'm going to give you a comparatively short Part Two (text-wise, anyway, so it'll be a fairly quick read), dedicated to what are usually referred to in the comic book and comic strip worlds as "swipes."

A "swipe" is definitely not the same thing as an "homage" (alternate spelling, "hommage"), or "tribute" drawing. Generally speaking, a swipe is when an artist borrows parts of one or more examples of artwork, or a photograph, or something else that's previously appeared, and closely copies it while no doubt hoping that nobody will ever notice! An homage is an obvious tribute to a previous work. Such homages usually appear on comic book covers (and even movie posters!), although they sometimes appear inside the book as well.

The cover of Action Comics #1, the 1938 debut of Superman, is one of the most well-known comic book covers of all time.

As such, there have been countless tributes to said cover. Here are only two:

By the way, that bespectacled gent cowering in fear by the

water fountain was evidently meant to be Clark Kent!

Fantastic Four #1 is another well-known cover that's been paid tribute to numerous times.

Here, once again, are only two examples of homage covers:

And what should we call it when an artist purposely copies himself at a later date?

And what should we call it when an artist purposely... Oops. Sorry, just said that!

Anyway, now we discuss swipes, copied drawings or photos that were never meant to be obvious, as tributes are. Like this one, by Rob Liefeld:

And this one, by Greg Land:

Actually, artist Greg Land is even more notorious for swipes taken from porn films!

And this pair of oldies:

Swipes are a lot more common than homages, and have been since the very dawn of the comic book format. A lot of early comic book artists constantly borrowed poses drawn by comic strip artists. Those artists often stole from Alex Raymond (artist of Flash Gordon), Harold Foster (who drew Tarzan, and later, Prince Valiant), and Milt Caniff (writer/artist of Terry and the Pirates), among others.

So, why am I talking so much about swipes in an article devoted to Batman artist and co-creator Bob Kane? Well, you've probably figured out by now (especially if you read today's title) that Kane was a swiper! Not only did he "swipe" co-creator credit from writer Bill Finger for their development of Kane's initial "Bat-Man" concept, but he (Bob Kane) also insured that his name would be the only name to appear on Batman comics, movies, etc. until the mid-1960s.

At the very top of this post is a photo of the cover of the 1938 "Big Little Book" #1451, entitled Gang Busters in Action. This "BLB" was illustrated by Henry E. Vallely (1886-1950), and as it happens, Bob Kane's early Batman work owes a lot to Vallely!

The very first drawing of Batman that the world was to see, however, was not swiped from Henry E. Vallely.

It was swiped from the aforementioned Alex Raymond!

Here's the cover of Detective Comics #27, Batman's debut:

The following comparison illustration was originally published in the highly-recommended blog, Dial B for Blog. Author "Robby Reed" provides a lengthy article about Bob Kane's history and Batman's creation. In fact, several of the points I'm making in my three-parter were first discovered when I read Robby's excellent series, which begins here.

Arlen Schumer is an illustrator and comic book historian whose website is here! And if you want to read his entire article on the creation of Batman, "The 'Bat-Man' Cover Story," click here!

Now, here's a panel from the Gang Busters BLB, followed by Bob Kane's drawing of Commissioner Gordon in Detective Comics #27:

This next Vallely drawing is followed by a famous Kane drawing from Batman's origin, first told in Detective Comics #33:

However, as noted above, Henry E. Vallely is not the only artist from whom Kane stole. Check out this composite from the Dial B for Blog website:

Top row, left to right: A Vallely swipe, then one from a Hal Foster drawing of Tarzan. Bottom row: Another Vallely swipe.

Of course, there were others whom Kane ripped off. For instance, Creig (not "Creg") Flessel...

And even himself!

And finally, to wrap up Part Two, here's another instance of Kane stealing from himself. The first Kane panel is from a "Rusty and his Pals" story in Adventure Comics #33 (December, 1938), and the second is from Batman's first adventure in Detective Comics #27 (May, 1939)! I saw the first shot in Steve Thompson's Days of Adventure blog, in his post of 12/09/2011, and commented on a similarity to the second drawing. Steve made a special post noting my observation on 12/10/2011!

By the way, if you have any interest in reading further about swipes and/or tributes, I highly recommend Panelocity, a blog devoted to that very subject!

Thanks for your time.

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In a series of articles discussing creative theft, I feel that I absolutely must include the following acknowledgements and disclaimers in each chapter: I could not have written this three-parter without availing myself of the research and/or “borrowed” photos and illustrations of many others, including (but not limited to) Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ty Templeton (Bill the Boy Wonder), Arlen Schumer, Steven Thompson (Four-Color Shadows and Days of Adventure), and yes, even Bob Kane himself (Batman and Me)! And I especially want to single out Kirk Kimball (aka “Robby Reed”) of Dial B for Blog, the incredible and highly-recommended blog which supplied me with much information and the composite sketch of Bob Kane swipes.

Batman, Robin, Clip Carson, Adventure Comics, the Joker, Bruce Wayne, Real Fact Comics, "The True Story of Batman and Robin," Green Lantern, Detective Comics, Rusty and his Pals, plus almost anything else I've forgotten are copyright © DC Comics, and are used for historical purposes only!