Granddaughter Of Batman Co-Creator Bill Finger Launches A GoFundMe To Get Him A Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame
Tinsel Town has had an endless amount of trends, countertrends, and other fleeting fads flash their respective spotlights in the sky from out of its domain throughout the decades. From the classic old Westerns to Detective movies featuring classic Western actors and Nineties Nihilism. Then there’s our current era of epigonic, retrospective rot.
While some bandwagons ended before they could be fully appreciated, and others overstayed their welcome for way too long, there’s one that has always endured by continuing to reinvent itself, and that is Batmania.
Even if 80s Slashers are gone, and 60s Beach Party movies should never have been a thing in the first place, one could always depend on the Dark Knight to eventually show up at some point, and punch a few faces.
This is why Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame is littered with the names of legends who walked the streets of Gotham City through cinema. It even has a special section of sidewalk dedicated to the Dark Knight with four names close to each other – Batman co-creator Bob Kane, stars of the TV series (1966-68) Adam West and Burt Ward, and the Caped Crusader himself.
The character got his own star on the Batshrine this past September. That web-slinger from New York can’t make such an amazing boast, nor can that farm boy from Smallville, but there’s still one name missing from that four-piece of Bat history, one that has as much right to be there as any of them.
Milton “Bill” Finger’s story was a dark secret in the comic book world for seventy-six years before DC Comics gave him the long-overdue credit for co-creating The Dark Knight. Not only did he write all of the stories from that Golden Era, but he also came up with Batman’s look which completely diverged from the vampiric Aquaman concept that Bob Kane had originally envisioned, moving it into the direction demanded by destiny.
Along with creating Batman’s likeness, Bill Finger is the mastermind behind Gotham City, Robin, Jim Gordon, Hugo Strange, Scarecrow, Penguin, Wildcat, Catwoman, The Joker (with Jerry Robinson), the Riddler (with Dick Sprang). He also wrote the original Alan Scott/Green Lantern stories (with Martin Nodell), all of which went unacknowledged throughout his entire writing career, and even decades after he died in poverty.
It wasn’t until 2015 that DC finally gave Bill Finger co-creator credit for Batman, and added his name next to Bob Kane’s on all mediums going forward. This came after a years-long battle between DC and Bill’s granddaughter/heir, Athena Finger.
This was something set into motion when author Marc Tyler Nobleman encouraged her to contact them. He would go on to bring worldwide attention to this story with his biography Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman in 2012, and the 2017 Hulu documentary Batman & Bill.
After attending the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony for Batman, Athena was compelled to get Bill a well-earned star among his co-creation, and the others who helped breathe life into it. That’s why she has started a GoFundMe to help raise the $75,000 needed to make this happen, and not that’s not as steep as one would expect from that slice of southern California.
The campaign, which is still ongoing, was launched at the end of September, and if anyone wishes to donate, they can follow this link to the campaign.
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