The only two surviving letters Bill Finger wrote
In my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I dug deep and discovered quite a bit that had not been published before. One of the most rewarding finds was personal correspondence—the only known examples of surviving letters written by Bill Finger.
There are two, both from 1965. They were discovered in the Vermont home of longtime fan Tom Fagan, who passed away in 2008; a friend of Tom’s kindly mailed me copies. When I first saw the letters, everything quickened. It is understated to describe them as highlights of my research odyssey.
Besides the simple fact that they exist, they are significant because they reveal sides of Bill’s personality that none of his (few) comics-related interviews did.
The first letter (whose postmark, not shown here, is 8/19/65) starts with a doozy: in rattling off his interests, Bill cheekily repeats “dating women.” The last line of the letter is endearing and humanizing, and also shows that the phrase “give me a buzz,” which I would’ve assumed dated from the 1970s if not later, actually existed in the 1960s. Who knows—maybe Bill came up with that piece of pop culture, too?
The second letter, dated 10/19/65, strikes a more solemn tone because it came in the aftermath of Bob Kane’s scathing letter for Batmania in which he refutes Bill’s recent admission that he (Bill) was involved with the creation of Batman.
Bill wrote that he had to keep it short so he could make it to the post office before it closed, but 10/19/65 was a Sunday. It was so hastily written that Bill did not sign it.
But the letter’s greatest significance is in the line “I quite angrily spoke my mind and jogged Bob’s fading memory.” As I mention in the Author’s Note, this is the most spine we have seen from Bill and, in fact, is the only known textual evidence in which Bill stood up for himself.
The poignant last line also made it into my book…as the last line there, too. It’s heartbreaking in its graciousness. Imagine the bitterness it could have been masking.
Here are both letters:
There are two, both from 1965. They were discovered in the Vermont home of longtime fan Tom Fagan, who passed away in 2008; a friend of Tom’s kindly mailed me copies. When I first saw the letters, everything quickened. It is understated to describe them as highlights of my research odyssey.
Besides the simple fact that they exist, they are significant because they reveal sides of Bill’s personality that none of his (few) comics-related interviews did.
The first letter (whose postmark, not shown here, is 8/19/65) starts with a doozy: in rattling off his interests, Bill cheekily repeats “dating women.” The last line of the letter is endearing and humanizing, and also shows that the phrase “give me a buzz,” which I would’ve assumed dated from the 1970s if not later, actually existed in the 1960s. Who knows—maybe Bill came up with that piece of pop culture, too?
The second letter, dated 10/19/65, strikes a more solemn tone because it came in the aftermath of Bob Kane’s scathing letter for Batmania in which he refutes Bill’s recent admission that he (Bill) was involved with the creation of Batman.
Bill wrote that he had to keep it short so he could make it to the post office before it closed, but 10/19/65 was a Sunday. It was so hastily written that Bill did not sign it.
But the letter’s greatest significance is in the line “I quite angrily spoke my mind and jogged Bob’s fading memory.” As I mention in the Author’s Note, this is the most spine we have seen from Bill and, in fact, is the only known textual evidence in which Bill stood up for himself.
The poignant last line also made it into my book…as the last line there, too. It’s heartbreaking in its graciousness. Imagine the bitterness it could have been masking.
Here are both letters:


Published on August 21, 2012 04:21
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