Bill Finger’s obituary: better 40 years late than never

Bill Finger died on January 18, 1974, in New York City.

The main mind behind Batman received no obituary in the New York Times.

Or anywhere else.

Except in The Amazing World of DC Comics #1:


I’m not dismissing this; I am glad someone did something. But Bill deserved so much more attention.

And who says an obituary must be published immediately after a passing?

Therefore, some time ago, I proposed to, I think, the New York Times and to the Huffington Post that I write Bill’s obituary to be run now.

An excerpt:

I am not suggesting a standard obit but rather a feature presented as an obit with an intro explaining that an actual obit should’ve run 40 years ago and this is a humble attempt to rectify that oversight. It is unthinkable now that someone of his cultural significance could die with no fanfare.

Because it’s Batman, and because Batman fans are passionately frustrated by Finger’s neglect, and because Batman is a New York story, I am confident that this particular approach would get a lot of attention—considerably more than a straightforward article. How often do you see a “posthumous obituary” (you know what I mean)?
 
I’ve long dreamed of seeing an obit for Finger in the NYT, the paper of the city in which he radically changed pop culture...

I did not hear back.