The Bob Kane reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Bob Kane

Bob Kane, creator of "Batman", was born as Robert Kahn on October 24, 1916. He legally changed his name to the familiar "Kane" at age 18.

An eager young artist, Kane came to the burgeoning comics world in 1936 with his own book that led to various assignments in the following years - until the character "Superman" burst onto the scene and generated enormous sales numbers. In turn, Kane along with writer Bill Finger developed another costumed crime-fighter - the Bat-Man (original spelling).

The character found quick success after its first appearance in Detective Comics 27, leading to Kane's continued employment at National (today DC Comics) for several years.

His major contributions to "Batman" was in the 1940s, with several "ghost pencilers" assisting him (like Jerry Robinson who also created the "Joker"). His workload tapered off afterwards, while Kane later took to showing his work at art galleries.

Interestingly, Kane's name has been featured on (nearly) every Batman story, unlike the names of the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who had to win a lengthy court case against DC Comics.

Bob Kane died on November 3, 1998.

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