Batman #1 Club

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Re: Bill Finger and Bob Kane (and Jerry Robinson)

An earlier post vilified Kane for "what he did to Bill Finger."

I cannot deny that Kane sometimes behaved poorly, but "what he did to Bill Finger" was to pluck the guy from a job selling shoes and get him hired by DC comics.

They became a team, and Kane didn't share credit. Perhaps he should have, but in that time period it was standard procedure for the guys who ran the shops to take all the credit. In fact the publishing houses encouraged that, even sometimes insisted on it.

Siegel and Shuster were partners on Superman and Siegel gave co-creator credit to Shuster even though Siegel came up with it on his own, and had even worked with a different artist before they sold it). But outside their partnership, they had lots of artists who worked on the comics without credit.

(an important distinction with Siegel and Shuster is that they were partners together working on speculation. In situations like that, creators like Siegel, who couldn't draw, will understandably give co-creator credit to a collaborator in order to get the project financed or sold. (And not always do people offer co-creator credit; sometimes all that is offered is a job if and when the project moves forward)

So, whereas Shuster worked without pay for years as they shopped Superman, Finger was earning paychecks the same week that Kane brought him aboard.

Re; Jerry Robinson. What Kane did to Jerry was to hire him on the spot when they met on a tennis court. Changing his life, as it changed Bill Finger's.

Did he take credit for Jerry's ideas. According to Jerry, he did.

But there's where it gets fuzzy. This was 75 years ago and in collaborative endeavors people tend to disagree about who had which great idea(s) first.

Kane says he created Robin.

Bill Finger says he created Robin

Jerry Robinson says he created Robin.

Yet, to hear Kane's biggest detractors, neither Finger nor Robinson are liars. But Kane is. Which is not merely biased. It's not even possible.

I don't disagree that Kane was often a d-ck, but the degree to which his haters go, reconstructing the creation of Batman as if they were present at the time, and giving all the credit to others and virtually none to Kane, reaches strange levels at time. (I read one article in which Kane's biggest detractor started to say he gave Kane credit for one thing only, the name Batman. Then, he quickly backed away from that, as if giving Kane any credit whatsoever was too distasteful for him.

The guy (Kane) ran the shop, made the decisions. And he was a smart man. It's inconceivable that he didn't have a lot of ideas, or that he didn't get a lot of ideas from his staff.

I understand this is a file copy, but did Bob Kane owned a few Batman 1's. Is it that unique to command that kind of premium?

 

He acquired a second hand low grade copy of Batman 1, I heard, in the 1960s.

 

(I could see someone having an interest in that, but I understand why the hobby doesn't consider second-hand copies to be the same. Otherwise, comic creators could acquire dozens of copies for the purpose of resale), and that would greatly diminish the appeal

 

Kane acknowledged that everything he'd owned, originally, had been thrown out. Even discussed that on a few TV programs, I am told.

 

To my knowledge he tried to re-acquire a Detective 27, but never did.

 

 

 

Kane bought a Batman 1 from Gary Carter at the San Diego con in the seventies. Gary wrote about it in one of his editorials for Comic Book Marketplace.

A copy of Batman #1, CGC 1.0 restored, slight C-1 is on eBay:

LINK

A reglossed, taped-up 1.0 already at $8220. Yikes.

I bet it will topple 10k.

A reglossed, taped-up 1.0 already at $8220. Yikes.

It could be twice that and Bat 1s would still be one of the most under-valued books out there, at least when you compare it to the values other books are getting. Superman 1 is approaching six figures in good, and many would not question question 8K bids to date on the likes of a 9.9 ASM from the 'copper age.' There might be more Bat 1s than the average GA key but it's also a lot more than an average key, and huge numbers of extant copies doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in the prices realized on many other books with existing numbers much higher and significance much lower.

I bet it will topple 10k.

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

I bet it will topple 10k.

 

 

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

nothing soft about Bat 1.

I bet it will topple 10k.

 

 

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

 

nothing soft about Bat 1.

I bet it will topple 10k.

 

 

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

 

nothing soft about Bat 1.

Not if Joker's boner has anything to say about that

I bet it will topple 10k.

 

 

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

 

nothing soft about Bat 1.

 

Not if Joker's boner has anything to say about that

What copy of Bat is the boner story

I bet it will topple 10k.

 

 

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

 

nothing soft about Bat 1.

 

Not if Joker's boner has anything to say about that

 

 

What copy of Bat is the boner story

Batman #66

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/136/

I bet it will topple 10k.

 

 

once considered a soft book. now il never get one

 

nothing soft about Bat 1.

 

Not if Joker's boner has anything to say about that

 

 

What copy of Bat is the boner story

Read my signature

A reglossed, taped-up 1.0 already at $8220. Yikes.

 

It could be twice that and Bat 1s would still be one of the most under-valued books out there, at least when you compare it to the values other books are getting. Superman 1 is approaching six figures in good, and many would not question question 8K bids to date on the likes of a 9.9 ASM from the 'copper age.' There might be more Bat 1s than the average GA key but it's also a lot more than an average key, and huge numbers of extant copies doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in the prices realized on many other books with existing numbers much higher and significance much lower.

Well put.

"Huge numbers" may be a bit excessive as we're still talking about a GA book, but I understand where you're coming from.

Despite recent upticks in prices for this book, it still has a lot of room to grow.

The Batman #1, restored 1.0 with CT, cover re-attached with glue, re-glossed, tape on cover sold for $12,688.

A reglossed, taped-up 1.0 already at $8220. Yikes.

 

It could be twice that and Bat 1s would still be one of the most under-valued books out there, at least when you compare it to the values other books are getting. Superman 1 is approaching six figures in good, and many would not question question 8K bids to date on the likes of a 9.9 ASM from the 'copper age.' There might be more Bat 1s than the average GA key but it's also a lot more than an average key, and huge numbers of extant copies doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in the prices realized on many other books with existing numbers much higher and significance much lower.

 

Well put.

 

"Huge numbers" may be a bit excessive as we're still talking about a GA book, but I understand where you're coming from.

 

Despite recent upticks in prices for this book, it still has a lot of room to grow.

When I said "huge numbers" i was referring to other books, not Batman 1

Bat 1 has more known existing copies than Superman 1, but far far below the numbers of any silver age key, let alone bronze age books. There are silver and bronze books which sell for more than 12K in high grades.

If you look at Hulk 181, for example, there are more copies in "nosebleed" grades of that issue than there are total existing copies of Batman 1 in any condition. Yet people pay for them who would never buy that low grade Batman 1 because they believe that only high grade books are valuable and don't stop to think how the total numbers should affect the value.

Should the market cap (the value of all existing copies) of Hulk 181 be more than the market cap of Detective 27? I wouldn't think so. But if you take the prices realized for the copies in various grades, and then multiply it by the number of existing copies in all those grades, the market cap of Hulk 181 would far exceed Tec 27.

But how would the figures hold if there was a sell-off. I doubt the value of Tec 27 would fall too far if ten percent of all existing copies came available in the same month. But do that with Hulk 181 and it would be a disaster.

I tried to join the club but the bidding got too high for me.

What did you guys think of the price this hashed up, incomplete Batman 1 achieved on ebay?

$3050

Pretty good price for missing the cover, 2 full wraps, and the back page. I bid over what I thought value was and still was outbid.

I may never be able to join this club.

Here's the link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-Comics-Batman-1-The-Legend-of-The-Batman-/221574248618?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item3396dab8aa

I think you should be happy that you didn't win it.

A reglossed, taped-up 1.0 already at $8220. Yikes.

 

It could be twice that and Bat 1s would still be one of the most under-valued books out there, at least when you compare it to the values other books are getting. Superman 1 is approaching six figures in good, and many would not question question 8K bids to date on the likes of a 9.9 ASM from the 'copper age.' There might be more Bat 1s than the average GA key but it's also a lot more than an average key, and huge numbers of extant copies doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in the prices realized on many other books with existing numbers much higher and significance much lower.

 

Well put.

 

"Huge numbers" may be a bit excessive as we're still talking about a GA book, but I understand where you're coming from.

 

Despite recent upticks in prices for this book, it still has a lot of room to grow.

 

When I said "huge numbers" i was referring to other books, not Batman 1

 

Bat 1 has more known existing copies than Superman 1, but far far below the numbers of any silver age key, let alone bronze age books. There are silver and bronze books which sell for more than 12K in high grades.

 

If you look at Hulk 181, for example, there are more copies in "nosebleed" grades of that issue than there are total existing copies of Batman 1 in any condition. Yet people pay for them who would never buy that low grade Batman 1 because they believe that only high grade books are valuable and don't stop to think how the total numbers should affect the value.

 

Should the market cap (the value of all existing copies) of Hulk 181 be more than the market cap of Detective 27? I wouldn't think so. But if you take the prices realized for the copies in various grades, and then multiply it by the number of existing copies in all those grades, the market cap of Hulk 181 would far exceed Tec 27.

 

But how would the figures hold if there was a sell-off. I doubt the value of Tec 27 would fall too far if ten percent of all existing copies came available in the same month. But do that with Hulk 181 and it would be a disaster.

Are there more than 200 nosebleed Hulk 181s ?