Bob Kane his first adventure strip, "Rusty and his Pals". In early 1939, DC's success with the seminal superhero Superman in "Action Comics" prompted editors to scramble for more such heroes. In response, Bob Kane conceived "the Bat-Man." Kane said his influences for the character included actor Douglas Fairbanks' film portrayal of the swashbuckler Zorro; Leonardo da Vinci's diagram of the ornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings; and the 1930 film "The Bat Whispers", based on Mary Rinehart's mystery novel "The Circular Staircase" (1908). Bill Finger joined Bob Kane's nascent studio in 1938. An aspiring writer and part-time shoe salesperson,
His Name Is... Savage novellas "It Rhymes with Lust" and "The Case of the Winking Buddha". Like them, "Savage" was also sold on newsstands rather than in book stores. Marvel Comics, shortly after "Savage" appeared, published the first of a two-issue comics magazine, "The Spectacular Spider-Man", starring that titular superhero. Like the similar, anthological comics magazines of the time, such as "Creepy", "Eerie" and "Vampirella", both "His Name Is... Savage" and "The Spectacular Spider-Man" cost 35¢, whereas a typical comic book cost 12¢ and double-size issues 25¢. Gil Kane in the 1960s was a well-established comic-book artist who had co-created the modern versions of