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,
Jan (comic book writer) Jan (comic book writer) Jan is the pseudonym of Juan López Fernández (born 13 March 1939), Spanish comic book writer and artist, most famous for his creation Superlópez. He was born in the town of Toral de los Vados, in the province of León. Completely deaf from the age of six, his parents encouraged him to draw and in 1956, he began to work in a studio in order to learn animation. He emigrated to Cuba in 1959 where he worked in "Televisión Cubana" (Cuban Television) and the "Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos" (ICAIC) (Cuban Institute of Cinematographic