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,
Gil Kane animated series. The book refers to the Kane/Broome Institute for Space Studies in Coast City. The Broome Kane Galaxy in "" is named for him and John Broome. Writer Alan Moore made Kane a character in Awesome Comics' "Judgment Day: Aftermath" which Kane illustrated. While he was alive, Kane was made the lead character in writer Mike Friedrich's story "His Name Is ... Kane" (a play on Kane's "His Name Is ... Savage") in DC Comics' supernatural anthology "House of Mystery" #180 (June 1969). In the six-and-a-half-page tale, penciled by Kane and inked by Wally Wood, frustrated comic-book artist Gil