50 BATMAN
work is a vivid demonstration of Barry’s ability to fi nd creative potential in established
and disregarded forms. Barry has also written two illustrated novels, Th e Good Times
Are Killing Me (1988), later adapted into a play, and Cruddy (2000), both of which
extend her explorations of adolescence. Her most recent works, One! Hundred! Demons!
(Sasquatch, 2002), identifi ed as an “autobifi ctionalography,” and What It Is (Drawn &
Quarterly, 2008) are hybrids of her regular concerns with even more autobiograph-
ical content (including stories of her Filipina family), as well as highly creative “how to”
books derived from her shift to the use of Asian brush techniques and exercises to
stimulate creativity (created for the “Writing the Unthinkable” workshops she leads).
One! Hundred! Demons! received a 2003 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album and an
American Library Association Alex Award. Barry also edited and provided an introduc-
tion in comics form to Th e Best American Comics 2008 (Houghton Miffl in). Currently
Barry lives in rural Wisconsin, and publisher Drawn & Quarterly has announced plans
to reprint her collected work in a multi-volume edition.
Selected Bibliography: Chute, Hilary. “Somehow People Started Somehow to Actually
Start to Like It.. .” Th e Believer 6(9) (November/ December 2008): 47–58; Schappell,
Elissa. “A Conversation with Lynda Barry.” Tin House 8(1) (Fall 2006): 50–57.
Corey K. Creekmur
BATMAN. One of the most popular and recognizable fi ctional characters in the world,
the superhero Batman fi rst appeared in Detective Comics #27, cover dated May 1939.
Looking to capitalize on the success of Superman the previous year, DC Comics (then
National Periodicals) hired journeyman cartoonist Bob Kane to create another cos-
tumed hero. In order to diff erentiate his character from Superman, Kane made his
creation a human without actual super powers, and drew upon fi lm noir and pulp fi c-
tion, rather than the science fi ction that infl uenced Superman’s creators. Kane, who
died in 1998, was a notorious self-promoter, and enjoyed citing as inspiration Leonardo
da Vinci’s sketches of a bat-like helicopter, Douglas Fairbanks’s silent fi lm performance
as Zorro, and movies such as Dracula (1931) and Th e Bat Whispers (1930), among
other sources. However, Kane’s original design would be modifi ed by the writer of Bat-
man’s early adventures, Bill Finger, who suggested Kane change the color scheme from
red to grey, and added Batman’s cowl with pointed horns and his scalloped cape. DC
gave the savvy Kane sole credit for creating Batman, but most critics agree that Finger
is his co-creator.
Batman proved an immediate sensation in Detective Comics and, within a year,
was given a quarterly solo comic. Th e premiere issue of Batman (1940) saw the fi rst
appearances of enduring villains the Joker and Catwoman. In that same year, Batman
began appearing alongside Superman in World’s Finest Comics. Since his fi rst appear-
ance, Batman has remained the lead feature in Detective Comics , and Batman , along
with additional titles starring the character. Batman remains remarkably popular and
viable after 70 years of continual publication.
