Batman Turns 75 Today

Detective Comics 

#27, the first appearance of Batman and Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon, debuted seventy-five years ago today. The issue, by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, carries a cover date of May 1939, but actually shipped on March 30 of that year, Bleeding Cool's research shows: March 30, 1939 is the date of publication of Detective Comics #27 as listed by the Library of Congress Copyright Office's Catalog of Copyright Entries for Periodicals for 1939. According to the statute in effect at that time, the Copyright Act of 1909, the date of publication as listed here is "held to be the earliest date when copies of the first authorized edition were placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed." Though it has a May cover date, cover dates were typically used to let newsdealers know when to remove unsold copies of a publication from the newsstand.

Earlier this week, DC Entertainment announced an aggressive slate of 75th anniversary events for The Dark Knight, including two animated feature films, two animated shorts, a video game, a new weekly series and more. The live-action series Gotham, launching on FOX in the fall, follows the pre-Batman exploits of Gotham City Police Officers Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya and others. Recently, a Kickstarter campaign successfully funded a documentary film examining co-creator Bill Finger's contributions to the creation of the Batman legend. Officially, DC and their parent company Time Warner acknowledge only Bob Kane as the creator of Batman. Both Kane and Finger passed away years ago; Finger would have been 100 this year, and it was around the time of his centennial that the Kickstarter campaign launched.