Will Bob Kane's Walk of Fame Ceremony Be Protested By Bill Finger Supporters?

Shortly after word came down that Batman's contractual sole creator Bob Kane would be credited with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, comics writer, editor and historian Mark Evanier raised an interesting point in a blog post on the matter.

"Did Time-Warner get Kane this star? Or did Mr. Kane's family put up the money and crusade for it?" He asked. "And will there be protesters at the dedication ceremony with big signs that say WHAT ABOUT BILL FINGER? It wouldn't surprise me."

As Evanier notes, these ceremonies are typically timed in cooperation with the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and usually tied to some big event. It's possible that when they first started lobbying for a star for Kane, it was because Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was expected to hit theaters in July of 2015 (the ceremon will take place at some point in 2015). They may use the ceremony now as part of a promotional run-up to the recently-delayed Arkham Knight video game instead.

Whatever they do, the idea of Bill Finger-themed protests might have seemed novel in the past but the movement to get the writer credit for his contributions to the Batman mythology has intensified since Marc Tyler Nobleman's biography Bill the Boy Wonder.

A Facebook group exists with around 1,500 followers whose goal is to get Finger credit, notably on the upcoming Gotham TV series (one of his contributions was that he named the city and helped nail its tone) and have been keeping track of stories about the Walk of Fame that make reference to the creatorship controversy. There are a number of them, including from places you might not expect to report on that, like Yahoo! News. There's even one comics-news site hopefully speculating that fans might deface Kane's star.

Besides Nobleman's book, a documentary film was recently funded via Kickstarter that explores the creative process behind the Dark Knight.