Creativity Quote by Bob Kane

Kane’s question is a neat little trap: it sounds like a plea for accuracy, but it’s really an assertion of ownership. By pairing “me” with “the Batman,” he collapses the boundary between creator and creation, implying that to speak about the character without him is to falsify both biographies at once. The phrasing carries courtroom energy - “true story” as a standard of evidence - while smuggling in a demand that the gatekeeper of truth must also be the gatekeeper of access.

The subtext is defensive and strategic. Kane spent decades positioned in the public imagination as Batman’s primary author, even as industry history grew messier: ghosts, collaborators, contracts, and the long fight over credit (most famously, Bill Finger’s). In that light, “not consulted or interviewed” isn’t just about journalistic practice; it’s about controlling the narrative at the moment when the narrative threatens to control him. If the press can define Batman’s origins without Kane in the room, then Kane’s prestige, royalties, and legacy can be renegotiated without him, too.

It also exposes a cultural friction that comic-book history keeps replaying: fans and journalists treat pop mythology like public property, while creators and estates treat it like contested territory. Kane’s rhetorical question insists on a single, authorized version of events, even though the Batman story is practically a case study in how corporate art is made by many hands and then marketed as singular genius.