Art & Creativity Quote by Bob Kane

Authority is the real cape Bob Kane is trying on here. On the surface, he sounds like any creator sick of gossip: go to the source, stop “second guessing.” But the phrasing gives away a deeper agenda. “The original source, myself” isn’t just a request for accuracy; it’s a claim of ownership over narrative, legacy, and credit. Kane isn’t saying, “Ask people who were there.” He’s saying, “Ask me.”

That matters because Batman’s origin story, like so many pop-myths, is also a workplace story: collaboration, contracts, and who gets remembered. Kane became the public face of Batman, while key contributions from writers and artists around him were long minimized in mainstream accounts. When he insists on being the pipeline for “the truth,” he’s not only policing facts; he’s narrowing the definition of truth to what serves his authorship.

Even the casual coupling of “me or the Batman” is telling. Creator and creation blur into one brand, as if the character’s history is an extension of Kane’s personal biography. It’s a savvy maneuver in an industry where bylines often functioned as legal armor: whoever controls the story controls the royalties, the reputation, the museum placards.

The line also reveals anxiety: that the record is slipping out of his hands. “Second guessing” reads like preemptive dismissal of historians, fans, or former collaborators who might complicate the clean origin myth. Kane wants Batman’s past to remain a single-author legend, because legends are easier to sell - and harder to litigate.