Tag: Bill Finger Award

Jeff Wong sent his nominations for the Bill Finger Award and asked…

I understand that a lot of people who suggest names have odd definitions of what it means to be "unrewarded" or "unrecognized" but I wonder what your definitions are.

Hmm. Good question. Well, "unrecognized" would have a lot to do with doing tonweights of work, especially exceptional work and rarely if ever getting your name on it. This is not much of a problem for those of us who got into comics after about 1970 and an almost non-existent problem since about 1980. But Bill Finger, to cite the gent this award is meant to honor, probably didn't get a credit of any sort on 98% of all the comics he wrote. He was the main Batman writer and as far as I know, the one instance in his lifetime of him seeing his name on a Batman story he wrote came when he co-wrote an episode of the Adam West Batman TV show. His name is now affixed to reprints and he may have seen some of that before he passed away in 1974 but he sure didn't on the first printings. When we gave the award last year to Del Connell, that would be a great example of applying that definition of "unrecognized." He was probably one of the ten or so most prolific writers of comics that ever lived but he only got credit on less than 1% of his output.

Of course, "unrecognized" can also apply to someone who did get credit and just didn't get enough attention or notice for the work. I think that's what the committee had in mind when it selected Frank Jacobs two or three years back. And as we continue to present the non-posthumous award in coming years, I assume that's the definition that will prevail. (Nothing at all against Stan Lee but I still don't understand why every year when I solicit nominations, a lot of people nominate him. Some do seem to think it's a trophy for Best Writer.)

"Unrewarded" is kind of a financial consideration. Again, Bill Finger worked in comics when they didn't pay that well and — in part because of the lack of credits — didn't lead to much else but writing more comics for mediocre money. Today, you can parlay acclaimed comic book work into other, more lucrative media gigs. You can also in some situations make a lot of money doing comics in the first place. So we're looking for the folks who perhaps didn't or haven't achieved those kinds of rewards. Admittedly, it's subjective and there are rewards of a non-monetary nature to consider. But no matter who's been on our judging committee, I haven't seen a lot of agonizing over this aspect of the award or even the other part. Everyone seems to understand that Mr. Finger didn't get the recognition he deserved or the remuneration and it is in that spirit that we give out this honor.

We've had some excellent names suggested…so many that I wish we could give out a dozen Finger Awards this year. The judges' selections will be announced in about two weeks and if your nomination ain't among them, fear not. There's always, as they say in baseball, next year.

I have to run out and pick up my car at the body shop but I wanted to thank everyone who's sending in suggestions regarding the Bill Finger Award. And I'd like to politely suggest that some of you re-read what I posted. An awful lot of people are sending me suggestions for artists who are deserving of greater recognition. I don't doubt that some/most/all of those folks are underappreciated but this is an award for writers…not for artists and not even for an artist who you think deserves an award and since he once wrote a story or two, we can give him what's supposed to be a Lifetime Achievement Award for writing.

Also, consider these words: Lifetime Achievement Award. I've had several nominations of writers who've been in the business less than ten years but are somebody's favorite…or in one case, close personal friend. Actually, quite apart from the Finger Award, I have a little annoyance at what constitutes "lifetime achievement" these days. I don't think any award should be taken that seriously but, you know, at least give the thing to someone who qualifies under its own criteria. I once accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award for whatever it is I've done and I'm less proud of the trophy than I am of the fact that I had the common decency not to think I'd really had a lifetime of achievement.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. Keep 'em coming…especially of writers who are still with us. I have a long list of nominees who are deceased and likely to remain that way. In fact, we'll never come close to honoring everyone on that list. But we could use some help with the list of writers who are alive.

Each year at the Comic-Con International, we give out something called the Bill Finger Award. Actually, we give out two Bill Finger Awards each year — one to a great writer of comic books who is deceased and one to a great writer of comic books who (happily) is still around to come in, pick up his award in person and be honored.

Bill Finger (1914-1974) was, of course, one of the great writers in the early days of comics. He was the co-creator of Green Lantern and that alone is pretty impressive…but he also had another big credit. Mr. Finger was, you see, the main writer of Batman in the forties and for a decade or two after. He was the guy who set the tone, the style, the feel of the stories. He was also the creator of many key Bat-elements and supporting characters and, some would say, the unjustly-uncredited co-creator of the Caped Crusader, himself.

As a matter of contractual fact, Bob Kane is credited as the sole creator of Batman and all the characters in the Bat-Universe…even the Joker, who Kane himself said in his autobiography he did not create. Kane said it was Finger's idea. Everyone else seems to think Batman's main nemesis was the creation of Jerry Robinson, who was Kane's main art assistant at the time. But the point is, Kane said he didn't create The Joker. Still, if you buy a Joker toy, it will say "created by Bob Kane" on it.

Since Finger's name does not appear prominently in connection with the character of Batman, it seemed like the least some of us could do was to slap it on an award. The Bill Finger Award was conceived and established by Jerry Robinson — who, by the way, drew the above sketch of Mr. Finger. Oddly enough though, unbeknownst to Jerry, the award had been proposed a few years earlier by longtime comic book writer Arnold Drake, another friend of Mr. Finger's. Arnold had the idea but couldn't get anyone to act upon it. Then Jerry thought of it on his own and he got it established. I am presently the administrator of the accolade and before I get to the main point of this discussion, I want you to understand what we — and by "we," I mean those of us who have helped select the recipients each year — intend by it.

It's a lifetime achievement award for a writer of comic books who has not really received proper recognition and reward for his or her contributions. Writers often are overlooked and this is an award, to some extent, for being overlooked, either in terms of financial advantage or sheer fame or both. Of course, the person has to have done work that should not have been overlooked in at least one of these ways…and as I said, we give two each year — one to someone who's alive and one to someone who isn't.

The first year, 2005, we gave the posthumous one to Jerry Siegel and the "alive" one to Arnold Drake…who, sadly, would now qualify for the posthumous one. The second year, we gave the posthumous award to Harvey Kurtzman and the "alive" one to Alvin Schwartz, who I'm glad to say still qualifies. So do the rest of our living recipients.

In 2007, we gave the posthumous to Gardner Fox and the "still with us" award to George Gladir. In '08, it was Archie Goodwin (deceased) and Larry Lieber (not deceased). Last year, the posthumous trophy went to John Broome and the there-to-accept plaque went to Frank Jacobs. And this coming year, we're presenting the awards to…

Well, that's where you come in.

This is an open call for nominations, especially for the "still breathing" honor. Because this is a lifetime achievement award, the judging committee doesn't want to start giving it to folks who got into comics in the seventies and eighties just yet; not until we're sure we've exhausted every worthy soul from comics' earlier days. The deceased award is easy because there are plenty of good dead writers…and there's no rush to give it to any one of them in particular. None of them are going to get any deader and there will be more where those came from. What we're looking for is whether we've overlooked some overlooked living writer from Comics' Golden or Silver Ages.

The awards will be presented at the Comic-Con International in San Diego this coming July and if there's any way we can get him or her there, we'll bring in the winner who's still with us and also some family member or other appropriate accepter for the departed honoree. If you can think of someone we might have forgotten, please send me an e-mail within the next month or so.