Afternoon Funk for 9/29/15: Batman Day, Bill Finger, and Comics’ History of Bad Contracts

This past Saturday, comic book stores across the country celebrated “Batman Day” by giving away free Bat-stuff in honor of the Dark Knight. It was only the second official Batman Day, this time celebrating the 76^th anniversary (albeit a few months late) of Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27. It was appropriate, then, that a little over a week earlier, DC Comics—and their parent company, Warner Bros.—finally reached an agreement with the estate of Bill Finger, Batman’s co-creator, to properly accredit him for his contributions. Up until now, Finger has never been officially acknowledged as a part of Batman’s creation, despite being crucial to the creation of Batman’s character. Due to a shrewdly written contract signed back in 1939, Bob Kane alone has been credited with the creation of the character. It is a sad state of affairs that it has taken so long to fix this, but unfortunately it is all too common in the comic book industry, which is why I’ll be taking this opportunity to dig in to this case as well as a few other infamously bad contracts.

Morning Funk for September 9, 2015

This is your Morning Funk! Every weekday morning, this will be your place to find the top geek stories from around the internet. Today we have news from Battle Chasers, Unity, The Flash and much more!