
Where did the idea for a Batman character originate?
Left: Frank Foster's Batman
Right: First Announcement of Batman Character by DC Comics in April 1939.
The first Batman drawings were created by Frank D. Foster II in 1932. This was the year he finished attending Mass Art School in Boston and married Ruth Hardy. Classmate Al Capp asked Frank to collaborate with him to help draw a hill-billy cartoon strip he would call "Lil Abner". Capp interested Frank in creating cartoon characters, but Frank wasn't impressed with the hill-billy idea idea and decided to pursue the idea of a new super hero. The first ever and only hero of the night. "Batman".
Frank Foster’s Batman is on the left, created 1932
A costumed ordinary mortal is in itself an unusual feature for a super hero.
Similarities of Kane’s Batman and Frank Foster’s are obvious.
Common Visual Features are:
Common Conceptual Features:
These unique features created by Frank Foster were all employed in Bob Kane's Batman and still remain in effect today.
Above is a 2004 unedited video interview of Ruth Foster, Frank Foster II's wife at age 97 recalling the time of her husband's creation and attempts to sell his drawings and the original Batman idea.