Frank Foster's Batman was created in 1932. There was
no known prior Batman.
Frank Foster worked in the New York publishing business
and showed his drawings to publishers of comics from 1937 to 1939.
Although we do not have physical proof, we know he visited DC comics
at 480 Lexington Avenue, just a few blocks from where he had lived.
In early 1939, Bob Kane was asked to create a comic book
character for a DC comic book at the 1939 World's Fair. It just so
happens that Frank Foster was also at the 1939 World's Fair at that
exact time finishing painting a mural! There is a real possibility
that Frank Foster and Bob Kane were actually acquainted!
Among all the creatures and characters created
in man's imagination. there has never been a known "Batman" like
hero prior to Frank Foster's Batman. The closest resemblance might
be vampires IE Dracula Etc. But Dracula was a very different kind of
character. It is a stretch of the mind (to say the least) to imagine
that DaVinci's winged man was the predecessor of Batman. The resemblance
is remote at best. Batman is not supernatural or evil. He has no special
powers. Neither does he have wings. He is a regular human who does
heroic deeds at night in a Bat-like costume. That was Frank Foster's
unique creative concept. And that is the character that Batman still
is today.
The chance that another artist conceived of the same
identical kind of character and who was at the same exact location
on Earth at the same moment in history and had the same exact name
is an unrelated coincidence is beyond feasibility. It is inconceivable.
The real original Batman drawings you see here were created
by Frank Foster in 1932.
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