'Batman' in Kane's money machine

By Vernon Scott

HOLLYWOOD (UPI): Once again Batman has swooped down on Gotham City bringing truth and justice to that crime-weary metropolis.

"Batman Forever" brings a whole new cast of characters to the series, beginning with the city's Caped Crusader himself.

Michael Keaton is gone and Val Kilmer has replaced him in the title role. Kilmer is joined by sidekick Robin, played by young hunk Chris O'Donnell.

Batman and Robin are charged this time with bringing to justice two dangerous new nutcases, Two-Face, played by Tommy Lee Jones, and (horrors) Jim Carrey as the Riddler.

On the plus side is Nicole Kidman in the role of Dr. Chase Meridian, suggesting that the only gorgeous, sexy women physicians can be found in Hollywood movies.

Although the cast may change and the stories vary, there is one constant in the Batman saga.

He is Bob Kane who started all the madness more than 50 years ago.

In company with his actress wife, Elizabeth Sanders, Kane stopped by a French restaurant in the San Fernando Valley the other day and marveled how his brainchild has continued to coin money in feature films.

Almost from the beginning in 1939 when teenager Kane first drew the comic book hero, Batman became a startling money machine. Now after more than half a century he's bigger than ever.

"I thought I would remain in comic books my whole life," Kane said. "I had no idea Batman would become a cottage industry. From little acorns great icons grow.

"Superman came into being in 1938, a year before Batman.

"I have to give Superman credit. Were it not for him there would be no Batman. But there is a clear difference between the two characters.

"It was the beginning of the comic book industry and I was doing comic stuff for about d5 apiece a week. I wasn't getting rich.

"When Vincent Sullivan, the editor of Detective Comics, asked me to do a superhero I asked how much Superman was being paid. They told me about d800 apiece per week. The proverbial lightbulb when on for me.

"I told them for that kind of money I would have a new superhero for them on Monday. I sat down and looked at a book of Leonardo da Vinci's famous inventions.

"There was a picture of the first glider, an orinthopter with a man on a sledge with huge bat wings. Underneath the drawing da Vinci had written it was modeled on a bat.

"And that's what gave me the idea for Batman. At first the title was 'The Bat-Man.'

"If an artist has to be influenced, who better than da Vinci. I also modeled Batman after 'Zorro,' as played by Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in 'The Mark of Zorro, and 'The Bat,' written by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

"I combined all of them into the composite Batman and they gave me a contract for six pages at d5 per page. Not d800 a week. It took a couple of years to reach that level.

"It started innocently and quietly and just kept building. In the early days Batman had wings attached to his arms that flared out behind him like a cape. But it interfered with his fighting, so they had to go."

By and large Kane is pleased with the "Batman" movies, although he thinks perhaps they are a bit more somber and dark than what he had in mind.

"The 'Batman' movie with Keaton was a blow-out," he said. "It made d351 million in America alone, and another d200 million abroad. Merchandising ran over a billion dollars.

"The second one, 'Batman Returns,' was a failure by certain standards, but it still made d162 million. A lot of mothers kept their children away because of Danny DeVito's portrayal of the Penguin.

"The new picture is lighter and funnier. And Warner Bros. is trying to woo back the merchandising licensees."

Kane was a consultant on "Batman Forever." His principal contribution was critiquing the script, although he was on the set much of the time at director Joel Schumacher's side.

He recalls with fondness the hit "Batman" TV series in the mid-1960s starring Adam West in the title role, which spoofed the super hero.

"At one during the mid-'40s the Batman comic books had a circulation of more than a million," Kane recalled. "They gave birth to two movie serials, one in 1943 and the other in '49.

"When I visited the set for the first time I asked the director, 'Where is the Batmobile?' He pointed to a gray convertible. I asked if he could at least get a black one.

"The element that makes superheroes work in comics, Tv or movies are the villains like the Riddler, the Joker, Cat Woman and the Penguin.

"They were high camp during the TV series. A lot of fun. Children loved the series and their parents tuned in for the laughs. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars volunteered to appear in episodes playing outrageous heavies."

Kane retired from comic books in 1966 to devote his energies to film animation and painting. He remains committed to all Batman enterprises.

"Batman became a daily comic strip in 1943," he said, "but it never ran more than three years at a time. It didn't enjoy the longevity of the comic books, which ran for about 27 years. I can't remember how many books I did.

"As I recall it took me about a month to turn out a book with about 39 pages. The first couple of years I did it all, but as the years went by I had a lot of help.

"I moved to California in 1983," he said. "Even though I was born in the Bronx I hated New York. I used to come to Hollywood and stay here for a year or two at a time.

"Now I'm enjoying the good years and getting absorbed in Batman movies."