Not the Batmobile (Secret Origins of Batman Part 6)

Over at the excellent Dial B for Blog, Robby Reed recently posted several comparisons of Bob Kane's artwork with Henry Vallely's. While I feel that some of the connections he makes are too different to be fairly labeled as swipes, he does make clear that Kane's drawings were undoubtedly inspired by those of Henry Vallely. One example provided by Reed is of Commissioner Gordon's car from 1939's Detective Comics #27 as compared with a getaway car found on page 365 of 1938's Gang Busters In Action (BLB 1451). The more accurate comparison is found on page 141, which, as displayed above, can legitimately be called a swipe.

Vallely In The Comics

One year after the publication of S.O.S. Coast Guard (BLB 1191) in 1936, the story was adapted and modified for the fourth issue of The Comics. The Comics was a bi-monthly Dell publication which primarily reprinted newspaper strips, similar to their earlier effort The Funnies, though this time in the standard comic book format. This usage of material that was created exclusively for the Whitman Publishing Co. preceded by one year a partnership that Dell would enter with the Western Printing and Lithographing Co. (Whitman's parent company). A Republic serial of S.O.S. Coast Guard starring Ralph Byrd was also released in 1937.

Captain Olson (Secret Origins of Batman Part 4)

In previous posts I examined Henry Vallely's influence on Bob Kane in Detective Comics 1933, but here we see an even earlier influence. From the comic book which featured the first appearance of Batman, the 3rd panel of Detective Comics #27 (cover dated May 1939) gives us our first good look at Commissioner Gordon. Returning once again to 1938's Gang Busters In Action (BLB 1451), we find on page 11 a character in a familiar pose who may well be the prototype for Commissioner Gordon. Coincidentally this character is also a member of the police force, named Captain Olson.
Commissioner Gordon is © DC Comics.

They're D..Dead (Secret Origins of Batman Part 3)

At first glance this may not be the most obvious example of an artist plagiarizing the work of Henry Vallely, but further perusal of Junior G-Men and the Counterfeiters (BLB 1442) reveals that it is peppered with the above character (know as Bill Boyd) who is clearly the model for not only young Bruce Wayne in Detective Comics #33, but young circus performer Dick Grayson in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) prior to becoming Robin. In this case Bob Kane (or whoever was ghosting for him) dug back a little further to 1937.
Bruce Wayne is © DC Comics.

Secret Origins of Batman Part 2

Today we return to 1938s Gang Busters In Action (BLB 1451) and two panels (pages 57 and 49) which it's safe to say were somewhat influential to the Batman mythos. The bottom panel is again from Detective Comics #33 (November, 1939) which was the first appearance of Batman's origin. For years Bob Kane was given sole credit for the art, but in the recently released Batman Chronicles Volume One he finally shares credit with Sheldon Moldoff on inks. Careful observers will note that the same pose of the killer (Joe Chill) made an earlier appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May, 1939) on the second page, bottom, middle panel. For that issue Bob Kane maintains sole art credit. To this day Henry E. Vallely receives none.
Bruce Wayne, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne and Joe Chill are all © DC Comics

Gang Busters! (Secret Origins of Batman Part 1)

My first encounter with the work of Henry Vallely occurred around 1986 while attending one of Bruce Schwartz’s conventions at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. My friend Dan Riba picked up one of the Big Little Books a vendor had on the table and started flipping through the pages. He pointed out one of the illustrations and asked me if it looked familiar. We were both lifelong comic book fans and were well versed in the “classics” of the golden and silver age so within a heartbeat I realized that we were looking at a swipe from Detective Comics #33 from November of 1939, specifically the panel in which Bruce Wayne contemplates the nature of criminals (“… a superstitious and cowardly lot…”). Or so we thought. As it turned out, the copyright of the book (Gang Busters In Action, BLB 1451) was 1938 and we realized that it was Bob Kane who had done the swiping! Further perusal revealed at least a half dozen other poses familiar to Batfans, some of which I plan to upload in the future. In the meantime, compare the two for yourself.
Bruce Wayne is © DC Comics.