Tarzan is Batman (Secret Origins of Batman Part 5)

The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that the above black & white illustration is not by Henry Vallely.
For years I've looked at the iconic pose of Batman in his first published origin in Detective Comics # 33 (November, 1939) and known it was not purely from the imagination of Bob Kane. Not only had I previously found several other illustrations that Kane (or whoever was ghosting for him) had swiped from the pages of Big Little Books illustrated by Vallely, but frankly that pose was just too good to be Kane. So I've long had the belief that that particular pose of the Dark Knight crouched on a roof top was simply another Vallely illustration that I had yet to discover. A few years ago I became aware of Large Feature Comics No. 5, published by Dell in 1938, the bulk of which consisted of reprints of 60 Tarzan story strips from 1929 and is considered to be the first full comic book devoted to Tarzan in the comic book format. According to one source, in addition to the Hal Foster strips, it featured additional art and splash pages by Juanita Bennett. Another source attributed these supplementary drawings to Henry E. Vallely. Given the rarity of the book it wasn't until a few months ago that I was able to acquire a copy for myself and determine the truth: in order to enhance the continuity of the stories, Henry E. Vallely added one additional panel per page, along with ten full page chapter drawings. However, the pose appropriated for Batman's origin (found on page 42, panel 4) can not be credited to Vallely, but rather to Harold "Hal" Foster.

Tarzan® is © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Batman is © DC Comics

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.

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

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.

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.