eddievalient wrote:I'll clarify this one: When Batman was first created, the original team was Bill Finger and Bob Kane (both cocreated the character, but officially, only Kane got credit for it). When Bill Finger left, his replacement was an artist named Dick Sprang. Sprang drew the comics for years, decades even, and his Batman was the definitive one for an entire generation. I have not had the pleasure of reading any Sprang comics myself, but if DC continues to release the "Batman Chronicles" paperbacks of golden age material (which are both very affordable and fun to read), they should get to Sprang eventually.
As to "The Brave and the Bold", the trailer is very impressive indeed. I enjoyed "The Batman" for what it was, a mostly well-written show (nachos aside) that just happened to skew younger than what I grew up with, but this new series looks to be much better. I'll be looking forward to it and adding it to my list of new shows to follow.
You're a bit confused, Eddie.
While Bill Finger was
the original Batman writer and co-creator, he was not a comic book artist. He stayed on the Batman comics for decades and didn't leave the character until the late 1960s. He also the original writer for the first Green Lantern character (Alan Scott) and wrote many, many other characters.
While Bob Kane did draw the original year of Batman comics, it's commonly accepted within the comic book industry that Jerry Robinson and others took over the art duties after year one of the comics. Bob Kane still received for all the work on Batman since he was the character's original artist. This was standard practice back then.
There were many people working on the books back and it's mistaken to believe one person did all the work. Kane had a shop set up of ghost artists including George Roussos, Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang, Sheldon Moldoff, and others. Sprang's work didn't really appear until 1943 at the earliest, and he was the dominant visual look artist for only about a decade (1945-1954). This does not mean, however, that he was the only person drawing the Batman comics at the time.
After the mid-1950s, Moldoff was the primary ghost artist for Batman comics. He stayed on the comic book drawing in the house style ("Sprang look") and adopted a style like Carmine Infantino's after the "new-look Batman" debuted in 1964. The "new-look" Batman is distinguished by a more-realistic drawing style and the first appearance of the yellow oval enclosing the Bat symbol on the Bat costume's chest.
Ironically, the "Sprang" style being adopted by the new animated series is anachronistic. Sprang NEVER, to my knowledge, ever drew a yellow oval on Batman's chest. The "new-look" Batman debuted a decade after he left the Batman comics!