 During the Depression, after three and a half years of rejection, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster landed their character with a publisher. The character's name was Superman. They sold all rights to Superman for $130. After producing Superman's stories for 10 years but no royalty, they sued DC Comics. They lost and lost their jobs. DC even took their names off Superman. Jerry and Joe struggled to get compensation and credit for the next 28 years. And if you think that's sad, where do you hear what happened to Bill Finger? Bill Who? Bill Who designed Batman's costume, wrote the first and many of the best Batman stories of the first 25 years, forged characters that even non-geeks can identify, such as Robin, Joker, Catwoman, but Bill Who was barely credited as a Batman writer and never as co-creator in his lifetime. He's not even in the credits of The Dark Knight Rises, the second film named for the nickname He Coint. Why? Because cartoonist Bob Kane, Bill's one-time partner, took all the credit. In 1974, Bill died. Poor, alone. No obit, no funeral, no grave, no kidding. Despite Superman and Batman's fame, the creators remain unknown. But secret identities are for superheroes, not the guys behind them. I wrote in all ages bio about the creators of Superman, and now I get to go to schools and see kids who draw not only Superman, but Jerry and Joe. Now, I'm not saying these guys are heroes, but they do deserve to be bold-faced names. In our digital age, where it's never been easier to share our work quickly with many people, these stories are extremely effective in empowering us to protect our own ideas. When I began researching Bill Finger, comics experts warned me no family was left. But Batman, sorry, Bill brought out the detective in Batman, and then in me. The book this led to contains many bombshells, only one of which is Catwoman. The biggest, though, by far, I found Bill's lone, previously unknown heir created, sorry, born two years after Bill died. And she is the only person legally able to go to bat for Bill. Now, Bill wrote great fights. He was famous for it, but he did not fight for himself. His granddaughter, however, a single mom in Florida, may be different. A comics writer that I really respect heard that I was doing this and said, why are you crusading for Bill? What about all the others who are still alive and suffering from the comics field? And I see his point, but you don't defend a friend only if he's in the room. And justice has no expiration date. Now, two nights ago, I spoke about this same topic to a different audience, of course. And someone came up afterward and asked me, so you're trying to make Bill's granddaughter a millionaire. And I said, well, it's not that simple. But yes, that and seeing Bill's name added to Batman is the goal. Bill Fingers' life ended tragically, but his story isn't over yet. Thank you.