Jim-
I should have been more specific- the person swiping on Detective 27 was not Bob Kane as much as it was Bill Finger. When I said that first story was swiped, I meant the actual script
Shadow expert Anthony Tollin speaks on the matter here and gives specifics:
http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/06/24 ... syndicate/Here's one of Tollin's statements from the link:
"A few months back, Will Murray reminded me of Bill Finger’s quote that his first Batman "script was a take-off on a Shadow story." (from Steranko’s History of the Comics Volume One) I kept thinking about it and it occurred to me that nobody had ever bothered to find out which "Shadow story" was lifted. I suggested that to Will over the phone one night, and with his assistance I had found the story in less than 20 minutes. Will and I each had ideas as to which stories it couldn’t be, so it became a process of elimination. We had both thought it would be a lot harder than it was. I had expected the lift to be less blatant. It turned out to be the same story with basically nothing changed. I mean, it was a chemical syndicate in both stories! Finger didn’t even change it to some other kind of business. And The Shadow is described as "bat-like" in the rooftop scene where Batman makes his first appearance in costume."
Speaking of Bob Kane though, his participation in the creation of Batman is questioned heavily in this comment by Tollin:
"It also raises questions about the extent of Bob Kane’s actual contributions to the feature that bears his creator credit. If Finger’s first Batman script was a blatant retelling of an earlier Shadow novel, and Finger also suggested the Caped Crusader’s bat-eared cowl, bat-scalloped cape, black-and-gray costume and utility belt, what did Kane personally contribute to the feature besides its title? And as to Kane’s claims that Douglas Fairbank’s acrobatics in The Mark of Zorro were an influence, it now turns out that it was movie-buff Bill Finger who regularly supplied the acrobatic stills of Fairbanks to Bob Kane and his assistants."
The original Shadow story in question- "Partners of Peril"- can be purchased here:
http://www.shadowsanctum.com/pulps/shadow9.html
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