Bob Kane, the cartoonist who developed Batman, was born this day in 1915.
Born 10-24-1915 Died 11-3-98



Born in New York City, Mr. Kane attended Cooper Union and the Art Students League. His first comic strips, ''Peter Pupp'' and ''Hiram Hick,'' were published in 1936.
In 1938 he started drawing adventure strips, ''Rusty and His Pals'' and ''Clip Carson,'' for National Comics. That same year, a comic-book hero called Superman appeared. Vincent Sullivan, the editor of National Comics, who also owned Superman, asked Mr. Kane and Mr. Finger to come up with a Supercompetitor. They developed Batman on a single weekend. Mr. Kane was 18.

The first Batman strip came out in May 1939 in Detective Comics, one year after the debut of Superman. Batman's first adventure was called ''The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.'' And he was another kind of superhero entirely. Batman wasn't as strong as Superman, but he was much more agile, a better dresser and had better contraptions and a cooler place to live.
He lived in the Batcave, drove the Batmobile, which had a crime lab and a closed-circuit television in the back, and owned a Batplane. He also kept a lot of tools in his utility belt, including knockout gas, a smoke screen and a radio.

The above is a portion of Mr. Kane's obit from the New York Times.