# What is the earliest comic batsignal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255 "2017-01-26T20:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/1 "2017-01-26T20:35:41Z")
The Batsignal was first used in Detective Comics #60, February 1942. But in Smash Comics #1, September 1939, the Police Commissioner fires a flare into the sky to summon Hugh Hazzard. Is this the first sky signal in comics? Or in a comic strip? I can’t figure out what to search on and none of the stuff on the Batsignal mention anything earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/2 "2017-01-28T16:06:52Z")
Bumping. Hey, Fenris. You out there? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/3 "2017-01-28T16:45:50Z")
For what it’s worth, the Phantom Detective apparently beat them to it in the pulps, since newspaper publisher Frank Havens could summon that do-gooder by shining a bright red beacon from the roof of the Clarion Building. (For bonus points, note that Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff went on to work on Batman’s comic.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/4 "2017-01-28T19:03:57Z")
Nice. I found a reference to the original: > [@](#): > > In “Dealers in Death” by Norman Daniels writing as Robert Wallace, newspaper publisher Frank Havens uses a rooftop beacon to call the Phantom Detective into action. The story, originally published in the July 1936 issue of The Phantom Detective, clearly inspired the Bat-Signal, which has been featured in every incarnation of Batman since 1942. Batman stole a huge amount from the Phantom. > [@](#): > > The Phantom (as he was called in the stories) is actually the wealthy Richard Curtis Van Loan. In the first few issues of the title, the Phantom is introduced as a world-famous detective, whose true identity is only known by one man — Frank Havens, the publisher of the Clarion newspaper. Richard Curtis Van Loan is orphaned at an early age, but inherits wealth. Before World War I, he leads the life of an idle playboy, but during the war he becomes a pilot and downs many German planes. > > After the war, Van Loan has a difficult time returning to his old life. At the suggestion of his father’s friend, Havens, he sets out to solve a crime that had stumped the police. After solving it, he decides he has found his calling. > > He trains himself in all facets of detection and forensics, and becomes a master of disguise and escape. He makes a name for himself as the Phantom, whom all police agencies around the world know and respect. When dealing with law enforcement officials he carries a platinum badge in the shape of a domino mask as proof of his true identity. The initial stories were less about a detective than an adventurer using disguise and lucky escapes to conclude his cases. Of course, that’s a pulp mag, not a comic. I’m still kinda curious about the first use in a visual medium. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/5 "2017-01-28T19:54:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Of course, that’s a pulp mag, not a comic. I’m still kinda curious about the first use in a visual medium. If somebody digs up a comic strip where a Comanche is using smoke signals to bring the Lone Ranger, would that count? (At that: given a writer who was undoubtedly scummy but _utterly sincere,_ would a pamphlet where a Klansman uses a burning cross on some hilltop to summon a masked vigilante count?) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/6 "2017-01-28T20:06:14Z")
I’m gonna say no and no. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/7 "2017-01-28T20:42:31Z")
A few months ago I was reading a PDF of the February 4th 1937 issue of _Madera Daily Tribune and Madera Mercury_ from Madera California (which I had downloaded for a different article) and came across [an ad](https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19370204.2.91.1&dliv=none&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1) for an appearance of a stunt pilot named “Flash” Miller who called himself the The Bat Man. The ad has an image that looks very similar to the batsignal. I wondered if he was any inspiration for the character Batman, but I couldn’t come up with anything (And _man_, is it annoying to google for “Flash” Miller with there being a guy named Ezra Miller cast for a The Flash movie _and_ a Flash villan named Wentworth Miller.) (The same issue has [a murder](https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19370204.2.2&dliv=none&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1) blamed on “[Nighthawk](https://www.google.com/#q=Robert+Kenyon+JCB+Davis+Nighthawk)”.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/8 "2017-01-28T22:30:45Z")
That’s not a Bat-Signal; that’s a bat flying in front of the full moon. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/9 "2017-01-28T23:07:07Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > A few months ago I was reading a PDF of the February 4th 1937 issue of _Madera Daily Tribune and Madera Mercury_ from Madera California (which I had downloaded for a different article) and came across [an ad](https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19370204.2.91.1&dliv=none&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1) for an appearance of a stunt pilot named “Flash” Miller who called himself the The Bat Man. The ad has an image that looks very similar to the batsignal. I wondered if he was any inspiration for the character Batman, but I couldn’t come up with anything (And _man_, is it annoying to google for “Flash” Miller with there being a guy named Ezra Miller cast for a The Flash movie _and_ a Flash villan named Wentworth Miller.) > > (The same issue has [a murder](https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19370204.2.2&dliv=none&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1) blamed on “[Nighthawk](https://www.google.com/#q=Robert+Kenyon+JCB+Davis+Nighthawk)”.) There’s a fascinating discussion of early bat-winged characters, mostly from Britain, on the [Comicbookplus forum](http://comicbookplus.com/forum/?topic=10785.0). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/10 "2017-01-29T01:44:17Z")
I’ve mentioned this before on the Boards, but in the silent film **The Bat** from 1926 there is a scene with a circle of light moving around a room with an image of a bat on it that seems to se precisely prefigure the Bat Signal (except that it’s not playing on the clouds, or the outside of a building) that’s it’s hard to believe that it didn’t influence Bob Kane and the folks at DC: > **[The Bat (1926) A Silent Film Review](https://moviessilently.com/2015/03/18/the-bat-1926-a-silent-film-review/)** > > The citizens are terrified! The police are baffled! A costumed criminal known as The Bat has been stalking the city, stealing and murdering with impunity. And a now missing suitcase of money is sai… [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=A0LEVy\_ER41YTKkAXNlXNyoA;\_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=The+Bat+silent+film+Batsignal&fr=yfp-t&fr2=piv-web#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.headinjurytheater.com%2Fimages%2Ftb%2520bat%2520signal.jpg&action=click](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVy_ER41YTKkAXNlXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=The+Bat+silent+film+Batsignal&fr=yfp-t&fr2=piv-web#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.headinjurytheater.com%2Fimages%2Ftb%2520bat%2520signal.jpg&action=click) > **[The Bat (1926 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat_(1926_film))** > > The Bat is a 1926 American silent comedy mystery film directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda. The film is based on the 1920 Broadway hit play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, which itself was an adaptation of Rinehart's 1908 mystery novel The Circular Staircase. The Bat has been cited as an early influence on the "slasher film" genre. > Gideon Bell, owner of the Favre Emeralds, receives a letter stating that the emeralds will be stolen at midnigh... Other elements seem to have influenced Batman, as well. Of course, the “signal” isn’t one, really, and isn’t used to summon any sort of hero. But it long predates anything else suggested in this thread thus far. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/11 "2017-01-29T02:06:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Of course, the “signal” isn’t one, really, and isn’t used to summon any sort of hero. But it long predates anything else suggested in this thread thus far. Well, so does Paul Revere’s “one if by land, two if by sea” signal, if we’re going to mention non-comic-book stuff that also didn’t summon a superhero. 😉 And to err on the side of caution, let me mention [this](http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/6/69951/1667608-comics_magazine_001_fiche __ultem_centaur__ 06.jpg) creation by Siegel and Shuster from before they could get Clark Kent’s adventures published: oh, where is the super-powered hero who can save the day? And how can he be summoned? Well, “amid the skyscrapers”, cue a “wraithlike giant” – because “I knew this would be the easiest way to locate you”, says Doc’s friend and ally once our hero showily shows up. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/12 "2017-01-29T04:04:42Z")
I’ve mentioned this before as well, but everybody at the time has to be aware of Harry Grindell-Matthews’ [cloud projector](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HZxjZs9ytRU/RwUNv752R6I/AAAAAAAADBE/c9SMwegTUAY/s400/cloud+clock.jpg) that would throw [pictures into the sky](https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-32ab922c37cbb40a8fbb942a6add0ee6-c?convert_to_webp=true). Those are from 1933. It worked, as several newspaper stories from the time attest. Lots of young future comic writers and artists had to look at that and want to put it into a story. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-earliest-comic-batsignal/778255/13 "2017-01-29T22:29:04Z")
Hah. I just saw this [book listing](https://www.jwkbooks.com/details.php?record=20776&jump=1&utm_source=constantcontact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter). > [@](#): > > THE BAT WOMAN. > Gibbons, Cromwell. > > New York: Published by World Press, [1938]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-223 [224], with one full-page illustration in text, original green cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. Lurid 1930s horror thriller, an entertainingly bad potpourri of mad scientists, vampires, sinister Orientals and dumb cops. Cited in Alternative Hall of Fame by Bill Pronzini in Son of Gun-in-Cheek." - Robert Knowlton. Combines weird menace, detective and science-fictional pulp conventions to produce a story of vampirism in New York City, against a back story involving vampire bats from South America and a half-dozen intercalated ‘cases’ of vampirism from around the world. The evil German genius Schalkenbach has set up a secret barricaded laboratory in Greenwich Village, where, when he is not conducting experiments on the revived corpse of a beautiful young society woman, he is moodily reciting Wagner on an organ behind a black velvet curtain. The writing is actually rather good when the author confines himself to descriptions of traditional settings (the cozy club on a stormy winter day, etc.), but his characters are barely one-dimensional, the theme is muddled, the action writing ludicrous. Still, in the exuberance of its unintentional cacophony there lies a certain charm. Not to mention the repeated references to “duckless glands.” Click over to see the cover, which is very bat-ty. Yours for a mere $1750.