[tygrkhat40]

Legendary writer/artist Jim Steranko tweeted about his encounter with Bob Kane at San Diego Comic-Con. Steranko immediately launched into the tale of how he met Kane at San Deigo Comic-Con one year. They were introduced and Kane almost immediately began criticizing Steranko's chapter on Batman in his book The Steranko History of Comics, claiming that he gave too much credit to Jerry Robinson and Bill Finger for their work on the character (it's widely accepted that Finger and Robinson did much of the work on Batman, though Kane's contract guaranteed him sole credit, which he has to this day). Steranko described Kane as "an intolerable ass as pompous as they come," but the real insult came when the conversation ended. The following is pieced together from his twitter posts.

"The group was waiting for an elevator, which they stepped into when the door opened. Our conversation ended, but not before he said: 'See you later, Jim, baby,' and cuffed me across the face--like some rat-pack street gesture he'd seen in some cheap flick. The doors closed...I was stunned by the sheer audacity of a stranger--like him--to lay a hand on me, and boiling with anger. That night, I couldn't sleep and the next morning began combing the halls for his Bat Majesty. Around noon, I found him in another group, which I walked into. 'Good to see you, Bob, baby!' I said, then bitch-slapped him across the face. But this time, there was no elevator door closing between us. I stood there for about 15 seconds, waiting. He did nothing. I turned and left. But I regret it now. I regret that he didn't do anything about it, even though he was at least a head taller than me. I wouldn't have minded bleeding at all for one more opportunity to give Kane the kind of Bat Lesson that Finger, Robinson, (Dick) Sprang and others only dreamed of."