Sheldon was hired by Bob Kane to work as his ghost in June 1953, replacing Lew Sayre Schwartz. Moldoff's stories began appearing in early 1954. He continued to ghost for Bob Kane up until Kane's contract with DC expired in 1968. For most fans of the Silver Age generation, Sheldon Moldoff "was" Bob Kane. Moldoff began aping Schwartz's style pretty closely, but soon developed more depth and greater variety of staging. Moldoff wasn't afraid of 3/4 shots or medium range panels which actually conveyed the action of the story line. He could vary the pacing quite dramatically as the sequence below shows. His faces were also squarer and better proportioned than Schwartz's. |
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Paris's Batman
also has clear differences from Moldoff's. Paris invariably gives
Batman's ears a spade shape.
Moldoff /Paris from Batman 123 "Secret of the Everglades" |
Kaye's ears
aren't quite as pointy as Moldoff 's. The chin is also somewhat rounder.
Kaye uses bolder lines and fewer of them.
Moldoff/ Kaye from Batman 123 "The Fugitive Batman" |
Moldoff's
Bat ears are triangular with a pronounced indentation. Moldoff uses lots
more pen lines than Kaye does.
Moldoff/Moldoff from Batman 134 "Batman's Secret Enemy" |
Ray Burnley's bat ears
can be extremely pointy. His faces are much rounder and more three dimensional
than the other inkers, being least interested in preserving the "Bob Kane"
look. Notice Batman's chin line here.
Moldoff/ Burnley from Batman 122 "'The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman" |
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Paris's Bat
emblem is larger than most and almost rectangular. He minimizes the
detail in favor of a bold black effect.
Moldoff/ Paris from Batman 83 "the Duplicate Batman" |
Stan Kaye's
inks generally featured a heavier line than Moldoff's. His Bat symbol has
long spines extending far beneath the bottom edge of the Bat. The line
delineating Batmaan's lower lip is also much more pronounced than in Moldoff's
or Paris's work.
Moldoff/ Kaye from Batman 111 "The Armored Batman" |
Moldoff's
is more like Paris's. Almost a pure trapezoid, sometimes with the
center spine longer than the other ones.
Moldoff/ Moldoff from Detective
294 "Villain of 100 Elements"
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Ray Burnley's Bat Symbol
is almost headless, although he does put moderately pronounced spines on
the bottom. Burnley's work is noted for its heavy line work, giving
much more weight and depth to the characters. He pretty much obliterates
the "Bob Kane" effect that Moldoff was going for.
Moldoff/ Burnley from Batman 122 "the Marriage of Batman and Batwoman" |
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One way to tell Paris from
Moldoff''s own inks is to look at Robin's hair. Paris inked his hair
in parallel streaks of black.
Moldoff/ Paris from Batman 134 "The Deadly Dummy" |
Stan Kaye uses the least amount
of highlights of the three. His blacks tend to follow a definite pattern,
as opposed to Moldoff's. He also doesn't uses many pen lines preferring
thicker, bolder brushwork.
Moldoff/ Kaye from Batman 123 "The Fugitive Batman" |
Moldoff's own inks show no
parallel lines and a tendency to just fill it all in with solid black.
There's generally no real logic to the highlights.
Moldoff/ Moldoff from Detective 285 cover |
Burnley's hair is rather busy,
with tons of little lines giving it a wilder, more unkempt look. His thicker
strokes can also be seen in Robin's nose and lips.
Moldoff/ Burnley from Batman 122 "The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman" |
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Index |