Detective Comics #49 (March 1941)

Oh, look! It's the pirates from Batman #4. I wonder when the idea of a comic book cover actually having something to do with the story inside on a regular basis will come into play?

"Clayface Walks Again!" 
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson and George Roussos
Synopsis: So after a brief recap of the last Clayface story (and by brief I mean a single-panel of all-text infodump), we start in the office of Bentley, head of Argus Pictures, who is discussing the reviews of their latest picture Dread Castle, which starred Bruce Wayne's fiancee Julie Madison. Julie has been getting rave reviews, so Bentley and his publicity man, Gabby (yeesh), decide to remake her as a Hollywood star and push her into the public eye. In a fairly goofy satire of the process, they rename her Portia Storme and spread her face over all the national magazines. His girl now a major star, Bruce heads to LA to see "Portia", who confides that she is tired of waiting for Bruce to do something with his life and breaks off their engagement (although, like a good '40s woman she promises to come back to him if he ever makes something of himself). Bruce is mildly taken aback, but quickly gets accustomed to the idea and announces he'll always be there for her when she needs him ("I'm free!", you can practically see him thinking).
Meanwhile, someone else is soon to be free as well, when the transport carrying horror movie star cum psychotic serial murderer Basil Karlo to the State Asylum is crashed into a ditch during a freak thunderstorm. Karlo wastes no time, immediately heading to a make-up/costume store and resuming his role as the killer Clayface.
Clayface's escape and return makes the news, which of course Bruce and Dick are reading. I swear in these Golden Age stories Batman finds out about crime only three ways: happening upon it accidentally during a patrol, hearing about it from Commissioner Gordon, or most frequently reading about in the newspaper. Anyways, Bruce immediately deduces Clayface must be after Julie, ahem, "Portia" and Bentley at Argus since they were pretty much the only people he didn't kill last time. Sure enough, they show up at the studio and there's Clayface. Finger and Kane have fun with props, including having Clayface and Batman fighting over a miniature movie set in a scene that reminds me of Godzilla movies that won't be made for another twenty-five years or so. Clayface attacks Robin, knocks him out, and sets the studio on fire. 
Clayface escapes, and the fire department shows up to combat the blaze. Batman douses himself with water and dives into the blazing inferno to save the Boy  Wonder. Bruce swears he's going to get Clayface if it's the last thing he does. Which it won't. Meanwhile, Clayface has taken the TMZ route and begun obsessively stalking Portia everywhere she goes. Portia feels threatened but insists they continue shooting her latest movie because "if you stop now, you'll lose a fortune!" Portia is a producer's actor, that's for sure. Gabby, excited by the publicity possibilities, actually promotes that the star of the movie is being threatened by a serial killer. Batman decides to take action, and confronts Portia with a plan...
The next day, Clayface sneaks onto the set by -- I shit you not -- stealing a robe from the wardrobe department (it appears to be a medieval period piece) and wearing it OVER HIS CLAYFACE MAKE-UP. This is how you know Basil Karlo is completely insane. We know he's a master of disguise and could appear as anyone he wished, but he's become so consumed by the murderous persona of Clayface that he continues to use that appearance and attempt to cloak it rather than adopt a new one. 
Batman and Robin, meanwhile, attempt to get on the lot to protect Portia, but are confronted by the guards hired by the studio to protect her. The guards fight the Dynamic Duo, which is odd because the head of the studio has multiple times expressed great affinity for them, and during the commotion Robin grabs Portia and takes her off into an alcove. Immediately after, the Duo retreats from the guards. Seizing his opportunity, Clayface strikes by firing an arrow into the back of Portia Storme. 
Batman rushes in to fight Clayface, and after a gripping battle promptly knocks him cold. Bentley rushes in to discover that in fact the Portia that was shot was Robin wearing a cloak and a life preserver lined with cork and cotton to stop the arrow (what if Clayface had aimed for the head?) and that Portia had escaped with Batman wearing a Robin costume! (Rule 63!)
Once again Bentley offers the Dynamic Duo a job in movies, once more they turn him down, while Portia once again wishes Bruce would be more like Batman, albeit it's too late for him now.
My Thoughts: So we get a Clayface follow-up story that's basically a retread of the original minus the mystery angle and plus a few new elements. I'll discuss the new elements here. First up, we have the exit of Julie Madison as a "regular" castmember. She was the first recurring love interest for Bruce Wayne, and she's the first to leave him. Bruce seems only mildly affected, which makes sense given that Julie's only appeared in a handful of stories largely as a damsel-in-distress. You get the sense Bruce was engaged to her for appearance's sake rather than any real emotional connection -- she was part of his playboy disguise. Still, Finger and many other writers will continue to try and find a love interest character for Bruce, and to this day, none have been successful, at least not to the degree of Lois Lane and Superman. A whole list of female characters have been tried, to the point where the Christopher Nolan feature films even invented one for themselves, but none really work. I think it's because largely there isn't a place for a love interest in Batman. Bruce is so devoted to his cause that the love interest always falls into the pattern of choosing either love or Batman, and he's always gonna choose Batman so she's always gonna go away. She's to be rescued or to be pitied. The only way I could see to make it work would be to really change the formula and to have Batman's partner in crime fighting be his life partner as well. Only a woman dedicated to all of Bruce Wayne's personality could ever last. The closest thing to a lasting relationship with a woman Batman has is with a criminal, Catwoman, and that's very telling of his devotion to the war on Crime, I think.
The return of Clayface speaks once more to Finger and Kane's love of the movies -- I feel like the main reason for using Clayface again had to do with using a character with history with Julie so they could axe her, and provide a setting for the great studio props department battles. Eventually Finger will stop finding rationales for weird props and start inserting them everywhere. Every time Bentley begs to put Batman in a movie, it feels like Kane and Finger begging the movies to adapt Batman -- I know it was always one of Kane's great goals and I would bet Finger wanted it to. They'd get their wish in two year's time, when Columbia Pictures would make a Saturday matinee serial of Batman.
The Art: Another great job from the art team, it's refreshing that everyone's settled into a style and look that seems to really work for the feature. Kane draws Clayface wonderfully, and there are some really dynamic action panels. The fire sequence is quite memorable as well, and the fight "choreography" has gotten much better.
The Story: Finger must be commended for his attention to continuity. Whenever he does a sequel it always stays true to the details of the original, even if it's just as simple as establishing a villain's return. Here he's smart and uses the characters and situations of the first Clayface story to propel this one. Unfortunately this also leads this story to feeling like we've seen it all before. Once Clayface escapes it's another round of fights on the studio lot, attempted murders, defeat and unmasking, wrap-up, etc. After three pages the story's on autopilot and the art takes over.
Notes and Trivia: Julie "Portia Storme" Madison breaks off her engagement with Bruce Wayne.

Detective Comics #40 (June 1940)

"Beware of Clayface!"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Suddenly, Bruce Wayne's fianceé Julie Madison (not seen since Detective #34) is a motion picture actress. From reading the newspaper, Dick discovers she's acting in a new movie at Argus Pictures. Bruce decides to meet her at the studio (which is assumedly across the country in Hollywood). All this transpires in a single panel, because this is the Golden Age, dammit! Julie introduces Bruce to Bentley, head of the studio (drawn carrying a golf club!), who in turn introduces Bruce to Kenneth Todd, the star of Bentley's new picture "Dread Castle", a remake of an old silent picture.
Just then, the star of the original version, Basil Karlo, steps in to wish Todd good luck in the role. Karlo is remarked upon as an excellent character actor and make-up artist who ruined his career with his bizarre behavior. Just as Karlo leaves, Ned Norton bursts in, proving that Bentley has the worst secretary of all time. Norton is the director of "Dread Castle" but Bentley fires him because he has been chronically absent from set and causing delays. Norton leaves, but not before making some ominous threats.
Bentley takes Julie and Bruce down to the set, and it turns out he has spared no expense and built an entire castle for the movie (proving that Bentley is the worst film producer of all time). As they arrive, star actress Lorna Dane is breaking up with her boyfriend Frank Walker because he hasn't had a role in "months" and she can't be seen "tied to an actor that's slipping!" Jeez, they must've really cranked them out under that old studio system, eh? Frank gets angry and leaves, but not before making some ominous threats.
Bruce decides this is an appropriate time to take Julie home (back to Gotham? Or some house in LA?), but not before Bentley can make a joke about how women are property. Oh, 1940, how I miss you. As Bruce leaves, a gangster named Roxy Brenner shows up and begins hustling Bentley to pay him protection money on the set. Either Bentley is way more of a B-movie producer than the story wants us to believe, or Brenner is the dumbest gangster of all time. Major studios pay insurance, Brenner, which is like protection money, but without the guns. Also, worst studio security ever, am I right? Anyways, Bentley refuses to pay, so Brenner leaves, but not before making some ominous threats.
A few days later, Bruce returns to visit Julie on the day they are shooting the pivotal scene where Lorna Dane's character is killed by The Terror (Kenneth Todd's character). Because again, worst studio security ever. But just as the scene reaches its crescendo, we are introduced to a frightening figure in the shadows in one of Kane and Robinson's spookiest panels ever (right -->). The mysterious man kills the lights and in the darkness there is a scream, and when the lights return, Lorna Dane is dead.
The police investigate, but after a week, Bentley decides to resume production. Julie confides in Bruce that she is worried she may be next, but Bruce reassures her by saying the killer was probably only after Lorna. Privately, however, Bruce is not so sure, and so he and Dick suit up as Batman and Robin, apparently driving Bruce's 1936 Cord all the way to Argus Pictures. As they get there, Roxy Brenner is using Lorna's death as a point to insist upon Bentley paying up, but Bentley still refuses. Batman and Robin leap in, unannounced, and spend a page beating up Brenner and his men, but once Batman is satisfied they had nothing to do with Lorna's death, he lets them go. Bentley tells Batman that he suspects either Frank Walker or Ned Norton, so Batman goes to confront Walker at his home and instructs Robin patrol the studio lot. Yeah, real good use of your partner.
Batman discovers Walker unconscious and hanging from a coat hook in a closet (??), any attempts to interrogate him yielding only the mumbled name "Clayface". Batman wonders who Clayface could be -- Ned Norton or Ken Todd? Meanwhile, back at the studio, Robin is attacked by Clayface and dropped off the side of the castle, into the moat below. Luckily, Batman returns at just that instant and saves Robin from drowning. With no new leads, Batman and Robin decide to wait until Clayface makes the next move.
The next morning, the scene where Julie's character is to be murdered by The Terror is being shot. Clayface shows up to attempt to kill her, but Batman is waiting and foils the attempt. The two battle on the catwalk, and Bentley (who appears to be directing this picture as well), orders the cameras be turned on the fight because "the shots will be knockouts!" Clayface tries to make an escape, but is foiled by Robin. Captured, Batman removes the mask to reveal Clayface to be... Basil Karlo! The master of monster make-up was jealous the remake of his great role did not feature him, and decided to murder the characters in the order they die in the film, as the scenes were shot. As for Frank Walker, he had found out and threatened to black mail Karlo. Bentley is greatly impressed by Batman's fighting and detective abilities and offers to put Robin and him in movies, but he refuses because they have devoted their lives to fighting crime. Julie once again wishes Bruce could be as dashing as the Batman.
My Thoughts: The introduction to Clayface may be the peak of the classic Batman creative team's obsession with cinema, specifically genre cinema. We've seen in the past how the character of Batman is essentially Zorro crossed with The Shadow, how Robin is inspired by Robin Hood, the influence of King Kong on the Monster Men, of Conrad Veidt on The Joker. Clayface's story clearly results from Bill Finger's love of horror, and Kane's art reflects a semi-expressionist sensibility. Basil Karlo's name comes from Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff, two popular actors of the time, but his character is largely based on Lon Chaney Sr., a silent film horror character actor who was known as "The Man of a Thousand Faces" due to his amazing ability to create make-up to slip into any role. Chaney died before making any kind of transistion to the sound era, but many of his films were indeed remade with others in the lead roles. By turning him into the fictional Karlo, Finger and Kane create a creepy, murderous villain that remains my favourite interpretation of the Clayface character.
The Art: Kane and Robinson succeed in one thing in this issue, and that is the spectacularly spooky and shadowy design of Clayface himself. Shadows and blacks are used very evocatively in this issue, courtesy of Robinson's pen. But the art itself seems rushed, even lazy, compared to the past two issues of Detective. Kane's compositions are crowded and unclear, with the fight scenes feeling very familiar by this point.
The Story: Finger's plot would probably require a six issue mini-series if done today. As is, it passes by extremely quickly, its tale of revenge wrapped inside a whodunit mystery -- whose answer might seem quite a twist to a young child reading the story, but in retrospect Karlo is fairly circumspect in being the only character who doesn't immediately start swearing revenge on the movie. That being said, linking a Bat-villain to a tragic, mad, revenge filled origin story is unique at this point, and in fact will remain that way until the 1980s or so. And while the plot of this story is fairly unique for a Batman tale, I suspect the writers of Scooby-Doo must've read it because it follows the formula of that show to a tee!
Notes and Trivia: First appearance of Clayface