Why Gotham City?
By Lucas Compan
New York is a city of nicknames—the Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, Empire City, The City So Nice They Named It Twice... But let’s just concentrate on one: Gotham.
The word “Gotham” actually dates back to medieval England. NYPL has some of these resources, including an 1866 reprint of The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gottam. Gathered Together by A.B. of Phisicke, Doctor, 1630. There is also a digitized version available on-site at the library and a Google Book version.
the dark atmosphere of gotham city. image: arkham city wiki
English proverbs tell of a village called Gotham or Gottam, meaning “Goat’s Town” in old Anglo-Saxon. Folktales of the Middle Ages make Gotham out to be the village of simple-minded fools, perhaps because the goat was considered a foolish animal. Some tales describe the denizens of Gotham as only playing the fool, a ruse used to avert the wrath of the sinister King John. Burrows’ poses that “it was doubtless this more beguiling—if tricksterish—sense of Gotham that Manhattanites assumed as an acceptable nickname.” Burrows’ also notes that the term “Gotham” as a nickname “has gone in and out of favor, having great currency in one decade, falling into desuetude the next” when he discussed the resurgence of the term as it is associated with Batman. He quotes an [unnamed] Batman editor in saying that “Gotham is New York’s noirish side... whereas Superman’s Metropolis presents New York’s cheerier face.”
For some, the term Gotham City is forever tied to the Batman comic universe. But writer Bill Finger was inspired by an entry in a telephone book for Gotham Jewelers. Finger explains in the Steranko History of Comics that changing the locale from Manhattan to the fictional Gotham City made the setting of Batman vaguer. In fact, the nickname goes a lot further back than 1940, when in Batman issue number four, Gotham City is named for the first time.
Screenshot from "the dark knight rises." image: warner bros. pictures.
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For some, the term Gotham City is forever tied to the Batman comic universe. But writer Bill Finger was inspired by an entry in a telephone book for Gotham Jewelers. Finger explains in the Steranko History of Comics that changing the locale from Manhattan to the fictional Gotham City made the setting of Batman more vague. In fact, the nickname goes a lot further back than 1940, when in Batman issue number four, Gotham City is named for the first time.
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“It’s without doubt that New Yorkers have indeed embraced the nickname, Gotham. It no longer invokes a foolish village of goat herders, and sometimes invokes the darkened noirish version as popularized through Batman, but it can be referencing New York in several ways.”
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Batman original Arkham statue 34 inches / 90 cm. You will find it at Midtown Comics.
Batman original Arkham statue 34 inches / 90 cm. You will find it at Midtown Comics. Photo: lucas compan, a batman afficionado