10 Secrets Of Gotham City You Didn’t Know About
6. Gotham Wasn’t Batman’s First Home
Unbeknownst to all but the most hardcore fans, Gotham City was not the first city that Batman “officially” operated from.
Before Detective Comics #48, all of the adventures of the Dark Knight Detective were said to have taken place in New York. After that issue, Gotham City became a place of its own, located in the neighboring state of New Jersey, and New York later became the first home for the Teen Titans.
The fictitious Gotham City is, of course, modeled after an exaggerated version of New York City with significantly more alleys, something artist Neal Adams noted that NYC doesn’t have. There are also probably more gargoyles and creepy Gothic architecture in Gotham, and the Police Airships are pure flights of fantasy but have become an iconic part of the Gotham skyline.
The word “Gotham” is one of the occasional nicknames for New York City and was first used in America by author Washington Irving in his 1807 satirical work “Salmagundi.” Writer Bill Finger said he found the name “Gotham Jewelers” while flipping through a phone book looking for a city name after rejecting names like “Civic City” and “Coast City.” Completely coincidentally, creators Frances Herron and Jack Kirby set their first Mr. Scarlet story in Wow Comics # 1 in “Gotham City.” Their comic was printed on December 14, 1940, before the publication of Detective Comics #48.