MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

(Detective Comics 042, 1940)

The Painter of Death (never actually called that in-comic, sadly) engaged in a campaign against the subjects of paintings by up-and-coming portraitist Antal. He first attacked the painting of the person and then killed them in the same manner: via dart, arrow, gunshot etc. Eventually, Bruce "Batman" Wayne commissioned a painting from Antal and used it to set a trap which netted Wylie, an art collector who had invested heavily in Antal's work and saw the murders as a way to raise the value of his investment via morbid publicity.

Though Wylie bumped himself off at the end of the adventure, the bullet-riddled Antal portrait of Bruce Wayne sticks around to become one of the minor stock trophies in the Batcave. The Painter of Death or Prophetic Portraits Case is also mentioned a couple of times as Batman and Robin's "first big case" and the reason for their fame. Does this reflect some attitude of the creators about the story itself or is it just a plot contrivance? I have no idea!