Marc Tyler Nobleman's Blog, page 139

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Metro Man usurps Superman?

On 9/22/11, I kicked off the 2011-12 year of author visits at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD. The students in attendance had all met or exceeded the summer reading book quota the school had set forth in a challenge.

When speaking at Jewish venues, I like to share a brief, anonymized version of the Moses story and ask the audience who I'm talking about. They always get it.

Then I ask who else I could be describing and usually someone answers as I am hoping by saying Superman.

However, it appears we've reached a dispiriting shift. For the first time, a student did not say Superman…but rather Metro Man (technically, the student said Megamind, who is Metro Man's enemy and the star of the 2010 film of the same name).

The linked origin of hero Metro Man and villain-turned-hero Megamind is a parody/homage of Superman's rocketed-from-a-dying-planet backstory. It's hard for me to accept that these two characters from a derivative, forgettable film (whose cast, nonetheless, I do love) now loom larger in some young minds than the world's first superhero.

This looks like a job for Superman. I just hope we don't reach the point where a student responds "Super who now?"

Turning the Page #3

On 11/9/11, I took part in my third Community Night event for the Washington D.C. organization Turning the Page. The format is this:
I show up on time, thanks to the Metro. (This is compared to last year, when I showed up with mere minutes to spare, thanks to the traffic.)I eat.I speak for 20-30 minutes to an audience of families.The kids break go to different rooms for mentor-run activities.I answer questions from the parents for 30 minutes.I sign books that the organization generously purchased for every attending family.I try to find my way back home.At Tyler Elementary, whose students, parents, and hallways all impressed me, I had an opening act, and they blew me away. Accompanied by a slide show, three young ladies read a short poem entitled "If I Could Be a Superhero," which I later learned is by Steve Lazarowitz. Superman is the only DC hero name-checked in it, but I liked it anyway. Here are murky shots of the last lines:


The books that Turning the Page donated to attendees:

And courtesy of Lee Ziesche and Turning the Page, a few presentation shots:

"Chicken Soup for the Soul: Food and Love" cartoons

Fourteen of my cartoons appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Food and Love.

Here are four of my favorites:

Just over thirty days after "Thirty Minutes" posted

In late September 2011, I posted a pitch for a nonfiction picture book I've written that has generated humbling praise from editors but no offers:

Justin LaRocca Hansen

Several days ago, a Denver mother (and librarian) kindly messaged me that her son Owen, age 8, had drawn a picture inspired by Thirty Minutes Over Oregon. She told me that they had not discussed the story since the post went up.

In her words: "Just another reminder that this topic is very compelling to a young person!"

I love the drawing; it depicts two key scenes from the book. I should note, however, that the book (nor the true story behind it) does not contain a scene of a plane crashing and burning. That's Owen's creative license!

Thank you, Owen, for the thought, and thank you, Owen's mom, for sharing. Keep them coming!

Big screen, big shirt

Pre-blog school visit photo:

New Haven (CT) Register

Looking for elderly females

If you're a heterosexual male who (when young and single) thought finding a young female was hard, it's nothing compared to finding an old female.

Sweet lord no, I don't mean that lasciviously. I mean research.

Finding anyone old is hard since elderly people are not likely to be on social media or have much other trace online. Finding anyone old and female is especially hard, especially if you don't know her married name. (At times I have had to look for a woman who intersected with the subject of my book when they were both young, meaning that, to start, I know only her maiden name.)

For my 2012 book on Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator of a fella you mighta hearda called Batman, I found myself interacting with a large number of people over the age of 80. (Bill was born in 1914 and I'd set out to speak to as many of his contemporaries who knew him personally as I could.)

Once I covered the essentials, I dug into the wild cards. One of those had a perfect name for a wild card—Dorcas. In 2006, Charles Sinclair, Bill's longtime friend and writing partner (on radio, TV, and film, but not on Batman comics), amazingly remembered that a woman named Dorcas had once invited Bill to Thanksgiving.

(I'd normally say you don't forget a name like Dorcas, but when you're talking about an event going back at least 50 years, you just might.)

The reason I was so keen on finding Dorcas is because Thanksgiving is a holiday and holidays are when it's more likely than usual for people to take photos. (So few photos of Bill had been published that I zealously followed any lead that might turn up a "new" one.)

While Charles remembered the first name and the holiday, as well the church through which she and Bill met, that was it—no last name, no state. Yet from those meager roots, I was able to find Dorcas. Here's how:

I contacted a former priest from the church who allegedly had great memory of church members from from that era. Indeed he did remember Dorcas and gave me both her last name (Young) and last known address, in St. Petersburg, Florida. This was a huge first step in the right direction.
I Googled her—no one by her name in St. Petersburg but one in Davenport, Florida. Even though the phone number for that one was out of service, I figured this was a more current city for her than the St. Petersburg one.I checked PeopleFinder where I found my Dorcas Young in both St. Petersburg and Davenport, living with a man named Norman (it was indicated that she was 85, he 88).I Googled Norman in both cities and called info for both cities and both their names. I called a few of the phone numbers this generated. Some were wrong numbers; others were answering machines on which I didn't bother to leave a message.I Googled for obituaries and found one listed on a pay site. Much as I wanted to find Dorcas, she wasn't essential so not worth spending $70 for the one-year subscription required.I figured out what newspaper covers Davenport. I searched for obits for either and found that Norman did die, in 8/05 (see below).The obit listed their daughter Kaorin so I tried to find her on Google and People Finder. Neither listed anyone with her unusually spelled first name (love when that happens) in St. Petersburg (or even Florida), but one did list another unusually spelled similar name—Kaaren—age 64, in St. Petersburg. The number I found online was out of service, so I called information and got another for her. I called and got the machine but she sounded the right age.The obit also listed two churches Norman was affiliated with. I called both. Neither answered. (It was a Sunday.)The obit also listed the place that held the memorial service for Norman. I called there and it turned out to be a retirement home and…a big "and"...Dorcas lived there! Clair, the woman who answered, told me that Dorcas was totally lucid and that she would ask Dorcas about this. When I told Clair that the Dorcas I'm looking for had invited a lonely acquaintance from her church (who I'm now writing about) to her Thanksgiving one year, Clair said "That sounds like her."
All that, however, was for nothing. Clair (super nicely) reported back that Dorcas remembered that Bill had come to a Thanksgiving, but nothing more. And she had no photos.

By the way, given that my Dorcas quest was five years ago, I should point out that in recounting this story, I am not going on memory (even though the name Dorcas is, as mentioned above, memorable). I recorded this research strand immediately after I did it or else I surely would have forgotten it.

First-ever guest on the Superman Homepage live radio show

In which I got to talk about my "Super '70s and '80s" blog series (100 interviews with "lost" stars of superhero pop culture), my 2012 book on Bill Finger and Batman, and the never-before-revealed connection between the Superman Homepage and Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman. My segment starts at 12:16 (though the whole show is worth listening to):

[image error] Listen to internet radio with SupermanHomepage on Blog Talk Radio
I've known Steve Younis, the gracious ringleader of the Superman Homepage, since 2005. At around 8 p.m. on 11/7/11, Steve messaged to ask if I'd like be a guest on the SH Internet radio show. The first-ever guest, apparently, hard as that was for me to believe! I said I'd be honored and asked when. He said they do the show Monday nights at 11:30 p.m. EST. I said I was already planning to be up that late for other obligations, so we spontaneously scheduled the interview for that very night.

Thank you again, Steve, for the opportunity.

How I became a published author

People aren't clamoring for this story any more than they're clamoring for my first published book, but if I did only what people clamored for, you might never hear from me again.

In 1995, I was working my first job after college—a marketing assistant at Abbeville Press in New York.

The company was known for its coffee table books (particularly art monographs) but had recently launched a children's imprint.

One of the most popular titles in that imprint was Letters from Felix, a picture book translated from German.

Before I started, the marketing department had developed a simple promotional series of activity sheets based on the book that they sent to bookstores. The publisher wanted to create an entire book of activities. He announced this at a marketing meeting.

I volunteered to write it. Somehow, no one sniggered.

I forgot what happened next (though I did keep a journal at the time, I am relaying this story solely on memory).

Six or so months later, on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, the publisher called me into his office.

"Remember when you offered to write the Felix activity book?"

I said yes.

"Well, if you were serious, the job is yours."

"Are you serious?" I was 23 with no credits to my name. I now know why at least in part why that was actually attractive: it meant I came cheap.

I was partnered with a friend who also worked in the marketing department. We were hired independently of our day jobs and were not supposed to work on the book in the office. Because my friend was also one of my bosses, she had more responsibility and therefore could devote less time to the book. I (gladly) ended up writing the majority of it and at her prompting (she was a good egg), we adjusted our financial arrangement accordingly.

I remember doing my research, all the old-fashioned way: books only. The Internet (at least as a significant research tool) was still a couple of years off.

Once we had some activities done, I focus-grouped them at a Connecticut elementary school at which the sister of another of my bosses taught. That sister is now a principal and I did an author visit at her school in 2010.

The Felix Activity Book came out in 1996.

I did my first bookstore signing that fall, and a couple more afterward. In 1999, the sequel Felix Explores Our World came out to zero fanfare (except in my mom's condo).

Then Felix and I parted ways, amicably. But I will always be grateful to him (and Abbeville) for giving me my first break in publishing.

Felix may have been the one writing letters, but I was the one who became an author.

November is Picture Book Month

The first annual Picture Book Month is in progress, and I'm honored to be one of 30 authors and author-illustrators who are a part of it.

Actually, more than 30 are a part of it.

Regardless of who is on that list, everyone who writes and illustrates this longstanding art form is a part of it.

And you can take part as well, in any number of simple ways:

Read a picture book to a young person. Continue to support the form by buying picture books and checking them out of the library. Revisit a picture book you loved as a child but haven't seen since then.Look behind-the-scenes at some tips and tricks picture book creators use.Check back every day in November to see what picture books mean to the people who create them, and the people for whom they create them.Consider that picture books are at once the first books, movies, and stories that we all experience, yet they are for all ages.Go back to the first suggestion. Repeat daily.