Marc Tyler Nobleman's Blog, page 17

The Indigenous people of Montgomery County, Maryland

My home has been near Washington DC in Montgomery County, Maryland for a decade and I was long overdue in learning who lived here before me. I don't mean 11 years ago. I mean before Europeans arrived.
It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, so I emailed the Maryland Division of Historical & Cultural Programs:

I've been poking around trying to determine what Indigenous people lived in what is now Bethesda. I've scanned numerous articles about the people of Maryland before Europeans and they mention many MD counties, but oddly, so far, none have mentioned Montgomery County. Best I can tell from my cursory search, I believe it may have been the Piscataway, the Nacotchtank, or both?

I heard back from Matthew D. McKnight, Ph.D., Chief Archaeologist - Maryland Historical Trust, at the Maryland Department of Planning, who kindly allowed me to share his helpful reply:

You ask a very interesting question, and I think you hit upon the answer. Based on what early English records exist, the best guess as to which Native American group(s) would have inhabited the Bethesda area at time of Contact is the Nacotchtank or Anacostans. 
We know from the records in Virginia that the Patawomeck controlled the Virginia side of the Potomac and that they allied themselves with the English, and we know that they often fought with the Nacotchtank who controlled the opposing Maryland side. The Piscataway were the principal tribe on much of Maryland western shore and many native groups were allied with them in a kind of confederacy. The Nacotchtank were one such group.
Unfortunately, disease and warfare decimated the population to the extent that by the time European settlement moved farther inland (to Bethesda and greater Montgomery County), we don't have first-hand written accounts of Indigenous people because much of the area had been abandoned. 
By the 1680s there is some archival evidence that suggests the area had become a route south for the Seneca, Susquehannock, and other northern tribes who were at war with the Piscataway. There are some accounts of northern Indians building forts in Montgomery County, which suggests abandonment. We do have archaeology documenting plenty of pre-Contact occupation, but tying particular archaeological "finds" to the named tribes of the historic period has always been difficult.

Thank you, Maryland State Arts Council

My work has been supported by the Maryland State Arts Council. Thank you, MSAC!

Learn how the Maryland State Arts Council impacts Maryland and the arts in general.

Online resources for my books to help with distance learning

Online learning resources for a selection of my books:

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman

curriculum guide (activities/discussion topics)eBook optionsTeachingBooksbuy a physical copy (which supports independent bookstores)


Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman

curriculum guide (activities/discussion topics)eBook optionsTeachingBooksbuy a physical copy (which supports independent bookstores)


Brave Like My Brother

eBookTeachingBooksbuy a physical copy (which supports independent bookstores)


The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra

eBook optionsTeachingBooksbuy a physical copy (which supports independent bookstores)


Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Are Real

activities/discussion topicseBookTeachingBooksbuy a physical copy (which supports independent bookstores)


Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story

curriculum guide (activities/discussion topics)eBookTeachingBooksbuy a physical copy (which supports independent bookstores)
Whether by stage or screen, I remain committed to helping educators and parents instill in young people a love of reading, writing, and research.

A stranger willing to learn more about Black Lives Matter

One morning in June, about two weeks after the murder of George Floyd, in my majority white Maryland town, I posted simple Black Lives Matter signs near my running path, which runs along a decommissioned canal.

I wanted my signs to be a call to action in a way I hadn’t seen, so I included my cell and invited people to start a conversation. I heard from one person—rather from my “butt hole.”

But I returned later that afternoon to find the signs gone. I reposted them. (A sight you don’t see: someone in running clothes on a wooded trail holding a tape gun.)
Several days later, the signs were still up. A small victory…soon to be dwarfed by an also-small but hugely affirming development.
Someone else who saw one of my signs texted me.
“I would like to discuss. if ur down.”
I was down. Also up, diagonal, and inside out.
Let’s say it’s a he and call him 240 (his area code). In a non-combative way, 240 said he thinks some people say “all lives matter” because they feel some people who say “Black lives matter” care about Black people only when they’re killed by white people but ignore other issues affecting Black communities (i.e. Black-on-Black murder, higher percentages of single motherhood). He feels that police officers killing Black people is terrible but questioned why the movement seems to consider that a bigger problem than the others he cited. He seemed genuine.
I disclaimered that I’m no expert, then proceeded to fumble through some of what I’ve learned.
I said that people who say “Black lives matter” do care about other challenges Black people face, and all lives in general, but it’s a matter of urgency. The BLM movement aims specifically to dismantle the harmful, ongoing way white-dominant institutions mistreat Black people, consciously or subconsciously.
I agreed that the other issues he mentioned are indeed pressing, but preventing preventable murder and educating white people how to eliminate systemic racism is paramount. I also said we need to multi-task like we do in other aspects of our lives. We didn’t stop searching for a cure for cancer when we started searching for a vaccine for COVID-19.
240 asked for examples of mistreatment. I recommended starting with a book called I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown. 

He pushed for examples so I gave him two:
1 – Black parents teach their children (especially boys) to keep hands out of pockets when in stores because employees are historically more likely to suspect/accuse Black people of shoplifting.
2 – White people sometimes ask to touch the hair of Black people, often Black children—or sometimes they skip right to the touching—while praising it. Though they may be well-intentioned, it is inappropriate—a manifestation of privilege that can be dehumanizing. 
He said he’s seen that happen.
He wrote “Thanks for talking with me. I learned something.”

So did I.
Then he went fishing.

“WordPlay” with Kwame Alexander

When author/friend/force of nature Kwame Alexander asks you to guest star in the first episode of a new show he created, you do it. Even during a pandemic. 
Yes, to film a kidlit show, I had to reenter society—one small outpost of it, for a little bit. We shot the episode in Washington DC on June 27, the first day since March 14 I’d entered a public building that didn’t sell Raisin Bran.
The show is called WordPlay. It’s a high-energy series designed to help kids develop and write their own stories. The first season is 10 episodes. It will run on the Adventure Academy platform and perhaps elsewhere down the line.

Of course, protection protocol was in full effect. Upon entering the studio, my temperature was checked by one of those gadgets that was on Star Trek but with a different purpose. Handshakes and hugs are so 2019. 
Masks on throughout, with three exceptions:
1) Makeup. I was asked to lower my mask for the few seconds something powdery was applied to my mouth area. I asked the makeup artist how her job has been impacted by COVID-19. She said broadcasters and other on-screen presenters are home instead of in the usual central locations but still in need of foundation, so there’s plenty of work. 
She recalled how the Joker infected people through tainted cosmetics in the 1989 Tim Burton blockbuster and asked me if I have seen any Batman movies.
Don’t worry—she didn’t poison me. And she did not know till she heard my interview with Kwame how funny it was that she asked me a question about Batman…
2) Eating. We lunched at small, socially-distanced square tables in the café area—ten or so people eating simultaneously on their own private islands. It was the least chatty group meal I’ve ever had.
3) Filming. For my main segment, Kwame and I were in separate rooms. I was in the green room by myself, talking to Kwame via laptop, which was recording. He was in a bigger studio space down the hall, with crew more than six feet away. 


Topic of the show: outlines. It was apt in a way beyond the writing process: so much of what we do now in everyday life must be outlined in advance, not to strengthen a story but rather to stay safe.
After that, they filmed a few bumpers/promos with Kwame and me in the same room, but still apart. Then two weeks later I filmed even farther away from Kwame—I was home, he was I don’t know where, and the show staff was on Zoom.
The trailer (keep an eye out for both Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and my head):

Thank you again to Kwame for the kind invite. It was an honor and a blast! Thank you again to Carmen and the WordPlay crew for making me feel so welcome and making it so fun. We’ll play again…

Speaking in Dubai via North Carolina

The day before Independence Day, I got up early to speak to 300-500 students between the ages of 14-18. The talk started at 7:30 am...for me. 


Yes, the talk was not from around here, and the students were unseen. I was speaking to the community of GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai—by way of North Carolina, by way of Zoom. Since I was in NC on vacation, sharing a beach rental house with my family and two other families with whom we podded, I wanted to be quiet at that hour...so I sat on the front porch. It was the first keynote I have delivered a) outdoors and b) without shoes.

The podium.
I had been asked to speak about "your journey, Batman & Bill, and the concept of identity in a digital world." I don't know how well I covered the third topic, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was honored that it was part of a larger event: a 6-hour live stream fundraiser. The teen organizers of the event (some shown below) were helping fellow students who lack resources for distance learning. #educationuninterrupted


Thank you to Sheldon Dias and your colleagues for the invite and kind words.

Take me to the pilot

I teach creative writing camps (virtual only this year, of course). 

One of my challenges for every group every year: write as irresistible a first line as you can…about a pilot. I do this to encourage them to be as experimental as possible so their line seems different from the rest in some way, even though the topic is the same for all. 

This year, for the first time, a young writer did something so different that I didn’t see it coming. She didn’t write about a pilot flying, crashing, or making an announcement. 

She wrote about a pilot…airing. Yes, a TV pilot. 

The simplest twist can have a big impact…no crash required.

Bill Finger in Little League

Batman is in the Justice League. Meanwhile, Bill Finger is in Little League…or rather would have been, if not for the pandemic.

This year, my March birthday timed perfectly with the world shutting down. But before we realized how seriously COVID-19 would affect life as we know it, my friends had lined up a most special gift: they sponsored a Little League team, which gave them the honor of naming it. 

That name: “Bill Finger’s Bat Men.”

(Get it?)


Yet another first for Bill Finger…and probably also for youth sports.

I’m sure all those young athletes would have been thrilled to play for a team named for a comics creator. Sports and superheroes don’t always go together. Then again, these days, you do see lots more crossover than I noticed when I was a kid—now it seems almost everyone likes at least one superhero. (This is predominantly due to movies rather than comic books.)

This sweet gesture was fitting in a way beyond the double meaning of the team name: one of the few known photos of Bill shows him in a baseball cap.


Sadly, due to the virus, the season was canceled, and therefore so was the name (not to mention the T-shirts). 

But for a fleeting moment, Bill was at bat.

Nobleman: by day an author, by night…also an author

An artist named Luke Walsh (whom I don’t know) tweeted a humbling, charming two-panel comic strip about my Bill Finger work. 


Fact-check: I could never pull off that costume in real life. 

Thank you again for the kind post, Luke!

1990 Bill Finger co-creator credit…in Brazil

Eduardo Pereira, the director of a public library of comics in Brazil who is working on a book about Bill Finger, kindly called to my attention a 1990 Brazilian reprint of the 1988 DC Comics limited series Cosmic Odyssey.



I don’t speak Portuguese but I do speak Bill Finger, and there’s his name on the title page…as Batman co-creator. (“Criado por” = “created by.”)

Bill had received
Thank you again, Eduardo!