Marc Tyler Nobleman's Blog, page 88

No Google doodle for Bill Finger’s 100th birthday

At precisely midnight overlooking today, February 8, I tweeted this:

 
But as the world can see, the passionate movement to get Bill Finger the Google doodle for this milestone did not succeed.

Greatly appreciated support from The Hollywood Reporter, USA Today, Washington Post, Spectator Tribune, Tablet, The Beat, Comic Book Resources, IGN, Bleeding Cool, Comics Alliance, Den of Geek, ComicBook.com, many more sites, Kevin Smith (and his popular podcast Fat Man on Batman), Brad Meltzer, and other notables was not enough to convince Google how culturally significant this day—this man—is.

Most bafflingly, the tremendous outpouring of support from the public was not enough. I cannot thank you all enough. A sampling of early-morning tweets:


Is there really no Google Doodle at all on Bill Finger’s birthday? Very disappointing.So sad that google didn’t come through.Insult to injury, @GoogleDoodles. All those proposals for Bill Finger’s 100th and you go with no doodle at all today.Your efforts for the likes of Finger, Siegel and Shuster remain incredible and admirable. Sorry Google didn’t come through.Well Happy 100th Birthday to Bill Finger. Pretty disappointed @google didn’t do a doodle to celebrate and honor the true Batman creator.So, Google hasn’t heeded the petition to have a Google Doodle to celebrate Bill Finger’s 100th birthday.happy birthday to Bill Finger, although google didn’t produce, you however did sir!Booooooogle
When I saw the (cool) Olympics opening day doodle yesterday, February 7, I worried.


So I did a quick study.


The only years Google ran an Olympic doodle daily were 2000 and 2012 (both times for the summer games).In 2002, they ran a winter doodle on only some of the days.In 2010, they ran a winter doodle only on opening day.I reasoned that although this doodle actually went online on the evening of February 6, it was probably not technically running two days in a row. I believe it posted when it did because it was already the next day in Russia, where the Olympics are taking place.
It is bummer enough that there is no Bill doodle but somehow even worse that it’s not because there is an Olympic doodle. Seeing the regular Google logo sit motionlessly on the screen stings like a snub.

To be clear, I don’t feel Google owed me anything. But I do feel that we all owe Bill Finger something—and I thought Google was a bunch of geeks (term used lovingly)? Shouldn’t they have wanted to do this even without the massive petition?

Excerpt of my 1/31/14 email to the Google Doodle team leader Ryan Germick:

With only a week and a day till the proposed date for a doodle in honor of the 100th birthday of Batman co-creator Bill Finger, I realize that if it isn’t already in the works, it may be too late. But I’m an optimist.

Thus a brief update on the wildly enthusiastic and pervasive coverage this campaign has generated in the media (not to mention the thousands of tweets/posts/comments/etc.). As of the last time I wrote, the coverage was primarily in the pop culture press, but in the weeks since, it has crossed over into the mainstream. [I listed the press.]

Even some of the coverage is getting coverage. And I’m even seeing quite a few referrals on my blog from foreign-language sites that have run a story.

Huge, sincere thanks for your consideration. Fingers still crossed...

The e-mail I sent today:

Thank you for considering a doodle for Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator of Batman, on his 100th birthday (today). Many people are already contacting me disappointed that the campaign did not work.

Know you’re busy, and know it’s the weekend, but willing to squeeze in a two-minute interview for my blog to give the fans (including me) a pinch of rationale? If so, here are the questions:

I tried to keep up with the many hundreds of tweets, posts, comments, etc., but do you have a sense of roughly how many emails you got requesting a doodle for Bill Finger?I didn’t find trace of any other doodle campaign that seemed to grow as large. In terms of size, how did this grassroots effort compare to others you’ve seen?Why did you decide not to do a doodle for Bill today?What about next year?

And a tweet to him (in response to a Batman-related tweet of his from just a week ago):


[IMPORTANT NOTE: For Bill’s sake, please do not also tweet him!]

Ultimately, Athena Finger, Bill’s lone grandchild, said something that made me feel a little better: “It would have been super cool if it happened but I really love the attention it brought to Bill and our cause; I have met some of the most amazing people in the last month and hearing their stories trumps anything Google did or didn’t do.”

 art by Ty Templeton

Eagle Ridge Middle School, Ashburn, VA

On 2/6/14, I spoke at my third Virginia middle school of the week, and it was yet another engaged trio of audiences (6th, 7th, 8th grades). 


I was particularly struck by how empathetic the kids here were; several times during the talk, at points where I mentioned certain research triumphs that would have a positive effect on other people or on posterity, they applauded.


Before I was introduced by my kind host, I (and everyone in the auditorium) was treated to a classy, brassy piece performed by three student trumpeters:

  I can’t recall any other time that a school visit intro included live music; the closest was a Kansas school that played a bit of the (recorded) theme from Superman: The Movie.

The school art teacher created this cool welcome poster.

I love this candor.
I love this cake.
Thank you, Patti, and thank you, Eagle Ridge, for a special day.

Children’s authors read reviews of their own books: the encore!

A month ago today, I posted videos of 53 kidlit authors/illustrators being good sports and reading aloud a particularly critical excerpt from a particularly harsh online review.

Those are episodes 1-3.

Turns out a lot of people agree that a bad review can equal a good laugh.

Thirty more authors have since enlisted in the cause.

Welcome to episodes 4-6.


All-new line-up! All-new beat downs!

(Disclaimer: We lurve kids, of course, but this is for teens and adults only.)

The cast (not in order of appearance, so that you will watch all three):

Kathi Appelt David Lubar Gene Barretta Eric Luper Michael Buckley Maryann Macdonald Shana Corey Marissa Moss Sharon Creech Gae Polisner Doreen Cronin Nora Raleigh Baskin Katie Davis Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Sue Fliess Dan Santat Liz Garton Scanlon Tammi Sauer Chris Grabenstein Judy Schachner Alan Katz Andrew Smith Laurie Keller Elizabeth Rose Stanton Jarrett J. Krosoczka David Ezra Stein Tara Lazar Deborah Underwood Loren Long Emma Walton Hamilton
episode 4



episode 5



episode 6



“If you’re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.” —Marie Osmond

Harmony and me

On 2/4/14, I had the pleasure of speaking at Harmony Middle School in Hamilton, VA. My kind host, librarian Cori Rovang, completed the trinity of DC Comics for the day—I brought Superman and Batman, she provided Wonder Woman. (She’s a huge fan and had her WW mug in tow…a mug, it’s worth mentioning, that refers to the Greek goddess Athena, who shares a name with Bill Finger’s lone grandchild. Dizzy yet?)

Cori prepared a snazzy display for my visit, the first I can remember that emphasizes the mystery aspect of my approach.


And speaking of mystery, principal Eric Stewart saw something in the opening slide of my presentation that I hadn’t in the two years I’ve been using it. 


He asked if I show Easter Island because my superhero books are about unearthing mysteries. Easter Island, of course, is an almost mythically mysterious place, particularly in terms of this: how did the natives move the gigantic stone heads they carved?

Some of the heads are not only heads; they have torsos, too…torsos that have been buried over centuries. To see them whole, statueologists must literally unearth them.

Which brings me back to Eric’s astute theory as to why I included Easter Island on the splash screen. While wild, it was not my intention…at least not consciously.

Boys of Steel, Men of Stone.

Kidlit authors reading bad reviews on Dear Author

Dear Author made nice mention of my video series of kidlit authors performing bad reviews of their own books:

Has anyone does this for romance authors? It’s genius. 53 children’s and YA authors read their harshest or most critical reviews out loud, for “comic relief/catharsis.” Watch the videos, captured by author Marc Nobleman, here. And the “It’s All Right to Cry” song during the title sequence is hilarious, too.

A similar series but with romance writers? Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!

Kidlit authors reading bad reviews on Librarian’s Quest

Thank you, Librarian’s Quest, for including my funny/healing/chilling video series in a roundup. I particularly liked this comment:

This has to be one of the best series of author videos you will see this year. Your love and admiration for authors and illustrators will only increase after watching these.

Bill Finger Google doodle: Den of Geek

Den of Geek kindly ran an interview with me about Bill Finger, Google doodles, and other doodles.

 
Talk to us about the campaign to get Bill Finger a Google Doodle in honor of his 100th birthday. Why a Google Doodle?

It would mean that literally tens of millions of people would learn the name “Bill Finger” in a single day.

Devil’s advocate—and you can take that as literally as you would like—but does it diminish Bob Kane’s contributions to Batman when you classify him as the villain? And if that is the point, what informs the recent remarks that you made to the Spectator Tribune about Kane’s creative contribution to Batman, in which you said “maybe the name “Bat-Man,” but even that is disputed; besides, between pulps and film, bat-themed characters were nothing new by 1939. Finger gave Kane credit for Two-Face. Creatively, that’s about it.”

I am not diminishing Bob’s contributions; he did that himself—unintentionally, of course. When writing Bill the Boy Wonder, I realized that in simply spelling out what Bill did, it makes it all the more striking just how much Bob did not do.

The rest of the interview.

Tanzania from the passenger’s seat

The opportunity to speak at a school brought me to Africa.

In the process, I got an education myself—largely from the passenger’s seat en route to and from the school every day for four days.

A bit of what I learned and experienced:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl lived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for a short time beginning in 1934. We were going to drive by his former home but in all the excitement it slipped our mind.Lots of people wear T-shirts with logos of familiar brands, including American colleges and sports teams. This is at least in part because the Salvation Army regularly distributes used clothing.Lots of people try to sell goods on the street—the literal street. Almost anytime the car stopped, someone was there with handfuls of small electronics (cables, etc.), pirated DVDs, nuts, flowers…even individual eggs. At first their faces were inscrutable, but when we politely said no, we always got a smile. The people seem to have a kind soul.I was told of an incident when something disrupted the water at the school. The expats found that frustrating but the locals who worked there didn’t; some did not have running water at their homes.I was told of another incident in which, one night, several intended thieves climbed over a wall enclosing the school grounds. They landed on a generator, which shocked them, so they couldn’t help but let out shouts of pain. This brought residents to their windows and balconies, and they watched as the school guards beat the intruders as the intruders called out “But that’s where you told us to climb over!” Corruption is common, and it appeared these men paid off the guards to turn a blind eye, but once the residents learned of the intruders, the guards had to put on a show so the residents would feel the guards were doing their jobs.Before taking off from Africa, the flight attendants walked down the aisles spraying special airplane insecticide along the ceiling.I was told the malaria pills I had to take might induce nightmares. I wish they had. The closest instance occurred on the plane home; I dreamed of a large, brown, hairy spider-like creature, only it had a fan tail (almost like a peacock) and visible pincers. I was watching it slink along a wall until it took flight, circled around, then headed straight for my face. That jolted me awake.
Seen around town:

 The “F”s are made out of flip flops.
 The night watchman at my hotel was a Maasai man.
 View from my hotel room of low tide, morning.
 Tide, late morning.
 Tide, afternoon.
 Tide, late afternoon.
 Spot the sign to the school.
 Coco Beach. Sadly, not safe.


 The Indian Ocean.












 This was a band singing in a moving truck.
The one-night, two-day safari I was going to spontaneously go on...until I got a fever.

Bill Finger Google doodle: The Beat

Thank you, Heidi MacDonald, for aiding the campaign.

Aftermath of the UFO crash in Tanzania

The week of 1/20/14, in connection with Writing Week, I had the honor of speaking with the students at the International School of Tanganyika in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.


The night before my first day, something resembling a UFO appeared (crashed?) on the grounds.


Naturally, this created quite a stir.

Some kids were skeptical. Some were scared.

Some started investigations.



Some did research and found that something similar happened in London not long ago. Some took this as proof that both incidents were real…and possibly connected.

Wonderfully, many were inspired to write—stories, newspaper-style articles, emails to NASA.

Here are some of the overheard reactions:

“THERE ARE ALIENS!” (grade 1 student)“I can read the writing. It says ‘Four women jump off a cliff.’” (grade 2)“It has ‘Made in China’ written on it.” (grade 3, about “alien” writing)“I think it may be an evil thing from another universe come to destroy us all. That or to save us all. It is hard to say.” (grade 3)“Is it Turkish?” (grade 5)“It would have made a bigger hole if it really came from high up.” (grade 5)“It’s a mineral digger that’s come up from underground.” “Have you seen God?”“I think this is a scam!” “It’s not real. It’s all a ploy by the teachers to get us to write.” (grade 5)
For the sake of argument, let’s say it was indeed such a ploy. Could/would an American school create a scenario like this to prompt kids to write?

Generally speaking, I’m afraid the answer is no.

And for the same reason some books are banned.

What happened in Tanzania shows that a “UFO” on school property would excite and motivate many students…but if it could scare even one—if even one parent complained—that would be enough for some schools to nix the idea.

And that is unfortunate. As we all know, you can’t please everyone. Whatever happened to the greatest good for the greatest number? Fire drills (and now, intruder drills) are scary for some kids and schools aren’t giving up those. Different good intention, same principle.

I’m a parent myself; I see that a little fear (at any age) is a good thing. It challenges us. It helps us analyze. It helps us overcome. And it may inspire us to write. All of which we want for our kids.

Therefore, I enthusiastically encourage schools in America (and everywhere else, of course) to consider crashing a UFO on your grounds. Tie it into your own Writing Week. 

Tie it into an author visit. 

Tie it into nothing.

In any case, the benefits far, far outweigh any risk.