Marc Tyler Nobleman's Blog, page 94

Tone difference between "Boys of Steel" and "Bill the Boy Wonder"

In 7/13, Daniel DeAngelo, a writer and artist in DeLeon Springs, FL, kindly wrote me and then gave me permission to quote him here. I found his observation accurate, and while I had heard similar from others (including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman editor Janet Schulman, who chose not to publish Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman in part for this reason), I don’t recall an assessment as astutely explained as this:

I just got my copy of Boys of Steel today, which was great. It had a slightly different tone than Bill the Boy Wonder, which I assume is because Siegel and Shuster’s creation of Superman has never been disputed, so you were probably just looking to tell their story as opposed to building a case for them. The illustrated part of the story only covered the creation of Superman, while Siegel and Shuster’s later legal and financial problems were addressed in the text piece.

When you wrote Boys of Steel, was your intention mostly to just tell their story...while with Bill the Boy Wonder, it became more of a crusade to ensure that Finger got the credit he never received for co-creating Batman?  

Even though they suffered through rough times, Siegel and Shuster did eventually receive the credit and (some of the) money they were entitled to...something that Finger never achieved. I find it interesting...and perhaps appropriate...that the Superman book seems more bright and positive while the Batman book has a slightly darker tone because of this.

 

Bill Finger in "Heroes of the Comic Books"

Popular artist Drew Friedman gave me permission to share the sketch of Bill Finger he drew for his upcoming book Heroes of the Comic Books . 


Though Bill was a writer (in fact the original writer, and a prolific one—1,500 Batman stories over 25 years), here he is in the pose of an artist. I don’t know why Drew depicted him this way; however, Bill did contribute to the visuals. Most notably, it was Bill who designed Batman’s now-iconic costume.

Bill Finger in Spanish

While the greeting of this post is not one I’d recommend, the rest does appear to be something I could get behind, even though I don’t speak Spanish. 

But it’s clear that it’s about Bill Finger, and it lifts multiple images from my blog, but also credits me multiple times.


 Batman as created by Bob Kane as clumsily drawn by me.

That man in the striped shirt, however, is not Bill. For a while now, despite the multiple times I have reported it as wrong, when you google “Bill Finger,” that image turns up at top right, but it is actually Gardner Fox.

Gracias, whatever this says.

My earliest published work

When kids ask my advice on a career in writing or illustrating, I say “Start now.”

If you’re old enough to write a semi-coherent story (around 3rd grade, typically), you’re old enough to start experiencing the joys, challenges, and disappointments of both the writing process (research, revision, etc.) and the trying-to-get-published process. There are established outlets for kids as young as eight, not to mention whatever opportunities aspiring young creators create for themselves.

Here are pieces of my writing and art that were published before I graduated college:

 At age 9, I won a contest sponsored my hometown newspaper,
the Cheshire (CT) Herald; the challenge: write a poem about your mom for Mother's Day.
When they told me I won, my first thought was "I can't believe no one else entered."
The winning poem was published in the paper. I don't think we have the clipping but
my mom kept the original poem.


 Cheshire Herald 1983; I won a contest to create a mascot for my elementary school; given that it was in a cold New England state, it made perfect sense for me to choose (and for them to choose) a toucan; he was retired in the mid-1990s, replaced by a bulldog whom I believe is still in office
   New Haven Register 6/19/88, accompanying an article about festivals
   Cheshire Herald 3/9/89,referencing a town debate about building a community pool
   Comics Buyer's Guide 1/8/93,referencing the then-timely "Death of Superman" comic book storyline...and a nice segue to a book I'd write about a decade later...

Bill Finger on Legacy.com

Recently, I heard from a content producer at Legacy.com, a site known as an obituary repository but also offering additional content on notable lives:

“We're already planning to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Bob Kane's death early next month [November 3], and it would be great if we could give equal time to Bill Finger and his story.”

Of course I was thrilled they asked, and more than happy to oblige. “Legacy” is a word I use multiple times in every talk I give about Bill, perhaps equal only to “credit” (and “Batman”).

Here is my micro-interview.


Thank you  to Legacy.com for joining the effort to spread the word about Bill and, therefore, the truth about Batman.

(Also: buy toner!)

Taylor Elementary, Arlington, VA

Every author's dream slot for a school visit is the morning after Halloween, especially when it falls on a Friday. The combination of kids who were up later than usual the night before and who consumed more sugar in the previous 24 hours than the previous two weeks (plus the imminent weekend) makes for a memorable audience.

However, the kids at Taylor Elementary in Virginia overcame both exhaustion and hyperactivity and behaved beautifully. They asked great questions, too.


Two surprises awaited me at Taylor.

The first was this:


As for why this is a surprise, you will have to wait until I can announce a book I have written about an iconic—if not the most iconic—magazine cover of the 20th century...

The second surprise relates to the third-most iconic DC superhero, and one whom I did consider writing a book about: Wonder Woman. 

One of the staff at Taylor just so happens to be the granddaughter of William Moulton Marston...Wonder Woman's creator.

Interview to come.

Thank you for a non-scary author visit, Taylor Tigers!

"The Bat," 1926

In April 2013, a theologian in Germany kindly contacted me to share images he discovered while researching sources of potential inspiration for Batman...namely The Circular Staircase (book 1908, movie 1915) and The Bat (play 1920, movies 1926 and 1930).

The Film Daily (vol. 35, no. 2, Monday, January 4, 1926, page 10):


The Film Daily (vol. 35, no. 6, Friday, January 8, 1926, page 10):

 
Hmmm...
from Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman; art by Ty Templeton

Bill Finger's second wife in 1960

Bill married his second wife, Lyn Simmons, in 1968. Since I was the first ever to interview Lyn about Bill, she was a wonderfully untapped resource in my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman...though she had only one picture of Bill, and not a good one. (She said they were not photo people.)

It was only recently when I realized that in my mad dash to dig up more photos of Bill, I had not seen any photos of Lyn from that time.

So I asked her son Steve, who had provided me with one of the best previously unpublished photos of Bill (which you can see in the book’s author’s note); he kindly sent me these photos of his mom:



They are circa 1960. 

Here is Lyn in 2008.

Happy birthday, Lyn.

Fingers in Florida

From 10/23-28/13, I cruised around Florida talking Superman and Batman—synagogue/Jewish book festival Wednesday night, Jewish day school Thursday morning, synagogue Thursday night (part of the Miami Jewish Book Festival), synagogue Sunday morning (two youth audiences), and synagogue Monday night (two youth audiences).



The last was a first—the first time Athena Finger, Bill’s lone known granddaughter, and her sixth-grade son Ben attended my Bill Finger talk. And like previous times I’ve introduced surprise guests during talks (see here and here), the audience reacted with enthusiasm and deference.

During the Q&A, an adult in the audience asked if Athena would speak about her feelings on the subject…so though she hesitated at first, she (and Ben) boldly took the microphone and fielded questions like a total pro. That’s hard enough to do when you are expecting to face an audience.


After, a girl from Ben’s school came up to him. She sweetly said she’s on the yearbook committee and asked if she could put Ben on the “Did You Know?” page. He sheepishly said yes.

After that, I told Ben he may have to get a “BMOC” T-shirt, but not for “Big Man on Campus.” Of course I meant for “Batman on Campus.” To which his mom quickly said “Ben Man on Campus.” All work for me.

Funny, during my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, someone told me that if you were Jewish in the Bronx in the 1930s and a decade or two after, and you retired, you’d move either to New Jersey or Florida. Gambling that more people chose Florida, I once cold-called every number in the directory for the last name “Finger”—roughly 500. The number of Fingers related to Bill I found? 

A number you can’t make by holding up fingers…

Bill Finger makes the Very Short List

On 10/23/13, my contribution to the very cool Very Short List posted. The premise: three Twitter-friendly lines/links on the same culturally engaging topic. 

Mine, of course, spotlighted Bill Finger. The links went to an article about Bill’s role in Batman, an interview with the director of an upcoming play on the creators of Batman, and the book trailer for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. 

The entry is entitled “Justice Has No Expiration Date.”