Marc Tyler Nobleman's Blog, page 98

Guess the picture book

Presented for your enjoyment: a favorite page from some of my favorite picture books. 

All were present during my ‘70s childhood, with three exceptions. All are fiction, with two exceptions. It is not a comprehensive list of all of my favorites, though that does not matter in terms of what I am about to ask you to do...

Can you identify each book from a page?

Answers tomorrow.

Two Bill Fingers, one large, one small

Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman, often incorporated giant versions of everyday items (“oversized props”) into his scripts.






So I was intrigued to discover that another Bill Finger, a Seattle photographer, is currently focused on tiny versions of everyday items—in fact, tiny entire scenes. Making this even more fun, this headline makes him sound like a Batman villain—the Master of Miniatures.




All photographs © (the other) Bill Finger.

Duran Duran/ZZ Top reunion

One of the perks of doing a research-intensive project like “The Girl in the Video” is the semi-frequent opportunity to reconnect people who’d lost touch.

One of the most special reunions I’ve had some small part in: Wendy Frazier (star of ZZ Top’s “Legs”) and Julie Anne Rhodes (ex-wife of Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes). Before my ‘80s series launched, these two onetime besties had not seen each other in about twenty years.

I’ll let Julie tell the rest of the story. But this photo (courtesy of Julie Anne) sets it up:


I am so happy about this that I feel like I knew them back when they were last hanging out. In reality, I have not met (or even talked on the phone with) either of them.

"Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers"

I've contributed cartoons to several Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

And now I've contributed a story to one as well.

Bank Street College of Education best-of-the-year list

I’m honored to report that Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman is among distinguished company in being named to the Bank Street College of Education list of the Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2013 (Nine to Twelve category).


I’m further honored that it also got a star for Outstanding Merit.

Thank you, Bank Street, for honoring Bill in the city in which he made pop culture history.

Three critical junctures for Bob Kane: 1939, 1965, and 1998

In the Batman creation story, there are two villains: Bob Kane (the cartoonist who, to this day, is the only person officially credited) and, to a lesser degree, Bill Finger (star of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman).


In evaluating Bob’s actions toward Bill, I see three critical junctures.

1939 - the year in which Bill and Bob created Batman and the year in which Batman debuted

As my book (and numerous other sources) recount, Bill designed the costume and Bob alone took the design to editor Vin Sullivan; there was no backstory yet. When Vin expressed interest in running Batman, Bob went back to Bill and suggested that Bill write it, Bob draw it, and only Bob’s name appear on it; Bob would pay Bill out of the money the publisher paid Bob. Arrangements such as this were not uncommon in the comic book and comic strip world in 1939. Bill said yes. So in that case, Bob’s actions, while not admirable, are defensible by the standards of the time.

1965 - the year the truth about Bill Finger came out to fans

Thanks to fandom legend Jerry Bails, the public began to learn of Bill’s role in the creation of Batman. When Bob learned that Bill had (civilly) revealed that Bob was not alone at the beginning of Batman, Bob must have been terrified that his longstanding ruse would crumble. He responded combatively, still maintaining that he was the sole creator. In other words, in calling Bill a liar, Bob was actually the one lying. This is inexcusable by any standard.

1998 - the year Bob died

In Bob’s 1989 autobiography, he credited Bill far more than he ever had before, going so far as to say he wished he could go back in time to when Bill was alive (pre-1974) and put Bill’s name on Batman. It seemed Bob, in his golden years, had at least partially embraced his conscience. Yet his gravestone undermines his autobiography. 


It was then when Bob could have set the record straight for good and atoned for his sins, but instead he reverted back to the myth he had perpetuated for most of his life, and in doing so, disrespected Bill for posterity. 

The gravestone likens Bob to the wrong Batman character. Talk about Two-Faced. 

I’m quite sure that Bob had that copy written before he died. This is appalling and unforgivable. 

I need a stronger word, actually, but am failing to find one.

Light the Empire State Building in Bill Finger's honor

The Empire State Building is only a few years older than Batman, and like Batman, it stands iconically above a city.

Unlike Batman, however, it does not remain in shadow. 


The colors change regularly. In fact, anyone can request a specific lighting scheme.


So, of course, I did.

Here is an excerpt from my application:

I am the author of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, the first-ever biography of Bill Finger, the uncredited co-creator and original writer of the Dark Knight…who was created in 1939 right there in New York.

Finger is the main mind behind one of the most influential fictional icons in world history yet his onetime partner, cartoonist Bob Kane, took full credit for Batman. Finger designed Batman's costume; wrote the first Batman story and many of the best stories of his first 25 years (including his groundbreaking—and heartbreaking—origin); wrote the first stories of popular supporting characters including Robin and the Joker; named Bruce Wayne, Gotham City, and the Batmobile; and nicknamed Batman "the Dark Knight," which has influenced the titles of two of the highest-grossing movies of all time. Yet while Kane never wrote a Batman story, Finger never saw his name as co-creator in a Batman story.

In 1974, after a career in which most of his beloved work was published anonymously, Finger died alone and poor. No obituary. No funeral. No gravestone.

No kidding.

Finger was largely responsible for one of our greatest fictional champions of justice. It is time for justice for Finger himself. An Empire State Building lighting tribute would poignantly give Finger the honor he deserves in the city where he quietly made pop culture history. It’s just too bad he won’t be there to see it.

Why February 8, 2014? It would have been Finger’s 100th birthday (and 2014 is also the 75th anniversary of Batman, not to mention the 40th anniversary of Finger’s death).

Why the requested colors? They correspond with Batman’s original costume (largely the same as today’s, only at first he had purple gloves). If it’d be possible to somehow incorporate a bat, that would be fantastic.

Thank you for your consideration. I can guarantee you lighting a legacy to Bill Finger would get many people talking in a good way. It’s an American story. It’s a New York story. It’s a noble gesture.

Justice has no expiration date.

They said no.

A friend of Bill Finger's son steps forward

On 5/14/13, as Albert Ching of Newsarama interviewed me over the phone, I mentioned that though Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman is out, I feel like I’m still writing the story because I continue to blog about newly uncovered Bill Finger info as I encounter it.

And literally seconds after I said that, this message came in from Europe on Facebook:

Hi. My stepfather just read an article about Bill/Fred Finger and the Batman comics. He was flabbergasted as he knew Fred [Bill’s son, who died in 1992] very well from 1987 on. He discovered the article in his search for Charles Shaheen [the only person who was named in Fred’s settlement of estate, as recounted in my book], hoping to find him alive and kicking. Now he knows better. If you want to contact him, please feel free. His address is [redacted]. Cheers.

So I did, of course. And the gentleman, Dirk Van Vaerenbergh, agreed to be interviewed about his friendship with Bill’s son. 


I sent questions and he responded with excerpts from the journals he kept over the years:

I was born in 1954. I work as a drama teacher and actor in Flanders, Belgium.

At the time I met Fred [Finger], I was teaching Swedish language and literature at the University of Ghent and studying Russian.

I had been in a relationship with the same man since 1978. He also met both Fred and Chuck [Charles Shaheen] and even lived with them for three months when he was doing some work at the Bellevue Hospital in New York. We now have been legally married since 2001 and we raise a son together (my stepson who contacted you on Facebook) with the boy’s lesbian mother.

I got into my diaries and this is what I found.

April 1987

I met Fred on April 13 in the Maiden Lane Sauna [Wall Street Sauna] in New York.

The first afternoon, he told me that many of his friends had died, his address book was empty, he was divorced, he had children, his father was Bill Finger and Bill had drawn Batman comics but had not gotten the recognition he deserved, and he—Fred—was HIV+.

A lot to take in on one afternoon.

He lived at 15 Jay Street with his friend Agnes/Angie. It was a former food dealerhouse [sic; Dirk does not remember what he meant by the word, but said it looked like a huge space (loft) with a small bathroom in the middle]. He worked at [a restaurant called] JF Vandam. He had plans to go work in a nouvelle cuisine kosher restaurant in Brooklyn.

He looked drop dead gorgeous. Slim, dark, nice hair, and a full beard. Wore glasses and was quite shy. I fell for him immediately. We saw each other three, maybe four times during my first stay.

He phoned me a month later to say he had developed AIDS and would I please come as soon as possible.

December 1987

When I got back to New York, Fred worked in another restaurant at 73 8th Avenue [name not recorded]. His summer had been terrible—he lost his job, got into debts, was thrown out of the flat by Angie in October, and now lived with Portia, his mother. He had not paid child support in three months.

He had two daughters, one by him (Athena) and the other one by Bonnie (how that came about I never got clear).

Talked about his relationship with Richard (a transvestite), Bonnie (his ex-wife), and Carl (a painter).

I visited his mother who lived in a small flat that was in a bad state in a beautiful apartment block on 16th Street. Half of New York had [once] come to visit, now nobody! [I asked for elaboration and Dirk said that many years ago, Portia had been very popular and that famous people came to visit]

She sat with grandeur in the kitchen, never moved, was small and fat, had long fingernails, and smoked continuously.

She hated Richard and Bonnie and Carl and Angie—so everybody that Fred ever loved. Now she wanted to see me and appraise the material.

“Show me your left ear, darling! Is that a diamond? Take off your glasses, honey! Oh, my, his eyes are pretty, do not you think so, Fred?”

Fred had kept from her that he was HIV+.

April 1988

I was in New York again.

Fred felt better and is fat. He took pills every 4 hours, had an alarm clock. Fred’s T cells were down to 32 [the T cell count for a healthy person seems to be between 500-1,500].

He worked at a bakery for seven dollars an hour for three days and had 85 dollars in food stamps. He baked for the Living Room [a space where AIDS patients got together to have a cup of soup, talk, etc.] and sometimes I took the cakes to the AIDS people although I was actually not allowed.

Met his mother and [his aunt] Irene and cousin Judy and her husband George

We went to lots of shows and benefits and it [was at one of them], The Michael Bennett Tribute, that I met Chuck Shaheen and his lover Richie Salgado for the first time.

New Year’s Eve 1988-89

Fred now lived at 233 Dean Street with Chuck and Richie and Alvin.

They all had AIDS and got [a drug called] AZT, although Richie and Chuck [would] sell it on the black market. (In the years following, I sometimes doubted whether Chuck really had AIDS.)

They lived in a social welfare flat for $950 a month.

Chuck [had been] to be the manager of La Cage aux Folles for six years and went to Las Vegas with it. [Chuck and Richie] were quite well off; Chuck bought Richie a Mercedes for Valentine’s Day.

Afterwards they dealt in antiques, got even richer…then suddenly their house burned down and they had to flee the state [Dirk didn’t know why]. Then somehow Chuck “lost” his passport—I mean they took it away from him [Dirk didn’t know why]. I believe he also went to prison.

Chuck [had] a lot of money hidden in a bank in Zurich, wanted to go to Europe with Richie and Fred to collect the money, rent a house and a small staff. We made plans to see each other this side of the ocean [Europe].

[I asked why, if Chuck had money, did he and Richie live in a welfare flat; his response: Indeed. He had money but not during the years we knew him. Thought he would be able to lay his hands on the Swiss money, but that never happened as far as I know. I asked how he had this money: Rumors: money he had come by in a “strange way”—insurance?]

August-September 1989

(I had gotten back from a six-week course in Russian at MGU [sic; Moscow State University] and met my husband in New York to leave for New England.)

They did not go to Europe; Chuck still did not have a passport, a false one would cost him $25,000. It is a bitter pill he cannot afford it as he has $750,000 in a vault in Vienna that can be opened only with his fingerprints.

Portia died on August 26 [according to the social security office, she died January 2, 1990] and left Fred exhausted. Bonnie became his fresh nightmare (said Chuck). Nagging and guilt and what have you. Fred had a new boyfriend, Ricardo, from Venezuela. They all decide to go to Puerto Rico.

July 1991

Fred, Chuck, and Richie lived at 386 Sackett Street in a nice souterrain. Richie died. Fred looked old. Chuck completely fell for an Irish boy—a nurse—John (it could be Maloney but maybe I am confused). During my stay John gave up his work and came to live with the others.

Fred borrowed some money from Chuck, forgot to pay his bills, and lost his Visa card.

He really had no money anymore.

April 1992

Fred died [in February]. I was in Europe so I could not attend the funeral. [Now, in April] I stayed with Chuck and John in Brooklyn; they had a little money as John sold his house.

In the meantime, the state discovered that Fred Finger took money as Richie Salgado [after he] had died, and they wanted $7,000 dollars from Fred. But since Fred had died, the state wanted it out of the estate. So Bonnie was going to trial [Dirk had no idea what happened as a result]. Chuck still got Fred’s [Batman] royalties as he forged Fred’s signature.

And a common Russian friend goes to Seattle and worked there with Fred’s social security number.

April 1995

I visited Chuck and John. John bought off his life insurance and now they had money to pay off the credit cards.

1997

I heard from Chuck’s neighbor from Brooklyn, John McFadden, that Chuck had paid bail for his lover, drugs, and lawyers. [John also said] that John Maloney’s trust fund and life insurance all went the same way. That Chuck borrowed money from loan sharks and then suddenly one night he left with one bag and left everything. Absolutely everything. And was never heard of again.

Chuck and Fred were never partners or lovers [contrary to what I had been told so contrary to what it therefore states in Bill the Boy Wonder]. They were roommates, that is all.

[Despite the shady things they did to protect themselves from the state], to me they were kind, friendly, hospitable. I was a window to the world. Chuck called us lifelong friends; indeed we saw him through various boyfriends and deaths. He had the impression we had always been there. But of course we realized he had had a completely different way of living before he met us.

I have a weird feeling about this drifter [Jesse Maloney, as explained in the author’s note of Bill the Boy Wonder]. He could be the boy that Chuck got out of jail in New York.

On the other hand John [Chuck’s partner, whose last name Dirk thought might be Maloney] had a twin brother. I thought he was called Jess? But I am not sure…

Thank you for sharing your memories, Dirk.

My cousin who vanished

When I was a baby, Lenore, my second cousin on my mom’s side, and also my godmother, babysat me.


In August 1973, she went to a bus station in Connecticut, bought a ticket to somewhere, and did not come back. The reason may have been mental illness; the family later learned that she had been abusive to her children.

Her husband Larry (son of my mom’s uncle) hired private detectives to find Lenore. Despite years of searching, they never did.

Her fate remains a mystery, except, perhaps, to her.

Because of my own intensive (and, on many levels, successful) detective work in researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman as well as the topic of my book Vanished: True Stories of the Missing (I mention Lenore in the “About the Author”), my wife and I discussed the possibility of me trying to find out what happened to my cousin.


For a fleeting moment, this intrigued me, and I do like a challenge, but given the time that has passed and the circumstances surrounding Lenore’s disappearance, it is an effort I do not plan to undertake, at least not now.

Crusader and vandal in one

My children, unsurprisingly, have a number of superhero books in their collections. 

I opened up one and was more than proud to find that my then-eight-year-old had taken matters into her own hands:


In truth, neither of my kids are as passionate about superheroes as I am, but a sense of social justice knows no genre.