Superman saves family...

...from becoming homeless.

This not only makes you feel good but also makes you wonder how many more copies of Action #1 are out there, waiting to be discovered.

Jerry Siegel wrote to "The Buyer's Guide" in 1975

These letters about (and one by) Jerry Siegel are from The (Comic) Buyer's Guide #109, 12/19/75.

Garden State Children's Book Awards 2011

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman has been nominated for the 2011 Garden State Children's Book Awards in the non-fiction category. Thank you, New Jersey!

Finger Tip #10: The most startling Finger

A short biographical sketch of Bill Finger appears in Green Lantern #1 (1941). In it, Bill is referred to as an “only son.” This colored my thinking for a while, but then I realized that “only son” does not automatically mean “only child.”

Turns out Bill had a sister, younger than him, born circa 1919. I can’t yet say how I learned of her or what she told me.

What I can say is that she was, in one sense, my biggest find in that she was the still-living person who knew Bill the earliest.

I noted at the time that there were “probably no other people I could find that I would be as excited about.” Yet that had less to do with what she told me than how I found her.

Bill was born in Colorado but his sister (if I had the timeline correct) would’ve been born in New York. Yet searching in 2006, I found no record of her in the New York City Birth Indexes of 1918-1920. A reference librarian told me that it was rare for someone not to appear in the index.

So I made a list.

reasons why Bill's sister may not be in NYC Birth Indexes:

• she was not born in NYC, although that seems unlikely
• her paperwork got lost in the influenza epidemic of 1918
• her family didn’t file her birth (could she have been born at home?)
• she was born under another name (i.e. to a family member or friend, and the Fingers immediately adopted her?)
• the name I had for her was actually her middle name or nickname
• she was not who I thought she was

Then I checked the Death Indexes from 1930 to 1982. (One thing I didn’t note is why I stopped with 1982.) She didn’t appear in any of those, either.

reasons why Bill's sister may not be in NYC Death Indexes:

• she is, but under a married (or otherwise changed) name I don’t know
• her death went unreported
• she died after 1982
• she died outside NYC
• she isn’t dead

In other words, all I confirmed is that no one with the name of Bill’s sister died in NYC between 1930-1982.

As we get closer to the July 2012 publication of the book, I will share the story of how I found her.

Finger Tip #9: The most mysterious Finger

In researching Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman, I found a lot of Fingers.

Only one Finger gave me the finger (figuratively).

Here’s what went down:

Bill’s family was Jewish and living in the Bronx for most of Bill’s formative years. During my research, a Bronx historian told me that when Bronx Jews left the Bronx, most went to either New Jersey or Florida. I started with Florida.

On 8/19/06, I cold called dozens of Floridian Fingers. I was proud that none hung up on me. But one was a strange flamingo indeed.

After I got out my clumsy introduction (“Hi, I’m an author of children’s books researching the co-creator of Batman, whose last name is also Finger and who was from the Bronx…”), she said her family was also from the Bronx. But she didn’t want to say more before speaking to “the men,” who weren’t there at the time. She suggested I call back midweek, which I did.

And so began the dodge.

I got the machine, multiple times. But on 8/29/06, she answered. And so deepened the mystery.

She said that “they” were also working on a book and that “the lawyer” advised her to be polite but not to help me. This, of course, seemed to confirm that she was related to my Finger. I asked for her e-mail so I could send her background on me that I hoped would assure her I was legitimate, but she said “not at this time.”

Yet she did say I could try back in a few weeks at which time she would see if there was anything she could tell me.

I said I doubted our books would be competition because mine would be in an all-ages picture book format (the inference being that hers would not). I said that I’d found some members of the extended family that I’d helped reconnect and could do the same with her, but she said they knew everyone they wanted to…

…which suddenly confirmed that she was not family. If she truly was from the branch I wanted, I most likely would’ve already heard about her from the others I’d found. But when I asked them about her, none knew who she was. Learning that she had not been in touch with anyone I had made me feel better.

I asked her name, figuring she would keep mum like she did with her e-mail, but she said did give me one. (And it checked out online.)

On 9/20/06, I called again. This time her husband answered. He said she wasn’t home and he didn’t know about the Bill Finger issue because she was working on that.

I left two voice mails over the next few months. No one called back.

On 1/6/07, I called again. The husband was courteous but said he didn’t think his wife was “interested” or else she would’ve “dealt with me by now.”

Interested? I wasn’t selling something. I was merely looking for information.

The next day, I mailed her a letter to explain myself better than I felt I’d been able to do on the phone. I also sent several of my books. I did not hear back.

I left my last message on 7/2/07. But in recounting this story, I now feel like I should try again…

How you found me: part 6

This is the sixth installment of some of the zaniest search terms that have sucked people to this blog:

• things children don’t want [MTN: I write books for young people. Therefore, this is not confidence-boosting.]
  
• vomiting first week at school [MTN: I would think this would fall under the category of the first bullet.]
  
• an event coordinator checklist for a city fair
• ocean state wacky packages
• shave on yahrzeit
• the best picture books for older readers of all time [MTN: Is “of all time” misplaced...or does s/he really mean to refer to readers throughout the full span of history?]
• things for bored teenagers to do in Cleveland
• non-boring presentation for companies
• Marc Tyler Nobleman Visa commercial [MTN: I'm unaware that I made one.]
  
• a 12-year-old boy trying to steel a older black ladys purse [sic, and I don't approve (of either the idea or the grammar)]
  
• how do people grow to 6'10" [MTN: No idea. Want proof? Meet me.]
  
• nobleman can’t tell the difference between work and play [MTN: I wonder if this was my wife's Google...]
  

Dear I Don't Know Your Name

In researching Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, I mailed a letter to a person whose name I didn't know. All I did know is that I needed to reach the people who currently lived in the Cleveland house in which Jerry Siegel had been living when he dreamed up Superman in 1934.

This having been the simpler days of 2005, I didn't yet know the easy ways I could have used to find out the names (and phone number) of the people who lived there. So I used postal mail, sending my letter to "Resident":

August 1, 2005

10622 Kimberly Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44108-2740

Hello,

My name is Marc Nobleman. I'm a writer who has published more than 50 books for young people. I recently sold a picture book manuscript to Random House about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who, as you probably know, were the teenagers who created Superman in the 1930s.

Is it right that Jerry Siegel lived at your address at this historic moment?

If so, I would like to take a few photographs of the exterior of your house to help the illustrator create more accurate drawings for the book. I live in Connecticut but will plan a short trip to Cleveland in the fall for this purpose.

Also, do you know if the house exterior looks the same as it did in the 1930s? And I know Jerry used to work in his attic bedroom-is the structure of the interior the same as well? If so, would you permit me to take a few photographs inside that room?

You may contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx--just give me your number and I will call you right back so you don't have to pay long distance charge. Or you can e-mail me at xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.com.

Thank you,

Marc Tyler Nobleman

Seeing this now, it's odd that I posed certain research questions to the current residents when I'd already confirmed the answers; further, if I hadn't, there would've been better sources.

I did not hear back.

And my trip didn't end up happening until January 2007. In preparation, I wrote another letter (so apparently I had still not learned what now seems like basic research strategies!). This one, however, I planned to place on the doorstep along with a couple of the books I'd written:

January 30, 2007

10622 Kimberly Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44108-2740

Hello,

My name is Marc Nobleman. I’m the author of more than 60 books for young people; I also write for Nickelodeon Magazine. Recently I wrote a children’s picture book about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who, as you probably know, were the teenagers who created Superman in the 1930s. It is due out in early 2008.

The book is not yet illustrated. I live in Connecticut and flew to Cleveland today (Tuesday, January 30) to take photographs of Superman sites.

Could I come by sometime between now and Friday morning to take a few photos of your house? One of the key scenes in my book shows Jerry working in his attic bedroom, so I need images of both that room and the view from its window. These photos will NOT be published in the book—they are ONLY to give visual reference to the illustrator.

I am in town only until Friday morning, February 2. Please call my cell at xxx-xxx-xxxx if you will allow me to do this. I promise this will take only a few minutes—I don’t want to get in your way.

Thank you,

Marc Tyler Nobleman

P.S. If you have kids, I will send you more of my books as a small gesture of thanks for your kindness.

I've already told the story of what happened next.

Cos Cob Elementary School

Here's a simple way to determine the quality of an elementary school: pay attention to what's on the walls in the halls.

I usually don't blog about topics not directly related to my work, but I must make an exception to praise the school that shepherded my daughter through kindergarten. (Well, I do speak in schools, and this one was one of them, so in that sense it is related.)

This school, in Cos Cob, Connecticut, impressed me in numerous and perpetual ways:

• getting kindergartners to go up on stage and speak before an assembly...in the third week of school (they had to share one thing they wanted to learn during the school year; my daughter said "how a spider spins its web")
• keeping a journal to track their own development in words and art month by month throughout the school year
  
• emphasizing character by asking parents to give their children a "drop" when they acted kindly, but not just by saying "please"—the acts had to go beyond the expected; the drops filled a bucket (in the form of a wall hanging) that was half the size of a car; that's a lot of kindness
• running an in-depth lesson on the post office, including a field trip to one and the designing of their own postage stamps; plus they both wrote and asked to receive letters
• encouraging students to both eat healthily and bring their lunches in reusable containers

Among many other facets.

Credit goes to the progressive and challenging teacher our daughter had as well as the wonderfully attuned principal and other visionaries on staff, including the art teacher and the librarians.

But again, we knew the school was top-notch even before all this happened.

We saw the hall walls.

They're brimming with dynamic creations, the kind of projects that let children freely express rather than fill in predetermined lines. And it's more than the art itself—it's that the school takes the time to exhibit it.

It's a museum with a gymnasium.

Villains for a change

I wrote a book about Superman. I’ve got another in the works about Batman. But I’m not only about superheroes—or even good guys in general. A story—and, by extension, a writer—is only as good as its/his villains.

In a story I wrote for READ, the Weekly Reader literary magazine for teens, the focus was villainy. That is clear from its title alone: “Villainopedia.com.” Earlier this year, I posted the opening of the story.

Now I’ve been given permission to post “Villainopedia.com” in its entirety. Enjoy but (as you know) please don’t reuse in any way unless you first get your own helping of permission.







In my original version, the ending was morally ambiguous. Brett agrees to go with Travis to document Travis’s imminent crime—though he also says he plans to turn Travis in afterward.

My editor accepted it at first but another editor there felt that Brett needed to be more explicitly good. I found a way to make that work without compromising who I thought my characters were, but I still like the first ending because in it, both Brett and Travis showed sides of both good and not-so-good.

And doesn’t that sound more like you and me and the rest of us?

READ. By All Means.

The title of this post is the title of a recently announced Scholastic global initiative to emphasize to children the importance of reading.

"READ By All Means" includes a "Reading Bill of Rights" which includes the line "We believe...that young people need to learn to read nonfiction for information and literature for imagination."

I immediately signed up as a supporter and hope you will, too. However, while I feel this Bill of Rights line is true in what it says, at the same time I feel it may inadvertently reinforce a problematic belief that some kids have: nonfiction is only about information. More to the point, some kids believe that information—and therefore nonfiction—is dry.

I know the line was written to be practical and punchy, not exclusionary, and I realize that kids won't be reading this Bill of Rights but rather benefiting from adults heeding its call.

I also know I'm reading too much into this, and likely sounding petty for nitpicking over word choice when a critical larger task is at hand.

However, that task is to motivate young readers...and that compact description of nonfiction will not get some of them pumped about it. While the line doesn't say nonfiction is not imaginative, it almost implies that by saying literature is. (Also, "literature" includes nonfiction. I believe the word here should be "fiction.")

Yes, we do read nonfiction to pick up information, but also to ignite the imagination. Well-written nonfiction can be as entertaining and breathtaking and harrowing as fiction (while still being informative). Of course Scholastic has long demonstrated this by the books they publish. But it doesn't come across in that Bill of Rights line.

What would I suggest as an alternative? I don't know that a single word could replace "information" and serve the purpose. Perhaps the whole line could be reworked to something like "...learn to read fiction to discover imaginative new worlds and nonfiction to discover real worlds we never knew." Not as punchy, I know, but maybe it makes up for it with playfulness.

Scholastic made it to their 90th anniversary by doing something right, again and again. No matter my little quibble, I'm confident their noble initiative will be a success.

Meanwhile, those who write true stories for young people will continue to work hard to shed the image of nonfiction as being purely academic.

By all means.

Finger Tip #8: More than a hand

I’ve found enough Fingers to make a hand—halfway through a second, actually.

When I began researching Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator of Batman, I thought it would be relatively easy to find people from his family. I’d never heard of anyone else with the last name “Finger” and therefore assumed it must be uncommon.

However, I now know that it’s not sound logic to base judgment on what I have personally heard of. I quickly learned there are a lot of other Fingers out there.

In 2006 and 2007, I talked to a mob of them—and a few were indeed related, mostly cousins. (Some of the key Fingers—most significantly Fred, his only child—died before I started my research.)

Tellingly, some of the relatives did not know that a cousin had a significant role in the creation of Batman; some had never even heard of a cousin Bill.

Granted, this branch of the Finger family was big (some of the cousins are a generation or more apart in age). But that still surprised me. One cousin said her father had told her that one of her cousins had done the Green Hornet. (She later figured out that her father meant Green Lantern, indeed another co-creation of Bill’s.)

To date, I’ve found seven Finger relatives still named Finger (and others who were born Finger but now have married names, plus family on his first wife’s side). I’ve also encountered several more Fingers who are not related but who were nonetheless helpful in some way, or simply kind to hear me out long enough to say “Wrong Finger branch.”

Peace, not desist

On 5/22/10, a letter came from DC Comics. It was the first piece of mail I’d received from the company since Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was published in 2008. The timing was curious because I’d just sold my manuscript on Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman.

At first, I thought it was bad news.

But it wasn’t about Boys of Steel or Bill Finger.

And it wasn’t bad. Rather, sad.

I was touched to learn it was an invitation to the memorial service for longtime DC artist/editor Dick Giordano, a man whose work I grew up loving but whom I never met.

I have not received out-of-the-blue feedback on Boys of Steel from anyone at DC, though I did hear kind comments from a couple of DC staffers whom I had approached about something unrelated. In retrospect, it would be borderline silly for me to expect an “official” reaction.

But now, with this invite, I feel like I’ve gotten one. And it was in part because of Dick Giordano's art that led to the book that led to the invite.

Thank you, DC. I was sorry to miss it, and to miss Mr. Giordano.

Finger Tip #7: Bill Finger at the convergence of history, part 3 of 3

Part 1 and part 2.

I was in New York City standing in a former apartment of Bill Finger’s.

The current resident had told me that the apartment had even more formerly belonged to Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Then his neighbor across the hall, who’d lived there some 40 years, told me it had also once belonged to Syd Koff, a woman who had won four gold medals at the first Maccabean games in 1932 and qualified for the 1936 Olympics. However, because the games were held in Nazi-controlled Berlin, the Jewish Koff refused to go—and in doing so, forfeited what ended up being her only chance to win an Olympic gold.

Syd hosting a seder, circa 1970. Bill's desk sat where that lamp in the background is. For orientation, note the edge of the fireplace on the right and compare with the two photos in Part 2. Photo courtesy Steve Cooper.

Syd passed away in 1999, but the neighbor across the hall put me in touch with her son Steve. From Steve I learned that Syd had moved to the apartment in 1955 (the last time Bill appeared at the address in the phone book was 1950). Steve said a boxer had lived there just prior to his mother but couldn’t remember the boxer’s name or if he was well known.

Steve also said that yet another prominent person had lived in the apartment, though not someone I’d heard of before: Hart Crane, a poet who committed suicide in 1932 by throwing himself from a ship into the ocean. I didn't ask how Steve knew that Crane lived in that exact apartment, but he seemed sure, and it is for certain that Crane lived in the building.

Steve said the PBS series History Detectives did a show on the building. That saved me time because otherwise I might’ve been tempted to suggest it.

When I got home, I looked up the building. It turns out that John Wilkes Booth did not live there...but his friend and fellow actor Samuel K. Chester did. And Booth apparently did go to Chester’s place to try to rope his friend into helping kill the president, though it seems that they were not in the apartment but rather on a walk precisely when Booth proposed the plot. (Chester said no thanks.)

Still, Booth had been there.

The address is 45 Grove Street, New York. On top of being notable for all of the above, the building is also apparently one of the oldest in Greenwich Village.

Here’s a New York Times article about the building.

Here’s the transcript of the History Detectives episode that examined the building’s connection to Lincoln’s assassination.

Finger Tip #7: Bill Finger at the convergence of history, part 2 of 3

Part 1.

I had just been told that John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, used to live in the apartment that Bill Finger used to live in.

Multiple choice:

(a) What?!?
(b) Huh?!?
(c) No way!
(d) All of the above, plus “Are you friggin’ serious?!?”

Answer: (d).

She also said the building used to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. I asked how she knew that and she said the landlord had showed her the room that was used to shelter slaves; it was under the sidewalk I was standing on. I wondered if Finger had known that.

I buzzed the apartment I wanted. The resident, a guy about my age, buzzed me into the foyer but not the building itself. He seemed skeptical of me. I don’t blame him.

His door was in sight of the foyer and he opened it. I called through the glass of the inner door, explaining what I wanted to do. He buzzed me into the building but didn’t invite me into his apartment.

I handed him a Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman postcard and asked if he’d be willing to go look me up online to decide if he'd let me in to take a few photos in the apartment. He kindly agreed. I waited outside. A minute later, he came back and said okay.

In 2007, a member of Bill’s family had sent me this unlabeled photo of a desk that she'd found with other photos of Bill:

However, she didn’t know for sure if the desk had been Bill’s. So I’d showed it to Bill’s longtime friend and writing partner Charles Sinclair, and he seemed positive that it was indeed Bill’s desk, but he placed at another of Bill’s apartments.

For some reason, and even though Charles has rarely been wrong (including recollections going back 50 years), I felt that the desk photo might’ve been taken in this particular apartment. So I'd brought a copy of the photo with me.

And sure enough, I walked in to the main room of the apartment and immediately recognized one part of it:

Note on the right the indent and the edge of the fireplace, both of which appear in the earlier photo (even though the fireplace has inexplicably turned from white to black). Also, the new photo doesn't quite show it, but there is a window just to the left of the composition; in the original photo, you can see the natural light coming in.

Until I was standing there, I didn't know if the desk in the old photo was Bill's, let alone which apartment it was in. Yet it wasn't like the photo was a complete mystery; it had come from the Finger family and I had pieced together a list of apartments it could've been from. Still, to conclusively match up a photo from the 1940s to the same space in 2010 did electrify me.

And then I learned that the history of the apartment that started with John Wilkes Booth actually did not start with him…nor did it end with Bill Finger.

Part 3.

Finger Tip #7: Bill Finger at the convergence of history, part 1 of 3

In gathering images for the illustrator of my upcoming book on Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman, I have gone to several of Finger’s former apartments in New York. One in the West Village turned out to have more history than I could’ve anticipated.

I’d taken exterior photos of it on 6/19/06. On 5/27/10, I went back to try to get inside and take interior photos. As I was standing outside about to buzz the apartment I wanted, a woman who lived in the building came past me and started to go in. I asked if she knew the resident in the apartment I’m interested in and she did. I said something to the effect of “It’s got some history to it.”

“I know, right?” she said with a smile combining pride and bemusement.

“You know about that?” I said. She didn’t strike me as a comics type and few non-comics people have heard of Bill Finger. Even most of the comics people don’t know any of the buildings in which he used to live.

She said it’s hard not to know the building’s history because tours go by frequently and stop in front of the building. I was flabbergasted—until I realized that the history she was talking about must not be Finger-related. I asked.

She said that John Wilkes Booth used to live there.

John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

In the same apartment.

Part 2.

You can judge a cover by its book

I first subscribed to Entertainment Weekly soon after its 1990 launch and have subscribed continuously since.

In those twenty years, the magazine has covered books fairly well, but has showed authors on the cover rarely. (They have run dozens if not hundreds of cover stories about movies based on books, but those show actors, not authors.)

I can recall only two cover stories with the author himself in the spotlight (from 1994 and 2002, respectively):


The current issue, however, pulls a neat new trick. I believe it is the first time the cover has depicted not an author but a book itself:

I realize this is a milestone only in my narrow little pop culture realm, but it's still a nice thumb's-up for the publishing industry.

Now let's see if an author of books for children will ever make the cover...

Don't snicker. Kid-friendly properties routinely do. Eventually one of the creators may as well. As long as s/he has a big personality. And, of course, a purty face. Thinking back, it's unjust that none of the mag's many Harry Potter stories devoted the cover to J.K. Rowling.

iNonfiction

Versatile author Tanya Lee Stone (whose honors include the 2010 Sibert for Almost Astronauts) blogged a ominous question: Will the Internet replace nonfiction books?

I posted a comment saying I don't think so but (like almost every other form of entertainment and education) nonfiction will have to evolve to have a presence in the digital domain. I look forward to the as-yet unthinkable.

Tanya posted a follow-up partially in response to my comment.

Nonfiction authors often write about pioneers. Now it's our turn to do some pioneering.

Pop culture in nonfiction picture books

Marc Aronson at the School Library Journal blog Nonfiction Matters kindly posted a guest entry from me. An excerpt:

Once upon a generation ago, it seemed that the nonfiction picture book was reserved mostly for “textbook” names and events: Martin Luther King, Jr., the Titanic, any president, any war. Today, however, many nonfiction picture books are about pop culture, “pop” being the operative word. These books indeed pop off the shelf. Kids simply don’t expect to see such high-interest subjects featured in that kind of book.

Had space permitted, I would've had something to say about many other pop culture nonfiction picture books in addition the four I did fit. Eventually, I'm sure, I'll say those things here!

A book back into history

An accomplished animator who has recently shopped around a picture book asked me, “What are your feelings on the [publishing] industry? Do you feel that it is antiquated?”

For years we’ve heard drumbeats about the digital invasion, yet I was still jolted by his use of “antiquated.”

My response:

Like music and movies, book publishing must now urgently embrace change, but I don’t feel the industry is antiquated. Writers and artists should look at this as an online Oklahoma land grab, so to speak—they must race out and stake their claim to something new. Specifically, a new way of telling stories.

I do believe that within five years fewer physical books will be produced. And I think it’s likely that within a generation, few if any print-only novels will still be printed on paper.

But I don’t believe printed books will die out completely. In fact, I see this as an opportunity for publishers to offer more content and present it in creative ways.

I believe savvy publishers will offer two versions of a book at the same time—but each with their own “bonus features” so people might want to buy both book and iPad app. For example, a print picture book may contain unused character designs. The digital companion may contain a short film showing the artist at work. (Some publishers may already be offering a multi-platform book like this, and if not, it’ll happen momentarily.)

Or perhaps buying the hard copy will generate (on the receipt) a unique code that you can use to get a discount on the iPad app, or to unlock hidden features on it.

Perhaps it’s only delusional self-preservation, but I believe the format that has the best shot of remaining in print the longest is the picture book.

Digital dominance might force publishers to lower prices of paper books, but I believe as long as writers and artists produce good content—and are open to change—there is a model that will permit us to continue to do so.

Finger Tip #6: Bill Finger rarely said cheese, part 2 of 2

Part 1.

The scarcity of photos of Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman, is even more bewildering when I compare him to certain other historical figures.

For example, I wrote a book on the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s (only two decades before Finger was born). This was an event that

a) took place in the wild, wild, wild west
b) involved people you wouldn’t assume had a camera on them
c) was a rush—i.e. a largely unidentified crowd, which makes it harder to locate descendents

Yet sure enough, when I first saw the layout of the book, I was astounded that it included images of not one but several of the seemingly obscure people I’d mentioned by name. As I wrote the book, it hadn’t occurred to me that the photo editor would bother to look for such photos, let alone find any, especially given the time constraint.

Googling those miner names now, I see that some are more “famous” than they seemed to me when I was writing the book because I’d not heard of them previously.

But still, if you’d asked me after I wrote Klondike but before I began Finger which person would be easier to find a photo of, the most famous Klondike Gold Rush prospector or the co-creator of Batman, I’d bet on Batman.

And I’d lose.

Finger Tip #6: Bill Finger rarely said cheese, part 1 of 2

One of my biggest sub-goals in writing a picture book about Bill Finger, the uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman, was to find previously unpublished photos of him. In his lifetime (1914-1974), hard as this will be to believe, only four saw print:

from Green Lantern #1 (1941)

from a sheet produced for the 1965 New York Comicon

original publication uncertain, but possibly Fifty Who Made DC Great (1985), where it is printed in reverse of the version shown here (from Batman: The Complete History); date of photograph unknown but appears to be from the 1940s or 1950s

original publication unknown but appears to be from the 1930s

As you can see, none are particularly clear. And as a writer who cares (often obsessively) about authenticity, I needed to find better likenesses of Finger to pass on to the illustrator.

On the surface, this should’ve been easy. Here was a man who

(a) created a character that became world-famous
(b) worked in a visual medium
(c) lived in the 20th century

Any one of these factors is enough to mount an argument for the existence of more Finger photos. In fact, it would seem implausible if such a man had not appeared in dozens if not hundreds of photos.

Yet apparently, he didn’t. Or, to be more historically accurate, if he did, we have more looking to do.

The first people I approached in search of Finger photos were comics historians and longtime comics professionals. More than one of them told me with definitiveness that no other Finger photos exist.

But all that means is that no one yet had been foolish enough to keep looking.

Until me.

I found at least nine others (actually a few more, depending on how you count).

I’ve already posted one of them, so here it is again:

Bill’s second wife would later tell me that they were not photo people. I’d wager Bill wasn’t one before her as well.

Yet I continue to look.

None of the photos, I later realized, are in color, even though almost all of them were from the Kodachrome era.

Though I would love to find a color picture of Finger, there’s something apropos in having only black and white snapshots of him.

It befits a creature of the night, and his co-creator.

Part 2.

How the Superman Celebration was born

This weekend was the 32nd annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois. I didn't go but I did find this 2/3/79 articlette in the now-defunct Washington Star about the humble beginning of the event:

Embracing the questions

A wonderful site called Embracing the Child kindly ran a five-question interview with me. And with many others worth exploring...

Bar Mitzvah of Steel

In anticipation of a talk about Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman I will be giving on 6/17/10 at the Jewish Community Center in Stamford, Connecticut, the Jewish Ledger ran a Q&A with me.

It is the first time any interviewer has asked me about my bar mitzvah.

Multiple-book index

Author Charles Panati has published a series of sharply written “origin” reference books, including the following:

• Browser’s Book of Beginnings
• Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things
• Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias: The Origins of Our Most Cherished Obsessions
• Sacred Origins of Profound Things: The Stories Behind the Rites and Rituals of the World’s Religions

In 2004, when I couldn’t find certain information in one of his books, I wondered if that the information might be in another of his books.

This led me to think that Panati (among other authors) should have a “master index” for all his like-minded books. I think I’d seen such a thing in some multi-volume encyclopedic works, but I’d never seen it with a group of similar books that were not technically a series.

I e-mailed Charles the idea. He kindly responded and wrote that he liked it.

In 2006, I saw that Do Elephants Jump?, one of the books in David Feldman’s Imponderables series, includes a “comprehensive index to all 10 Imponderables books.” So there it was!

This year, I mentioned the idea to Charles again, in passing. Because the publishing landscape has changed considerably even since 2006, he felt such an index wasn’t as relevant anymore. But I presume he meant only in terms of the printed books. I’d wager that posting such an index online rather than in the books themselves would still be valuable to researchers, and much easier on Charles since he could do it himself without asking his publisher to modify all his books before future print runs.

I’ll propose it next time he and I are in touch.