Friday, June 29, 2012

“Boys of Steel” vs. “Bill the Boy Wonder”



Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman
superhero
Superman
Batman
form of “boy” in title?
yes
yes
familiar phrase title alludes to
“Man of Steel”
“Robin the Boy Wonder”
cover
superhero silhouette looming over creators looking to right, yellow background, slanted text
superhero silhouette looming over creator looking to right, yellow background, slanted text (but this similarity to Boys of Steel was not calculated!)
received first proofs in November while mother-in-law visiting?
yes
yes
released in July…
2008
2012
gimmick
story proper does not contain word “Superman”
story contains puns involving words “bat,” “Bill,” and “Finger” (nod to the fact that some of Finger’s stories also contained puns)
colors used to identify…
Jerry: brown, Joe: green
Bill: blue, Bob: yellow
number of rejections
22
34
common suggestion in rejections: skew it…
older
younger
Junior Library Guild Selection?
yes
yes
one way to look at it
two friends unified by a great idea
two “friends” divided by a great idea
another way
two “little” guys against a big company
two guys against each other
Biblical parallel
David and Goliath
Cain (Kane) and Abel
worked on it summer of…
2005 (when a Batman movie came out)
2006 (when a Superman movie came out)
single line on back cover
“Before Metropolis, Smallville, and Krypton, Superman came from Cleveland.”
“Batman’s biggest secret is not Bruce Wayne.”
    
 

Fun closing fact: The husband of Bill Finger’s niece is Joe Shuster’s second cousin. This, however, will never be on Jeopardy!

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