Monday, August 13, 2012

"All Things Considered" covers All Things Bill Finger

In May, I pitched Guy Raz, weekend host of All Things Considered (one of NPR's signature shows), a segment on Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. He said he had not received the copy of the book we had sent. He said they book three months in advance and do not book many books. He said sorry, but no.

On 8/8/12, armed with recent coverage from Forbes, Washington Post, and MTV, among others, I pitched Guy again. He kindly said call me, and during the call he said he would try to get me on. (He still had not seen the book.) The next day I hand-delivered a copy at the NPR office in Washington DC (by freakish chance I was already going to be across the street), at which time he said he thought it would work out. Later that day I heard from his producer. The day after, at 10 a.m., I was in the studio recording my interview.

This is what I said.


Huge thanks again to Guy and his gracious producer Walter Ray Watson.


2 comments:

DLeonard said...

Well, to validate all your hard work on this -- I heard your interview last Saturday, I had not heard about your book, and I plan on buying it. So, you know, k-ching! Seriously, though, as a lifelong comics fan, I knew about Bill, but always as the "unsung co-creator" of Batman. I imagined Bob Kane coming to him with a fully-realized, finalized drawing of Batman and saying "help me write some stories" I had no idea Bill, basically, did the whole thing except the name. Between Bill and Jerry Robinson, I wonder what Kane even did (besides cash the checks, I guess).

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Many thanks, DLeonard. You've hit the ball with the bat as far as Kane. Please let me know what you think of the book.