Monday, July 9, 2012

MTV Geek on “Bill the Boy Wonder”: “fiendishly clever”

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman was reviewed on a division of MTV.com.

As a member of the first generation to grow up with MTV, I find this, simply, super fun. (Like many my age, I remember the first video I saw on MTV: “Private Dancer” by Tina Turner.) I want my MTV Geek!

The title of Valerie Gallaher’s review gets the cheek just right: “Mommy, Why Didn’t Bill Finger Get Credit For Batman?” And I’m honored that she calls my approach “fiendishly clever” and illustrator Ty Templeton’s work “lavish.”

Consulting editor and all-around children’s publishing maestro Harold Underdown’s kind response: “OK, folks, when was the last time that MTV reviewed a children’s book? And it’s a Charlesbridge book, making this even cooler, if possible.” (Harold used to work at Charlesbridge.)

“Is the story of the true co-creator of Batman, who was snubbed countless of times in retrospectives of the Caped Crusader from the 1960s, the movie "Batmania" of the late 1980s, and beyond, … worth the bio treatment?” Valerie asks close to the beginning of her review.


She closes her piece with a response to herself: “…ask anyone both in the U.S. and abroad who Batman is, and I'm betting most will know. I think that makes him—and the quest to accurately pinpoint his origins—somewhat important, don't you think?”

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