Thursday, February 19, 2015

Best of the blog 2014

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share what I feel have been the best posts of the previous twelve months.

This years blue ribboners:

interviews

the co-author of Bob Kane’s 1989 autobiography
women who appeared in iconic 1980s music videos...round 2
Ally Sheedy, who wrote a novel that was published when she was 13 
voice actors of Peanuts TV holiday specials
the creators, singers, and songwriters of Schoolhouse Rock
singer of the 1981 hit song “Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)”
the actors who played Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah as kids in the opening scene of Splash
granddaughter of the creator of Wonder Woman
another granddaughter of the creator of Wonder Woman 
the man who sang the theme to the Wonder Woman show of the 1970s
the creator of the best-selling Anti-Coloring Book series
the family of the author of the 1979 YA novel The Kryptonite Kid, praised by Pauline Kael 

speaking

“Batman at 75” panel with Kevin Smith, Kevin Conroy, Michael Uslan, and Chip Kidd
Comic-Con 2014: Bill Finger rises
two weeks of speaking engagements (plus dune bashing and ascending the world’s tallest building) in the United Arab Emirates 
two weeks at the American School of Bombay, India

research 

the first “new” Bill Finger photo discovered since 2007
the second “new” Bill Finger photo discovered since 2007
tracking down the only mainstream media mention of Bill Finger in his lifetime (the 8/21/65 New Yorker)
petitioning the Screen Actors Guild to grant me access to their contact info database
a 1938 ad for the company that inspired Bill Finger when naming Gotham City
the significance of Bill Finger’s name appearing on comic book cover for the first time...and speculation about the infamous Bob Kane contract with DC
more contract speculation: what is the implication that Bill Finger was doing work Bob Kane was contracted/credited for?
Athena Finger: Year One  
who wrote the heartbreaking (and groundbreaking) origin of Batman? 
why now is the best time to conduct interviews with pop culture figures of the 1970s and '80s

publishing

kidlit mashups (merged children’s book sequels) 
I wrote a book about a child feeling out of place at a new school for being the only one of his kind...but another author published it
how I updated a 1960s book of vocabulary cartoons that included guns and cigarettes 
how Bill the Boy Wonder does not follow a typical narrative arc for a nonfiction picture book
the picture book my mom wrote and illustrated in 1968 

miscellaneous

helping a teacher in Pakistan get a tablet PC to help his students
Bill Finger had a hand in 12 of the first 14 Batman milestones on DC 75th anniversary poster
touring the Slumdog Millionaire slum in Mumbai, India
which covers of The New Yorker featured DC Comics superheroes
Kickstarter possibility for commemorating Bill Finger in New York City
voice actors of Super Friends Samurai and Black Vulcan holding action figures of their characters
what was original about Superman and Batman
our Survivor-themed 10th birthday party, complete with eating crickets
DC Comics writer Mike W. Barr lost his job for standing up for Bill Finger (who was already dead)
Bob Kane gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame  
Bill Finger in the New York Times for the third time in a little over a year
10 funniest music videos of the 1980s
The Flash (1990 TV show): an appreciation
when superheroes vote
the original Everything Store...my dad’s 1980s pharmacy

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