“The Nobleman Cause”

I’m only now learning of a lovely article about my work that was published in Comic Book Creator #14 in 2017: “The Nobleman Cause” by Richard J. Arndt.

Belated thank you, Richard!

The historic route Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel ran in 1933 (time-lapse)

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman came out in 2008. The year before, I had made my first trip to Cleveland (where Superman was born) for a four-day research binge. That publication year and the next, I made several trips to Cleveland to speak at schools, museums, community gatherings, and other venues. The last was in 2010—until last week, when I returned for a school visit in Warren, OH, about an hour’s drive from Cleveland.

If you told me then that nine years would pass between visits, I would have found that hard to believe, given how often I was in Cleveland from 2007-2010.

The biggest change since then was not unique to Cleveland: this trip will end up being my last by plane for at least a month, if not more, as communities nationwide accept the severity of COVID-19, the coronavirus, and begin self-quarantining. The mood at the school and the few other places I went (namely restaurants) seemed status quo, at times even upbeat, but I was sensing an underlying societal anxiety everywhere I went (even though I was keeping my distance!). Even in rural Warren, store shelves that once displayed disinfectants were barren.

Special thanks to the school, Champion Middle, and especially Andrea Baer and Sandy Amoline, for being such gracious hosts under these uneasy, ever-changing circumstances. Years ago I switched from high-fives to fist bumps, and now it’s elbow bumps, or sometimes no bumps. Everyone understands. Same camaraderie with none of the contact. 

Sandy and her crew went all out decorating to welcome a Superman and Batman junior ambassador. A glimpse:

The other highlight of this short, strange trip was returning to the historic neighborhood of Superman’s genesis, specifically the former house of writer Jerry Siegel and the site where artist Joe Shuster’s apartment stood when these two teens dreamed up the world’s first superhero in 1933. 

Both locations have had a new sheen put on since I was last there, thanks to money raised largely by fans in 2009. Jerry’s house got a major renovation (restoring it to how it may have looked when Jerry lived there) plus a couple of spiffy signs on a front fence. The site of Joe’s apartment is now commemorated by a blown-up version of the first Superman story placed along a corner fence. Both addresses are in the Glenville neighborhood, which used to be predominantly Jewish and is now predominantly black.

 10622 Kimberley Avenue,

where Jerry lived in 1933

 10905 Amor Avenue (AKA 998 Parkwood Avenue),

where Joe lived in 1933

 less angled view of the beginning of the first Superman story,

from Action Comics #1 (1938),

as exhibited at the site of Joe’s former apartment

 street signs on one side of Jerry’s street

  street signs on other side of Jerry’s street

  street signs on one side of Joe’s street

 street signs on other side of Joe’s street

 950 Parkwood Avenue, which is a few doors down

from Joe’s former building (immediately below); both were

clearly built by the same developer (note the white squares)

 former synagogue that is now a church

 note the Hebrew on right

 In January, I had a layover in Cleveland, where I saw for 

the first time this Superman mini-museum in baggage claim.

(It was installed in 2012.)

Jerry and Joe...thanks for the hospitality.

And, you know, for Superman.

Now for the best part.

The legend goes that Jerry was up most of a summer night documenting visions of the character who would become Superman; the morning after, hyped up, he ran from his house to Joe’s apartment to ask his artist friend to draw what Jerry saw.

He would have taken one of two routes: Parkwood Avenue (9.5 blocks, which is about a sixth or a mile) or East 105th Street (eighth of a mile).

Because the Parkwood route is slightly shorter, I suspect he went that way.

And so did I, taking what is probably the first-ever time-lapse of the Jerry Siegel Run.

At the Cleveland airport, I asked the gate agent for my inbound flight if I could get a seat with no one next to it. She said “You already have one”—without asking for my seat number or looking at a screen.

The new abnormal.

Truth, justice, and the worldwide way…

Stay safe, all.

Sensitivity adjustment in my school visit presentations

I believe I began talking about Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman at schools even before the book came out in 2008. My presentation includes the two photos I uncovered of the small apartment building where then-teenaged Joe Shuster lived in the 1930s.

The first photo (which I found at the Cleveland Public Library) was taken in 1959:

The second (which the Cleveland City Planning Commission located for me) was taken in 1974:

For years, I would transition from the first to the second image while saying “The other photo I found of Joe’s apartment was taken fifteen years after this one, and as you can see, the neighborhood had gone downhill.” I would then explain that soon after, the building was demolished.

A couple of years ago, I realized that my wording could be hurtful to certain kids. While it was clear that the neighborhood had changed from what I think would have been considered middle class to a lower-income population, some would construe the word “downhill” as pejorative. It is also subjective; some people of lesser means would describe themselves as content whereas some of greater means are miserable. The physical condition of their environment does not factor significantly into their outlooks.

Surely some kids in some of my audiences lived in buildings that were in a state similar to Joe’s. 

Though no one has ever called this word choice to my attention, I felt badly that I had let it go unchecked for so long. 

Now I say that “the neighborhood had changed,” which I feel is both fair and non-judgmental.

Picture books taking flight

By chance, all five of my picture books to date feature a central figure who flies:

• Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman—Superman (duh)
• Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman—Batman (not self-sustained; via Batplane, Batcopter, Batwing, being ejected out of a giant toaster, etc.)
• Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Are Real—fairies (duh)
• Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story—Nobuo Fujita, the pilot of the subtitle
• The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra—the chupacabra (not traditionally described as being winged but our cute little version is)

Superman by Ross MacDonald

Batman by Ty Templeton

fairy photographed by Elsie Wright

Nobuo Fujita by Melissa Iwai

chupacabra by Ana Aranda

Related, I went skydiving in 1996:

Number of named characters in my illustrated nonfiction

At some point during the revision stage of Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Are Real, I realized it was longer than my other picture book nonfiction. (I probably did compare word counts, though I don't remember the results.) 

Then I realized it was longer partly because that story required more named characters—meaning characters important enough to my telling that I should refer them to by name rather than connection (i.e. "Jerry's father," in Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman) or title. Generally speaking, if a character appears only once, s/he need not be identified by name.

Not including fictional characters like Batman or historical figures mentioned but not an active character in the story, like Edgar Allan Poe in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and President Kennedy in Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story, this is how many named characters my illustrated nonfiction books include:

• Boys of Steel—two (Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster)
• Bill the Boy Wonder—eight (Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Vin Sullivan, Jerry Robinson, Portia Finger, Fred Finger, Julius Schwartz, Jerry Bails)
• Thirty Minutes Over Oregon—four (Nobuo, Ayako, Yoshi, and Yoriko Fujita)
• Fairy Spell—eight (Frances Griffiths, Elsie Wright, Polly Wright, Arthur Wright, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward Gardner, Harold Snelling, Fred Gettings)

So at eight, Fairy Spell has the same number as Bill the Boy Wonder, but at one point it had eleven. During rewrites, three disappeared—much like fairies themselves are prone to do. 

"Nowhere Boy" and "Boys of Steel"

The latest novel by my friend Katherine Marsh is Nowhere Boy. (Before we go further, if you have not read her book Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, please do. I'll hold.)

In late April, Kate emailed that she would like to send me an advanced reader's copy of Nowhere Boy because it contains a surprise…for me.

As I said, Kate and I are friends, but we don't go way back or know each other's favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry's. So I was indeed surprised, and touched even before I knew how special the surprise was. 

Page 106:

With a big smile, I wrote Kate "If I read it without knowing you, I wouldn't assume it was my Superman book! Can we really be sure? : )"

She replied "It is definitely your Superman book and you can claim it as such! In fact I know of no others but I'm less of an expert in that area than you. The other book I reference is Shaun Tan's The Arrival. They're hidden in there as toy surprises."

Of course, most readers are like Kate: they aren't able to rattle off a range of books about Superman (let alone books about the creators of Superman). Therefore they won't know exactly what the character is referring to, and this is not a key plot point, so I do not want to make a bigger deal out of it than it is, but the fact remains that I'm honored. My research has been cited in books but as far as I know, this is the first time that one of my books has been mentioned in fiction.

I highly recommend Nowhere Boy (rolling out in 15 languages!) for reasons far and plenty beyond the allusion to one of my books. It is a tender, thoughtful story for our times, centered on the Syrian refugee crisis (which is at times paralleled to the plight of European Jews during World War II). I had only an abstract understanding of the dangers facing a refugee in Europe and learned a lot from this well-researched novel. 

Kate's young characters are corkscrewed into complicated and sometimes unthinkable situations which they handle in ingenious ways. They evolve, they fight (in more ways than one), and, believably, they don't always win. What I would call the biggest twist is especially stealthy and delivers a satisfying emotional payoff.

And the story behind the story—starting with Kate's discovery of a tiny door in the basement of the Belgian townhouse her family was renting—is fascinating in its own right. Look into it.

Thank you again, Kate, for the nod and for the book.

Similarities between "Fairy Spell" and my superhero creator books

My latest book, Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Are Real, shares certain narrative elements with two other nonfiction picture books I wrote, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.

Yes, both fairies and (some) superheroes fly, but there is more to this comparison.

Both Fairy Spell and Boys of Steel take place on the cusp of war (Fairy at the end of WWI, Boys at the start of WWII). Both are about giving hope to people in a time of grief. For some, the Cottingley fairies reaffirmed the belief that we didn't yet know all about the natural (and supernatural) world, which provided solace to those who wanted a way to try to reconnect with sons they lost in the war. Superman served as a patriotic inspiration to troops overseas—a morale booster with muscles.

Both Fairy Spell and Bill the Boy Wonder include a central figure who sought out the spotlight (though to differing degrees). Elsie Wright, the older of the two cousins who took the Cottingley fairies photos, told multiple versions of the story behind the fifth and final photo (see Reflections on the Cottingley Fairies, page 90) and arguably was more calculated than her younger cousin Frances Griffiths in keeping up the ruse. Cartoonist Bob Kane was notorious for embellishing (or simply lying about) his role in Batman (i.e. dismissing writer Bill Finger) and kept the lone-creator myth afloat his whole career. Elsie, however, did not remotely approach Bob's craving for glory. Elsie died after Frances, Bob died after Bill.

And both feature creators of famous detectives—Sherlock Holmes (Fairy) and Batman (Bill).

This is how you fan

A kind fellow named Danny has tweeted compliments a number of times about Batman & Bill and my work in general. It's not every month someone custom-produces a T-shirt with art from one of your books:

Even I don't have a Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman T-shirt. (I do, however, have some Bill Finger ones. As do others. Including Danny.)

Thank you again, Danny. Keep up that positive spirit!

By the way, happy 104th birthday, Bill!

"Boys of Steel" recycled as a journal

At a holiday market in Washington DC, a friend saw a stand selling picture books that had been converted to journals by adding blank note-taking pages in between printed pages.

Don't know how Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman got the nod among such classics. It's destructive and constructive at the same time. Despite the fact that this ware is possibly illegal, I'm honored and will let it slide because it's mom-and-pop and quirky.

Allusions to one of my books in another

At times, I nod at one of my books in another of my books.

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman features a silent cameo by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman. 

They're standing behind the seated man, Jerry Robinson.

Brave Like My Brother (is fiction but) mentions Jerry and Joe several times as the story's stateside scenes take place in Cleveland.

Brave Like My Brother also winks at Bill the Boy Wonder's Bill Finger in that the diner where one of the main characters works is called Milton's (Bill's given name).

The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra pays small tribute to Fairy Spell (which isn't even out yet!)...but not by me. 

In fact, I did not even know about it till the day the Fairy Spell cover was revealed online (8/7/17), when Chupacabra illustrator Ana Aranda shared with me a fun revelation of her own: among the adorable spot drawings on the Chupacabra endpapers, you can see the chupacabra playing with dolls of various myths—including a fairy. Thanks again, Ana!

The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra also contains a cheeky if unofficial appearance by another superhero (and without Jerry and Joe, we might not have any). The lead goat is named Jayna…as was one of the Wonder Twins on the 1970s cartoon Super Friends. Her power? To transform into any animal...

Surely more to come…

My book dedications

The Felix Activity Book (1996): To Darby, in the spirit of all the games I used to make for you when you were little [sister]

Felix Explores Our World (1999): To Leslie Moseley and Dan Tucker [two of my three first bosses, who became friends; Leslie was also co-author of The Felix Activity Book]

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (2008): To Daniela and Lara, my Girls of Steel [wife and daughter]

Quick Nonfiction Writing Activities That Really Work! (2009): To Andrew, whose word is always true [friend from college]

Vanished: True Stories of the Missing (2010): To Christian, who knows too much about missing someone and who has not vanished after all these years [friend since 4th grade]

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman (2012): To Charles, Lyn, and Athena, who respectively revealed the soul, heart, and hope of Bill Finger [Charles Sinclair, longtime friend/writing partner of Bill’s; Lyn Simmons, Bill’s second wife; Athena Finger, Bill’s only grandchild]

Brave Like My Brother (2016): To my brothers by choice: Mike, Seth, Darren, Christian, Kevin, Matt, and Matt [best friends since childhood]; added here 11/1/15

The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra (2017): To Rafael, my favorite funny little fuzzball [son]; added here 3/2/17

Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Are Real (2018): To Lara—don’t stop believing.; added here 7/28/18

Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story (2018): To Daniela. I wouldn’t know Nobuo if not for you.; added here 7/28/18