This is certainly a first: a comparison between a healthcare-focused technology company and a nonfiction picture book about a comic book writer.
In 2007, I noticed this Inc. magazine cover featuring athenahealth co-founder and CEO Jonathan Bush (who happens to be cousin of George W. Bush and nephew of George H. W. Bush):
At the time I was working on what became Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.
It is always great to see a CEO promoting having fun at work. It was great that Jonathan’s way of demonstrating that for this cover was by dressing up like Batman. Even I haven’t done that. (Robin, that’s another story.) The cover also struck me because the superhero known for pulling open his shirt to reveal his emblem (to the reader, not the public) is, of course, Superman, not Batman.
But what made this blogworthy for me was the fact there were two other incidental connections between this company and my book.
First, athenahealth is based in Watertown, MA—as is Charlesbridge, publisher of Bill the Boy Wonder.
Second, Bill’s granddaughter—his lone, previously unknown heir—is named Athena.
I reached out to Jonathan, who kindly responded. I sent him a book. Perhaps that will in small part contribute to the fun work atmosphere he is fostering.
Holly Spring, colleague of Jonathan’s, after reading the book: “Certainly Athena and Jonathan have synergies—both out to change something in the world for the better!”
Before I began researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, it was not known among comics people that Bill Finger had married a second time (after divorcing Portia).
I found his second wife, Lyn Simmons, in June 2006. She had three children. One is named Steve.
Oddly, Lyn had only one photo of Bill—and not a good one.
Steve, however, had a great one. Only he didn’t know where it was. That was July 2006. He found it…in March 2007.
But it was worth the wait.
The photo is included in the author’s note of Bill the Boy Wonder. It was probably the clearest (and certainly the quirkiest) of the eleven “new” photos I found.
Adding to this excitement, three coincidences surrounded Steve:
- Lyn (who was living in California at the time) had been visiting on the East Coast (where I live) and had flown home the day I found her.
- I lived in Connecticut at the time…specifically, as it turned out, in the same town as Steve. In other words, the best photo of Bill Finger I uncovered during a many-month search was five minutes from me the entire time.
- Steve was a businessman, but he had published several children’s books…with Charlesbridge, the publisher who would go on to acquire Bill the Boy Wonder in 2010.
My editor for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman was the incomparable Alyssa Mito Pusey at Charlesbridge.
Alyssa is like Batman (without the cave). Like Batman, she championed the underdog, which in this case was this project. Like Batman, she was not afraid, which in this case means she stood by the book—and me—even when concerns about fair use arose. Like Batman, she trusted her partner...Robin.
Alyssa (whom I did not know previously) acquired the manuscript in 2010. Funnily, in 2008, I had written an article about the research I did for the book (an article that morphed into the author’s note). At that time, I was not yet ready to reveal the actual name of Bill’s granddaughter Athena, so I referred to her by a pseudonym: “Alyssa.”
Given the countless alternatives (Amanda, Agatha, Alissa, etc.), that has to be taken as an omen, just as Bruce Wayne took that bat flying through his window as an omen.
One of the most impressive examples of Alyssa’s editorial prowess: in this image, she caught the fact that there was one missing line in the Chinese character for virtue.
That’s some well-calibrated sonar.
In 2/13, Alyssa emailed me two photos documenting her work on the book.
The “before” photo shows all the emails, layouts, legal correspondence, etc., collected during her three years of work on the book.
The “after” photo shows the final archive, after she removed all duplicates, “unnecessary” items, etc.
It took her a full work day to put together that archive. “Now,” she concluded, “it will live down in the Charlesbridge basement forever.”
Maybe she does have a cave after all.
Happy birthday, Alyssa.
Please come back tomorrow for the continuation of the massive "Super '70s and '80s" series, running most days between now and 10/12/11! And for today, a post of "regularly scheduled content":
In January, I saw Ty Templeton's stellar first sketches for my 2012 picture book on Bill Finger, the uncredited co-creator of Batman.
In March, Charlesbridge sent the first round of revisions.
This month, I received the first color art.
All three sets came postally, not digitally, and all three came in envelopes hand-designed by my peerless editor Alyssa Pusey. This is a testament not only to Alyssa's cleverness but also to the versatility of Batman's iconography.
To recap...
Round 1:
Round 2:
And now, round 3! Drum roll please...
Will there be a round 4, and if so, can Alyssa outdo herself yet again? I'm sure she thrives on the pressure I'm publicly applying!
To research Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and visual mastermind behind Batman, the first person I tracked down was Bill’s longtime friend and writing partner, Charles Sinclair.
And although I would end up contacting more than 200 others after Charles, he remained one of my most valuable sources, not to mention one of the most generous.He knew Bill outside of comics. He knew Bill outside of work in general. At one point, he and Bill were roommates. And fortunately for me, his memory seemed remarkably vivid for an 82-year-old (at the time, which was 2006).Thanks to Charles, I found Bill’s second wife, whom almost nobody else knew about. Thanks to Charles, I learned the details surrounding Bill’s death, the true story of which literally nobody else I contacted knew about. Thanks to Charles, I’m now the awestruck owner of this.
Charles was a bridge to the real Bill, allowing me to write the book that, appropriately, will be published by Charlesbridge. (While everything I wrote in this post is sincere, yes, the whole thing was just a set-up for that last line.)
Ty Templeton’s illustrations for our upcoming book on Bill Finger and Batman (Charlesbridge 7/1/12) will thrillkill readers just as they have me. He is a crazily good fit for the material, and not just because of his respected years working on Batman comics. He is not only professionally connected to the Dark Knight but emotionally connected to the Wronged Writer. It meant a lot to me that he knew more than the basics about Bill Finger before I pitched him this idea.
As he wrote me in March 2011 (and gave me permission to share), “This is a book I’ve wanted to be a part of since before you thought of doing it.”
He also made a quirky observation: the logo of our publisher, Charlesbridge, looks like the head of Batman.
So perhaps not only Ty was predestined for this book, but Charlesbridge, too.
In January, I was treated to the initial sketches (by the titanically talented Ty Templeton) for my upcoming book on Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator, original writer, and visual architect of Batman. I can't show them yet, but I was excited enough to show how they arrived:
Today, I received the first revisions:
Special thanks to my un-bat-able editor, Alyssa Pusey, for taking a break from poring over every last detail (verbal and visual) of this book to create another memorable envelope.
I bet now she's worried that she's set a precedent that I won't easily let slide...
...Ty Templeton, fan-favorite artist of, among others, The Batman Adventures (the first of multiple comic book series based on Batman: The Animated Series and its subsequent incarnations).
Besides loving Ty's style in general, I love that he was tapped into the tragic legacy of Bill Finger before we approached him. He is clearly bringing that passion and knowledge to his work on the book.
Ty's first sketches arrived in an envelope cleverly customized, courtesy of Alyssa Pusey, my wonderful Charlesbridge editor:
Much more Ty the Guy to come!
