"Brave Like My Brother" play at Cleveland Play House: May 2027

The Cleveland Play House, which [among other distinctions] got a shoutout in Wet Hot American Summer, is producing a play based on my 2016 novel Brave Like My Brother, a World War II story told in letters between an American soldier in England and his 10-year-old brother in, yup, Cleveland.

Premiering in May 2027! 

CPH partnered with the National Veteran's Memorial and Museum on a five-year project called Stories that Matter which is partially underwritten by the U.S. Department of Education. The goal is to use historical empathy, theatre education, and primary resources to help "connect 4th and 8th graders to U.S. history in a meaningful way."

I'm so honored that the production will be mounted by Eric Coble, a Tony-, Emmy-, and Pulitzer-nominated playwright whose work has appeared on Broadway, and accomplished Shakespeare director Curt Tofteland.

Thank you again to CPH's Pamela DiPasquale, Director of Education & Artistic Strategies, and Derek Green, General Manager, for all you are doing to make this happen. Pamela, I'm thrilled you found BLMB on the VFW's Patriotism through Literacy book list.

Cleveland unveils statues of Superman and his creators 8/2/25

87 years after Superman debuted...

33 years after original Superman artist Joe Shuster died...

29 years after original Superman writer Jerry Siegel died...

18 years after I first came to Cleveland while researching Boys of Steel...

...the city finally installed statues to honor its hometown legacies Superman, Jerry, Joe, and Jerry's wife Joanne [inspiration for Lois Lane]. 

[I know you're not supposed to start sentences with numbers that are not written out, but Jerry and Joe broke some rules, too, and look how that turned out.]

I'd estimate at least 200 attended.

The Boys [and Girl] of Steel are cast in bronze. Superman is, of course, stainless steel.

Donations are still desperately needed to cover the $2.2 million cost.

Thanks to the Siegel & Shuster Society for their tireless efforts. Getting public art up [up and away] does not go faster than a speeding bullet... [Another example: still no Bill Finger statue in New York City.]

Jerry's daughter Laura Siegel Larson and grandson James

the Gray family, who lived in Jerry's former house 

when I went there for research in 2007 

[and who still live there today], 

and George Gene Gustines, 

who wrote the New York Times article about the event

fellow Super Boy of Steel author Brad Ricca

Tracey Kirksey, who was Executive Director of the

Glenville Development Corporation when I was 

researching Boys of Steel [Glenville was the neighborhood

where Jerry and Joe were living when they created

Superman]

Tracey and me in the background of a CBS affiliate news report

Gary Kaplan, Roy Schwartz, me, Brad Ricca,

Samantha Baskind, Jamie Reigle

center: sculptor of the statues, David Deming

George was perched above the plaza for the unveiling and

caught this guy in gray pants trampling on the landscaping.

Inside the adjoining convention center, an orchestra played

the John Williams Superman theme.

Both are creators!

a view inside the phone booth 

that is part of the installation

I flew in just for the event, landing the night before.

Walking to my hotel at 1:30 am, I passed the covered statues.

Nearby, a city carnival was empty aside from crew, 

but despite the lateness of the hour, still aglow.

Up, up, and...here to stay.

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.

Before you "up, up, and away" at Cleveland Airport...

The two positives of a mechanical issue that forced my Ohio connecting flight to deplane:

1) lives possibly saved
2) finally getting to see the "Superman is from Cleveland" exhibit in baggage claim (installed in 2012, which was after my last trip here, in 2010)

"Boys of Steel" signed by Siegels and Shusters

My friend Jamie Reigle is one of the world’s foremost collectors and purveyors of Superman memorabilia. I’ve mentioned him here before, and not only because he so kindly distributed hundreds (of the tens of thousands) of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman postcards over the years.

There were a lot:

 

In the summer of 2013, among the tributes acknowledging the 75th anniversary of Superman, the Cleveland Jewish News produced a special commemorative section; Jamie was profiled.

Mentioned and pictured: the page proofs of Boys of Steel signed by as many members of the Siegel and Shuster families as Jamie could round up.

His sons are named Kalel and Lex. I trust Jamie has a plan to prevent young Lex from using his genius for evil…and I know I’m not the first to make that joke.

Northwest Ohio Jewish Book Fair 2013

I spoke to a nice group of teens and their parents about the icon created in their state 75 years ago. Superman earned place of pride on the program cover:

My only disappointment: I did not spot any cars sporting the newly released (and long overdue!) Superman license plate:

Superman honored in both native and adoptive homes

In October 2012, Cleveland, the city in which Superman was created, installed a permanent exhibit about him in the airport.

In June 2013, Kansas, the state in which Superman crash-landed, will induct him (as well as Clark Kent) into its hall of fame.

 
What is your city doing to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the world’s first superhero?