Best of the blog 2023

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share posts of the previous 12 months that I feel have the best chance of interesting someone other than me.

This year's hit list:

a Georgia school district asked me not to say “gay” during assemblies and I refused

speaking while Jewish at an international school in Jordan...two days after Hamas attacked Israel

30 kidlit authors/allies tell stories of hope to raise money to combat censorship and book bans

six weeks in a row speaking at schools/conferences: London, Las Vegas, Taiwan, Malaysia, Cambodia

booking a San Antonio school visit...for the next day

visiting Survivor Island in Malaysia

pop culture sites I've visited

CBS Evening News announcing Superman creators will receive benefits, restored credit (1975)

Best of the blog 2022

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share posts of the previous 12 months that I feel have the best chance of interesting someone other than me.

This year's lineup:

planning a virtual children's author benefit for kids of Ukraine

author benefit for kids of Ukraine raises $15,000

introducing Songbook, a web series starring kids I created, wrote, and directed for the Kennedy Center

RIP, Kevin Conroy, voice of animated Batman since 1992

a book about Bill Finger, me...and me

antisemitic graffiti at my kids' high school

Best of the blog 2021

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share the posts of the previous 12 months that I feel are most worth a look.

This year's contenders:

a year under COVID-19

supporting people who lost out when a children’s books festival was canceled due to anti-LGBTQ+ policy

a short film I storyboarded in college...but filmed 28 years later

asking a Tennessee school board to reverse its ban on the Holocaust graphic memoir Maus

changing a cartoon depicting an Indigenous ceremony

the first picture book on the creation of Wonder Woman

a non-Jewish German baker bakes us his first hamantaschen

visiting Beatles sites in London

formative moments from my time in the Jewish youth group BBYO

school visits 2019 vs. during COVID-19

Best of the blog 2020

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share the posts of the previous 12 months that I feel are most worth a look.

This year's roll call:

Finger family mysteries: Bill's mothers and "sisters"
first time lapse of the 9.5-block route Jerry Siegel ran to show Joe Shuster his idea for Superman (Cleveland, 1933)
a stranger willing to hear me out on the Black Lives Matter movement
first official credit for various DC superheroes
quirky daily activities for families during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders (or anytime)
RIP Henry Grimes (jazz pioneer and one of the people profiled in my book Vanished: True Stories of the Missing)
oral history of 1990s drama My So-Called Life
interview with the actress who co-starred in director Steven Spielberg's first commercial release, the short film Amblin' (1968)
RIP Emily Manasch (Bill Finger's half-sister, who died in 2018)

Best of the blog 2019

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share the posts of the previous 12 months that I feel have the widest appeal.

This year's hit parade:

an eighth grader's exceptional project on Bill Finger
revisiting Bill Finger sites in New York (and interrupting a tour of historic sites)
how mentioning sexual orientation during assemblies can lead to both lows and highs
a paperweight that carries significant weight
how to make a stellar elementary graduation slideshow
is the Flash really the fastest DC superhero?
young writers with big twists
Batman & Bill makes a timeline of Batman milestones
sensitivity adjustment in my school visit presentations
other Bill Finger-esque stories to be told
visiting Beatles sites in Liverpool, England (in 1993)
speaking on the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship (while seasick)

Best of the blog 2018

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share what I feel have been the strongest posts of the previous 12 months.

This year's hit list:

interviews

child actors from classic episodes of The Twilight Zone 
Superman II actress Leueen Willoughby ("The big one's just as strong as Superman!")
Superman II actress Robin Pappas
FairyTale: A True Story actress Florence Hoath
cast of the Budweiser "Whassup!" commercials

speaking

an unforeseen problem when mentioning sexual orientation during an elementary assembly 
brave and heartening responses from kids after an insensitive incident at their school
brave and uplifting public appearance by a same-sex family who were hurt by students during elementary assembly
advocating for diversity at kidlit conferences
inaugural speaker for Pat Scales lecture series at University of Montevallo

miscellaneous

Lyn Simmons (Bill Finger's second wife), 1922-2018
visiting my third of the New Seven Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu
visiting the Beatles sites of Hamburg, Germany
visiting a Mayan ruin in Guatemala that became a Star Wars Rebel base
visiting the real-life Hall of Justice, in Ohio

Best of the blog 2017

This blog launched on 2/19/08...10 years ago today.

Every February 19, I share what I feel have been the strongest posts of the previous 12 months.

This year's roll call:

interviews

Family Ties: an oral history as told by its guest stars

speaking

the problem with mentioning sexual orientation in an elementary assembly
"Nobody ever comes here"
six states in ten days

publishing 

The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra: photo gallery of day 1

miscellaneous

the unveiling of Bill Finger Way street sign in the Bronx
a third letter written by Bill Finger (1966)
the only known video of Bill Finger's son Fred (1989)
Batman & Bill documentary: the public's response
the educational value of Batman & Bill
Batman & Bill gets the "Dear Photograph" treatment
Charles Sinclair (Bill Finger's longtime writer partner), 1924-2017
lesser-noticed 21st century changes in DC Comics
strangers moved to kindness for a rural Virginia school
teachers eating crickets

Best of the blog 2016

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share what I feel have been the strongest posts of the previous 12 months.

This year’s lineup:

interviews

granddaughter of the late Bill Lutz, original writer of Scooby-Doo
Mimi Broadhead, who played Ren's younger cousin in Footloose
Harry Waters, Jr., who played singer Marvin Berry in Back to the Future
Jennifer Runyon, who played a Venkman test subject in the opening scene in Ghostbusters
Françoise Brun-Cottan, who voiced Tuffy/Nibbles in 1950s Tom and Jerry cartoons

speaking

speaking at Google NYC headquarters
last-minute bookings can work out great
superheroic welcomes 

publishing 

trying to interview H.F. Saint, reclusive author of 1987 novel Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Amazon's dialogue-only short story app Rapids and the value of reading on devices

miscellaneous

every Entertainment Weekly "in memoriam" cover since its 1989 launch
guess the kidlit desks contest
comic book covers with more than two hero/villain logos 
Superman/Dick Grayson team-ups
responding to writer who believes Bill Finger should not be credited for Batman
tracking down sites of iconic Vietnam War-era photographs in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) 
my 1990 short story that inspired a 14-minute song
what I learned making a documentary
a post-election plea to reissue a 1949 Superman poster pitching tolerance
meet the "Flintstones" routine
Jurassic Park with elephants
visiting The Breakfast Club school

Best of the blog 2015

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share what I feel have been the previous twelve months’ posts with the most.

This year’s elite:

transcends category

Bill Finger will now be officially credited on Batman
fans, celebrities, and media respond to Bill Finger credit announcement
Bill Finger credit begins to appear on TV shows and in comics
making the case that Bill Finger deserves co-creator status 
top 10 pop culture moments of 2015

interviews

Robert vanMaanen, who as a boy in the early 1970s befriended his neighbor, Bill Finger
Lee Ann Marie, the girl in the video for the 1984 Survivor song “I Can’t Hold Back”…and the unofficial 2015 sequel video
Howard Murphy, who played the first live-action Green Lantern (in the two-part 1979 TV special Legends of the Superheroes)

speaking

feedback: Tennessee Association of School Librarians conference 2015
feedback: Charlotte S. Huck Children's Literature Festival 2015
feedback: University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Children’s Literature Conference 2015
how I got to the American Association of School Librarians 2015 conference
mentioning a person is gay in rural Tennessee schools 

research 

what Bill Finger left behind

publishing

Proust Questionnaire: Kidlit Edition
your life is nonfiction
my book dedications
my picture book pantheon

miscellaneous 

Co-Creator, the (first) play about Bill Finger
visiting the Taj Mahal (don’t miss the time-lapse video) and the site where Gandhi was assassinated
Bill Finger action figure 
wordplay with “Bill,” “Finger,” and “bat” in Bill the Boy Wonder
a mural tribute to the 1970s Sea World water skiing superheroes show
my college paper on The New Yorker magazine
me at famous historical sites
the Phi Beta Kappa cartoon controversy
rejections for my cartoons
two published insults to Bill Finger, one early and one posthumous
superheroes who are not called superheroes  
I was a teenage photographer

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 year’s 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

Best of the blog 2013

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 year's medalists:

speaking

• at a school visit in Tanzania, what made an especially big impact—literally
• the aftermath of the Tanzania UFO
• delivering Chris Crutcher's keynote
• a Plum Creek Literacy Festival attendee's reaction to my presentation
• being welcomed by trumpets
• Bill Finger and I go to Texas

promotion

• 74 years after he co-created Batman in New York City, Bill Finger makes the New York Times
• Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman on NBC News/Today Show/MSN
• talking Bill Finger on Kevin Smith's Fat Man on Batman podcast
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar meets Batman
• Bill the Boy Wonder around the world
• one way to get people talking about the subject of your book

research

• Facebook is also Findbook
• secrets hidden in Bill the Boy Wonder
• trying to reach Jerry Siegel in 1994
• original (and in some cases final) interviews with eight writers/artists of the Golden/Silver Age of Comics
• Bill Finger and gay culture
• the sole Bill Finger screen credit...for Superman

publishing

• kidlit authors read aloud a bad review of their own books
• is Bill the Boy Wonder a children's book?
• rules I broke in Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
• guess the picture book
• unused covers for Bill the Boy Wonder
• nonfiction invasion at International Reading Association Convention 2013

miscellaneous

• why Bill the Boy Wonder should have received an Eisner nomination
• despite significant support from both the public and the press, Google did not give Bill Finger a doodle on his 100th birthday
• original interviews with ingenues of iconic 1980s music videos
• comic book scripts I wrote for Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• ghost hunting authors
• proposing a Bill Finger memorial in New York City
• Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are not heroes
• Bill Finger's sole granddaughter and great-grandson meet their public
• kids write letters to Bob Kane as Bill Finger's son (warning: profound thoughts)
• solving the mystery of the Wonder Twins movie poster
• Superman turns 75
• funny signs from my travels
• where art tells the story in Bill the Boy Wonder
• Boys of Steel with Boys of Steel
• "The Bloodhound Gang" - where are they now?
• my earliest published work
• the first actor to play Bill Finger
• three junctures at which Bob Kane could have acted nobly
• the eeriness of a music video produced four days before 9/11
• the shape of the border of Bill Finger's yearbook portrait

Best of the blog 2012

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 year's winners: 

research 

• the big reveals in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman 
• Bill Finger's first sister is not in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman
• what else is not in Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman
• delivering Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman to Charles Sinclair and Carmine Infantino, two men who were hugely helpful during research
• why I am now the only known person with a sample of Bill Finger's handwriting
• the only two known surviving letters Bill Finger wrote
• how Bill Finger almost made the credits of the 1989 Batman film 
• what Bill Finger did, what Bob Kane did not do 
• Bill Finger's death certificate
• Bob Kane's niece doesn't like my Bill Finger story 

 

speaking 

 

• meeting a little girl who vanished...and who is in my book Vanished
• reactions to my Nevada Reading Week Conference keynote...and Thirty Minutes Over Oregon
• my TED talk on Bill Finger  
• mysterious doors at a writers' conference 
• what I take to school visits: an evolution 

 

promotion 

 

• Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman reviews 
• Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman book trailer
• behind Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman book trailer 
• NPR's All Things Considered covers Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman   
• "Call Bill Finger" (to the tune of "Call Me Maybe")  
• giving fans the Finger at Comic-Con International
• winners of contest to describe Bill Finger's legacy in exactly six words
• authors vs. kids beach volleyball at the Martha's Vineyard Children's Book Fair
• will The Dark Knight Rises bring people to Bill the Boy Wonder?
• why I honored my "Batman commitments" the day of The Dark Knight Rises cinema shooting 

 

publishing

 

• a book that inspired a blog that inspired a book that inspired a blog 
• a Beethoven-Justin Bieber duet
• types of book titles I avoid using

 

miscellaneous

• first assembly at Sandy Hook Elementary after the tragedy
• first picture book author on Easter Island?
• authors dressed as superheroes
• a letter from Destiny
• Boys of Steel vs. Bill the Boy Wonder chart 
• comics creators action figures 
• Boys of Steel: The Movie?
• the $130 check that bought Superman in the Age of Unenlightment 
• Superman = Springsteen, Batman = Bon Jovi
• how might Bill Finger react to DC reinventing one of his characters as gay?
• comic books that stayed with me from youth...and a Boy of Steel surprise
• using Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman in the classroom  
• Harry and the Terrible Whatzit
• the closest I came to Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel (without realizing it at first)  
• the Sea World reunion I (indirectly) inspired
• a Super Friends voice actor meets his fans for the first time   
• a Captain Marvel meets the fans he didn't know he had