"Perfectly paced"

Read That Again graded Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman a B+: "...a fine biographical work, with a fun, positive tone...the...postscript includes an even-handed explanation of the lengthy legal struggle that Jerry Siegel waged against DC Comics..."

Another best book of 2008 list

The Belmont Public Library in Massachusetts included Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman on their list of their best books of 2008.

First negative review!

The first line of the review of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman at The Comics Reporter suggests a positive take is forthcoming.

So much for the power of suggestion.

It is the 53rd review of the book I have archived (though not all have been posted here), and the first negative one: "...the story feels fairly bland and extremely limited in scope as presented here. There's nothing that distinguishes the writing from an almost completely unadorned presentation of the narrative..."

As you would expect, I subjectively disagree! (And, of course, almost by definition picture books are "limited in scope.")

But then there's this: "I can't imagine what kid would enjoy reading this."

Now that one I can disagree with objectively, since I have had the honor of hearing from many kids who have loved the book and read it again and again.

"A spirited look into the creative process"

Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook, named Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman his Read-Aloud of the Week.

Here's the link, though it appears that it remains the same with each new RAOTW. Here's another link to the review, though that, too, is not a Permalink.

More from Kansas

The Tonganoxie Mirror, a Kansas newspaper, covered my January 8 visit to Tonganoxie High School as part of the Superman's First Home on Earth author visit tour.

Also, Mission Valley Middle School in Prairie Village, Kansas, posted photos from my January 9 visit. Note the photo of me eating lunch with students. These were smart kids, all interested in reading and writing. I'm quite sure at least one of them will be one of my competitors one day!

I did not know this was happening

On January 13, I had the honor of giving an hour-and-a-half presentation on Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. To my surprise, the event sold out (due entirely to Superman, of course, not me). After, my host told me that we sold more books than most speakers.



Another surprise: at the back of the room, unknown to me at the time, the respected comics industry site Newsarama was live-blogging with gusto about my presentation. A sampling (and click here for the full play-by-play and presentation photo):

7:54PM: Already starting off interesting, even though Nobleman isn’t here yet. Sightings of Eliot Spitzer and Paul Krugman — and I thought this was going to be a low-key event.

8:19PM: Ooh, he calls Superman “the” icon. Good start.

8:34PM: The first half of the book is over — now time for Easter Eggs!

8:40PM: Nobleman...talks about looking out of Jerry’s actual window — apparently the image in the book is faithful to the truth. The Siegels apparently have huge hearts, and let Nobleman in unannounced. [NOTE: It was not the Siegels. They haven't lived there for decades! It was the Gray family.]

9:09PM: Doubt is cast on whether or not Hitler banned Superman. Apparently Hitler banned every import, except for Mickey Mouse, apparently. Nobleman thinks the whole story is bunk.

9:21PM: Nobleman said he ended his illustrated story with Superman’s high point in 1939, not with them selling the rights. “They deserve it.” Well said.

9:32PM: Nobleman has opened it up to questions.

9:41PM: Jesus is finally brought up as a Biblical forebearer for Superman. Also Jewish assimilation is discussed by another audience member. Some of these audience members are pretty adamant in this belief. Nobleman is being a pretty good sport about this, even though Zorro had a secret identity 20 years before.

5/15/13 addendum: I spoke at the Y again, this time about Bill Finger.

Jews of Steel

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was one of ten books for older readers named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book of Jewish Content for 2009.

In the story proper (the illustrated portion), I did not feel there was an organic way to textually mention that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were Jewish; I did, however, request that we show Shabbat candles in one scene. And I do address their Judaism in the Author's Note, including the possible Hebrew interpretation of Superman's Kryptonian name and my take on the persistent claim that Hitler personally banned Superman.

"Superman's First Home on Earth" author visit tour

In the real world, Superman was molded in Ohio.

In the comics, Superman—to be precise, Clark Kent—was molded in Kansas. He grew up on a farm in fictional Smallville.

Therefore, last week, I made my first trip to the Jayhawk State (that nickname sounds cooler than the Sunflower State). I called it the "Superman's First Home on Earth" author visit tour.

Just as I spoke at various institutions in Cleveland in November, encouraging the locals to take pride in the icon that was created in their backyard, I spoke at schools and a library in the Kansas City area figuratively winking at the audience when I told them an infant Superman's rocket landed in a cornfield in their home state.

One school really got into the spirit. Aside from plastering the halls with signs about the book, and ensuring that it was read in every class before I came, they even blasted the theme from Superman: The Movie as the students filed onto the bleachers. That music is so inspirational that it is a hard act to follow!

The Superman/Kansas hook worked so well and the people were so welcoming that I am already happily scheduled to return to Kansas in October (and possibly earlier), for part two of the tour.

92 for 27 on 13

On the evening of January 13, I will be speaking at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. This is not your ordinary Y.

Past speakers at this prestigious institution have included Dustin Hoffman, Elie Wiesel, and Bill Clinton; cripes, PBS's Bill Moyers is interviewing a Nobel Prize-winning New York Times columnist elsewhere in the building at the same time as my talk.

What you are thinking right now surely mirrors my first thought when this was arranged back in the summer: why are they letting me present there? And will anyone pay $27 to hear it?

If you see no post here on January 14, you will know the answers to those questions are momentary insanity and no.

But either way, it is a serious privilege and I look forward to making the most of it, which, of course, increases the chance of the audience getting the most of it.

Onward to 2009

This will most likely be my last post of the first year I have blogged.

Thank you to those who come here regularly. I appreciate the support you've given. Professionally, 2008 was the year of Siegel and Shuster for me. I am determined to make 2009 the year of...

In the New Year, I will share more research discoveries, promotion gambles, and assorted other adventures in publishing.

The expedition is just beginning.

"Surprisingly poignant"

The San Francisco Chronicle included Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman on its list of book suggestions for the holidays.

School to store to fair to store

On Friday, December 12, I spoke to an energized auditorium of students at an elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia. I got up at 4:30 a.m. to get on the road and believe me, they kept me awake that afternoon.

The next day I signed copies of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (and ate two pieces of cake for "Superman's birthday") at Hooray for Books, also in Alexandria.

photo courtesy of Michael Rhode

Events in out-of-town bookstores are often opportunities to catch up with people I have not seen for a while, this one being no exception: attendees included a friend I met in a high school youth group and who grew up in Belgium but lives here now, a friend I worked with in college, the friend who got me my first job out of college, and the woman who was once the girl I took to my senior prom.

In this case, I also had the chance to catch up with a person I have never seen—my second cousin (our grandfathers were brothers), who lived one town over from me growing up but whom I have never met. Family business can be funny business for sure.

Sunday I had back-to-back appearances back in Connecticut. First was at a school book fair, second at a Barnes & Noble.

From Superman to salesman.

North Carolinian exposure

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman made the best of 2008 list of the Chapel Hill Public Library.

Hometown advantage

On Friday, December 5, I was among distinguished company signing books at the 3rd annual Literary Lights book event, which happened to take place in my town. In its first two years, I attended as a customer. It was fun to also go as a participant (while remaining a customer). Then I grabbed a burger and beer with two of my fellow signers.

Photos are here.

"Moved me to tears...a huge achievement"

Robby Reed at DIAL B for BLOG posted what must be the most detailed and complimentary—not to mention longest—review yet for Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman.

The message board responses that have started to come in are equally disarming. Here's my favorite so far, from Happy Sam:

...the Man of Steel first appeared 70 years ago...and what did DC produce in 2008 to celebrate it? (cue crickets...) Marc Tyler Nobleman's BOYS OF STEEL (ably illustrated by Ross MacDonald) IS the best tribute to Superman and his creators...this year, and in many years!

"Word travels fast"

I just stumbled across this lovely and humbling comment at The Miss Rumphius Effect, the kind of little story an author would rarely hear before the blog era:

My boys love this book. It is always in someone's book bag. When I first got it, a couple of boys from downstairs came up to me and asked "Mr. Kimmal, can we read your new Superman book?" It had only been in the building for a day. Word travels fast.

Maybe faster than a...well, you know.

First day of filming

Today, to my own great surprise, we filmed the first interview. For what, I can't say yet. Here's a photo taken after:

Who she is, I can't say yet. By name, anyway. But she was Bill Finger's second wife.

(NOTE: I added her name as a label for this post not when it originally posted but later, after I had revealed it in another post.)

"Rousing...enormously appealing"

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer has finally acknowledged Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman. I was never given a guarantee that it would but I did assume that if only one newspaper in the world would take notice, it would be that one, the daily of the city where the story took place. It's a nice review.

Today I also learned that the book did not make the holiday round-up in People, though they did consider it.

A best book of 2008

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was included on the best books of 2008 list at a Washington State library system.

Three C's for "Steel"

On her School Library Journal blog, Betsy Bird called Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman "ultra-cool." (This on top of her kind official review from earlier this year.) Even though kids immediately recoil from anything adults call any kind of cool, I will gladly accept her compliment. (Besides, of course, kids are not reading her blog.)

Random House made flash cards to showcase recent picture book biographies, and Boys of Steel is included. I believe they send these to schools and maybe even bookstores.

Boys of Steel has been nominated for a Cybil. The Cybils are the "premier Web awards for children's literature," run by bloggers. In their third year, they are already established enough that publishers submit books for consideration. A lot of books in my category (nonfiction picture books) got nominations, which makes me struggle to think of a nonfiction picture book released this year that was not nominated...but it nonetheless is an honor to be nominated! If even a fraction of the number of books were nominated, it'd still be stiff competition, so I am eager to see what happens. (I don't yet know how the process works or precisely what it means.)

Perhaps the nation

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was named to the Kirkus Reviews list of the Best Children's Books of 2008. It's on page 12 of this PDF. [5/18/11 update: This link is now inactive. I am waiting to hear if the list has been posted elsewhere since a quick search didn't reveal it.]

The write-up describes the book as celebrating "the birth of an American icon that reinvented the comic book and, perhaps, the nation itself."

Photos from a mini-book tour

Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco, 10/26/08

Top billing: baked goods. Technically, unbaked goods.

Sequoia Middle School, Pleasant Hill, CA 10/28/08

Sequoia interior photos courtesy of Nancy Brenner

Bancroft Elementary, Walnut Creek, CA, 10/30/08—no baked goods!

books to sign

Mazza Museum of International Art from Picture Books, Findlay, OH,
"Funday Sunday" (event held every first Sunday of the month);
Superman theme, 11/2/08;
volunteers wore homemade Superman outfits, author did not

Kids (and adults) "signed in" on a window on a Metropolis cityscape drawing.

I did not drink this.

Superman and Lois Lane

Clark Kent and (another) Lois Lane

This actually gives me a better hairline.

Kids could design their own blue, red, and yellow cookies.

certain Mazza photos courtesy of Diana E. Hoffman

The Cleveland Public Library made a spiffy handbill for my two 11/6/08 talks there.

Flying Colors

When in San Francisco, I stopped by Flying Colors, a comics shop that I'd heard is particularly savvy about marketing. Everyone there was more than nice, and Joe, the owner, was easy to talk to. They have a blog, too, and since you know how much I like proof, here is proof I was there.

Siegel, Shuster, and Obama

On Thursday, November 6, something happened in a small room at the Cleveland Public Library, Glenville branch, that made me even more excited about politics than I already was last week. Except it wasn't really about politics at all.

Glenville is the neighborhood where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster lived when they created Superman in 1934. At the time, it was predominantly Jewish. Today it is predominantly black and poor.

Earlier that day I had spoken at the main branch, downtown. The audience was mostly young black people. I was expecting the same in Glenville. Instead I was ushered into a room where about 35 or 40 members of the adult community leadership organization were finishing up a meeting. They, too, were almost all black. Some of them were holding Obama signs—two days after the election. The purpose of the signs had switched from tool of persuasion to badge of honor.

I gave my presentation, hoping they would feel pride for the seminal event that had occurred in their neighborhood. They did seem moved by the story, which some had not known before.

Then my friend Tracey Kirksey, head of the Glenville Development Corp. and almost certainly one of the ten kindest people in the world, asked if she could say something. I said of course.

She proceeded to emphasize how Jerry and Joe were underdogs who had a vision and worked hard to see it come to pass. In succeeding, they bucked the odds and made history. Then she unexpectedly compared them to Barack Obama in spontaneous words so eloquent that I wish I had recorded them. The essence was that she felt she could tell her children that they could be president one day—only now, she finally fully believed it to be true. The others, of course, reacted with jubilation.

Of all the Boys of Steel experiences I've had since the book came out, this was by far the most profound. I felt so lucky to be in Ohio, in Glenville, for that moment.

Ping-Ponging around Ohio

After five days in California, I flew to Ohio on Halloween morning. This is the state where Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman took place. Highlights so far:

- The Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster on 11/1 was an exceptionally well-run event. Patient and efficient organizers, brisk attendance, even great signage. I sold more copies there than at any other single-day event I've been to so far.

- For months, other writers have told me to expect enthusiasm of a higher level when I appeared at the Mazza Museum of picture book art in Findlay. Despite that, I was still not prepared for what greeted me there when I came to speak and sign on 11/2. I will be posting photos and a rundown next week once I'm home (and reunited with my camera cable).

- On Monday, 11/3, I had my first school visits in Cleveland, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they were all in Glenville, the neighborhood where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster lived when they created Superman. In fact, the host school (two other schools came there for the presentations) runs along Parkwood Avenue, the street Jerry ran down to Joe's apartment in 1934 to share the fanciful idea he'd had the night before. It was so meaningful to me to share the story with these kids. I wish I knew how they processed it. I wanted to know if it meant something to them to learn that they live where America's most iconic fictional character was born.

After, I had the pleasure of meeting the head of the Glenville Development Corp., the tireless Tracey Kirksey, who has done so much for the community and has been a great ear for me this past year as I've pitched her various ideas to assist the Siegel and Shuster Committee in revitalizing the neighborhood and boosting its Superman heritage. She gave me a slate tile from the roof of Jerry's former home, which has been redone thanks to Brad Meltzer's successful fundraising campaign. This tile dates back to the beginning of the house, so it was over Jerry's head the night he conceived Superman.

- On 11/4, I enjoyed being in a swing state on a presidential election day. There's a different energy here than what I'm used to in Connecticut, which of course has not been a swing state as long as I've been voting, if ever. Another first for me today was speaking at a hospital (the Cleveland Clinic) to children in the pediatric ward. This is the only time I have gone into a presentation hoping for a small audience. The kids and their accompanying parents or caretakers were engaged and seemingly wowed to learn that Superman comes from their hometown. I even broke my own rule and drew someone else's character for them.

Guess who.