Great ideas for schools #6: A school blossoms

A school in Houston planted a tree in 1984, but didn't use any soil or water. And it's indoors.

They painted a trunk on a main wall inside the school. Every year, every student adds a leaf in the form of a fingerprint.

This is what the tree looks like today:



Thumb's up—and sprouting all around—for this simple idea that yields a surprisingly poignant reaction.

Please help me find four missing superheroes

Some superheroes vanish—and I don' t just mean ones with the power of invisibility.

For a large project, I'm looking for four actors who have almost no screen credits beyond appearing together in a 1979 TV special, Legends of the Superheroes. Three of the four have quite common names:

1. Garrett Craig; there are at least two; this is the one I want; 1/26/11 update: FOUND!

2. Howard Murphy; AFTRA has record of a "Howard L. Murphy" and that is probably him; he is not the Howard Murphy who appeared in a 1982 film called Satan's Mistress; I did find him and he told me that on IMDB, his data and the data of my Howard Murphy are combined into one person

3. Barbara Joyce; she once was repped by Howard Talent West; 1/26/11 update: FOUND!

4. Danuta Wesley

None have been active in film/TV for decades and none have a current agent or service number listed at SAG or AFTRA. I've been searching for months with no luck, Googling, Facebooking, Zabasearching till my fingers whimpered, but there are simply too many people with most of these names.

These four are collectively the last piece of a puzzle I've been assembling since 1/10. I'm hoping that they or family or friends of theirs will stumble upon this post and contact me immediately. This would lead to not only a fun opportunity for any or all of these four former actors, but also quite likely a profitable one.

My email is at the top right of this blog.

The first public lie against Bill Finger?

Jerry Bails’s 1965 article was not the first time the creation of Batman was addressed in print. Almost twenty years earlier, in Real Fact Comics #5 (1946), DC had published a different telling—except it was a preposterous fake.


According to that story, Bob first drew Batman with the help of a (suitably muscular) friend modeling a now-familiar costume . . . made by Bob’s mother.

 
You can imagine what Bill Finger thought of this: the same as you.

Only more venomously.

1/22/17 addendum: I inadvertently covered this again, in slightly more detail.

Spook books

Not long ago (up until the 1800s, to be precise), some people did not "believe" in giant squid.

Sailors swore they saw such creatures but lacked cameras to document rare sightings, so landlubbers attributed the outlandish claims to a trick of the eye or scurvy. (Wait, does scurvy bring about hallucinations or dementia? Well, they chalked it up to some kind of sea disease.)

I would've been one of the believing landlubbers. The unknown is all around us, and sometimes we don't even know that we don't know. Whenever possible, I write about the supernatural, particularly ghosts.

One is a practical guidebook in trying to prove whether or not ghosts are real:

One is part of a series of high-interest nonfiction books:

For this series, called Atomic!, I also wrote on vampires (though this was several years ago, the topic was already long overdone then), aliens and UFOs, and mummies (addressing both the real deal, meaning preserved corpses, and the supernatural qualities associated with them).

Speaking of E.T.s, for a Weekly Reader publication, I pitched and wrote a short play about a strange visitor from another school...or possibly planet.

I've written several novels involving the supernatural. One is a quirky spin on werewolves, though you'd have a hard time knowing that from the title:

My proposed title was Instant Instinct. Maybe that's no better, but the point was to immediately indicate that this is not your typical werewolf treatment. (Another short play I wrote was built around another twist on lycanthropy.)

The following is my favorite of the bunch, partly because it focuses on a supernatural denizen that doesn't get as much attention as the ones above. Do you know that this is?:

My original title was The Lightning Gnomes. I thought that would be quite a curiosity, more so than what it was changed to. But there was a concern that gnomes, not widely considered one of the hipper of mythical creatures, would not grab eyeballs (whereas I think their relative scarcity is what makes them marketable).

Another I wrote, The Ghost Champion, is forthcoming. Exactly when?

Appropriately enough, that is still unknown.

Battle axe to the head

A recent Groupon offer included a short feature called “The Groupon Guide to: Medieval Weaponry.”

From that title alone I should have been clear that it was a joke. (In my defense, Groupon emails do arrive early in the morning.)

Yet I was struck by a “factoid” it put forth: “When choosing a shape for the original Batman logo, cartoonist Bob Kane was both inspired, and injured, by a falling battle axe.”

I’d never heard of this. But because the blurb specified a name rather than referring generically to the cartoonist of Batman, I thought maybe, just maybe, there was some truth in it, or it was based on a similar incident that was exaggerated in the translation.

So I actually contacted Groupon to verify. Groupon surely got a good laugh out of me, but they were polite enough not to do it while I was still on the phone.

Turns out the “factoid” was completely made up by an employee who also participates in the comedy outfit Second City.

You can laugh at me, too, but also remember that when I research, I stop at nothing to ensure I’ve got the story correct.

Okay, you can now go back to laughing at me.

Stamford: Springdale and Stillmeadow

On 11/17/10, I made my first visit to Stillmeadow Elementary in Stamford, Connecticut. I was told that teachers there had been using my cartoon vocabulary books in class even before the school thought of contacting me.


Thank you for your support! I am honored whenever I learn a school has incorporated any of my work into curriculum.

Thank you also for selling so many books:

Afterward, I jetted across town for my third visit to Springdale Elementary, where I was welcomed by this (lovely but poorly photographed by yours truly) homemade banner:

Enterprising young man/possible future author

A student (4th grade, I believe) from a Houston school I presented at friend requested me afterward. I told him I appreciate that but do not link with young people online. He wrote back to tell me that he understands—and to float an idea that demands to be shared: "I was thinking maybe we can make a story together. Think about it—it can be the first story you made with a kid."

I do love a good hook...and a go-getter. Literally as I was writing this post, I received a second message from him: "Oh, and I won't stop trying. Just like you did not stop." (He was referring to the primary message of my presentation, the importance of persistence.)

While I won't be able to accept the offer, I will keep an eye out for this one...

Great ideas for schools #5: Name That Book

The Cypress-Fairbanks school district in Houston holds an annual contest that gets kids excited about reading, and got me excited, too: Name That Book.

The district has approximately 50 schools. Every year, students districtwide are challenged to read a fixed selection of 100 books by May. Then a group of students from each school competes, school vs. school, to answer questions about the books before a live studio audience (of parents).

For example, a Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman question might be “Who was Joe Shuster’s creative partner?” or “In what city was Superman created?”

I love this idea because it motivates kids not only to read but to read a lot, and it also challenges them to retain what they’ve read. Plus the event seems like it’d be quite lively to watch!

Something else I love about Name That Book is something I didn’t consider until a librarian mentioned it. Many school reading campaigns are aimed at reluctant readers. This one, however, is aimed at avid and higher-level readers, giving them incentive to read even more.

Lastly, there is a winner. It frustrates me when I hear of schools that have done away with competition so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings. Life is competition and to prepare for it, kids need to know that they will not always win.

Name that Book is in May. I’d buy a ticket for it if I could.

Batman: the right ingredients to endure

Batman was not the second DC superhero (after Superman) or the first non-powered superhero or the first masked superhero or even the first non-powered masked comic book superhero. A character named the Crimson Avenger was all of those things before him.

Precursors from other media included the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, the Shadow, and the Phantom. They also lacked powers, wore masks, or both. Yet today, none of these characters (some of whom Batman was in part based on) are as popular as Batman.

I believe this is in large part due to the wrenching origin Bill Finger gave the character, but also because of the skillful way in which Bill blended various elements from other characters. Though those characters were familiar to many at the time, Batman still seemed fresh. It was as if Batman were a recipe in which even a pinch more salt or a teaspoon less of vanilla could have altered (and maybe ruined) the result.

Acknowledgments assemble!

When researching a book, I keep track of literally every person I talk to in my quest for information. So as I document my subject, I must simultaneously document those who helped me document my subject.

With my upcoming picture book on Bill Finger and Batman, that list has exceeded 200 (and, although the manuscript has already been signed off on, continues to grow).

Some people let loose bombshells while others provided nothing new. Still, with only a few exceptions, everyone was kind and, if not helpful, apologetic that they couldn’t be. My tendency is to want to give a nod in print to anyone who took time to hear me out about a project, however briefly. Yet, like any part of the writing process, self-editing is necessary.

If space were no issue, I’d include them all in the acknowledgments. However, when is space not an issue? I will manage to thank a good percentage. Curiously, I’ve found that I feel compelled to thank people who were courteous even if they knew nothing with equal weight as those who contributed vital tidbits.

For the first time, it made me reflect on the reality that acknowledgments are not only a blueprint of the knowledge base that builds a book but also a reminder of the truth that sometimes, all someone needs to do to earn someone else’s gratitude is respond to a stranger’s e-mail.

Authors, do you thank only those who contributed information that made it into the book or do you thank every nice person you consulted along the way?

Now that's a good listener

A big focus of my school presentations is the importance of persistence in the face of rejection. After one presentation, the principal wrote me the following:

Our office manager Brian, his daughter, and his two grandchildren were in the audience for part of your presentation. Brian told me that on the drive home, [his] five-year-old [grandson] James asked his mom for some candy, and she told him no. Every few minutes, James asked again, and again, and again. Finally his mother asked him why he kept asking her when she told him he couldn't have any candy. His response was, "Because the man said if you keep asking, you will get it."

Favorite school slogans #2

Montowese Elementary, North Haven, Connecticut:

Note: This is not a ranking but rather a list in order of discovery.

A nonfiction interview

Donna Bowman Bratton kindly interviewed me about Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and nonfiction in general.

Bill Finger as told by those who knew him well

Early Batman artist/ambassador of comics Jerry Robinson on Bill: “Very soft, kind. Naïve, as most of us were. Not outgoing. Reserved but very easy to get to know. We became fast friends. He actually became my cultural mentor.”

“Father of Fandom” Jerry Bails on Bill: “Bill was an avid reader and fan of good fiction, popular fiction, and action movies. He surrounded himself with artifacts and books he loved. He was not a braggart, but was clearly pleased to talk about his creations. He appeared to be more like most comics fans in terms of personality. He lived more in his imagination than in the world of hard knocks. He was not a joke-maker, but he enjoyed telling stories about how he worked. He was very dedicated to his craft. He was not shy, but he would defer to others in conversations. I’d call him considerate and the opposite of overbearing. I had no trouble believing everything he told me.”

Bill’s second wife on Bill: “Very, very warm, very sincere, very hard-working, even though he had problems meeting deadlines. He had a good sense of humor. He was very interested in the theater, and ballet, and classical music. He wouldn’t write any violent comic books. He gave an awful lot of thought to writing.”

Longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair on Bill: “He was the opposite of a sourpuss. Without being wildly jovial, he was a funny guy. Great sense of humor. Liked to joke. He was extremely well read. He deserved a lot better than he got. I enjoyed knowing him, and I miss him.”

Me on Bill: “I miss him, too, even though I never met him.” 

Most of these recollections are culled from personal interviews I conducted. The last two lines of Charles’s comments are paraphrased from Alter Ego #84, 3/09.

My first bookstore signing

Fourteen years ago today, on 11/21/96, I did my first book signing at a bookstore, for The Felix Activity Book. (My first book signing ever was shortly before, on 11/9/96, at the Rizzoli Book Fair held at the World Trade Center.)

I was living in New York City at the time. The signing was about two hours away at Millrace Bookshop in Farmington, Connecticut.

This display includes a copy of the cover of my book The Felix Activity Book.

My publicist had arranged for me to take a bus.

I nimbly managed to miss that bus.

After scrambling and realizing that I would not be able to catch another bus (or train) and arrive in time, I was forced to rent a car and drive myself.

It was nerve-racking enough going alone to my own first book signing, but then having to drive a car out of the city (which I’d never done)—pre-GPS—compounded my anxiety.

Yet I made it on time and in good shape. Plus people actually showed up. I only wish I took more than the photo above.

The drive home was a victory lap I never could've taken if I was on the bus.

Compare with my first book signing of any kind.

Untold tale of Bill Finger #7: Writing beyond comic books

The non-comics professional writing Bill did included scripts for radio, television (both drama and animation), low-budget science fiction movies (including cult favorite The Green Slime), and army training films. He even published articles on carpentry. More than once he tried to become an editor but was unsuccessful.

South Dakota Children's Book Awards

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman has been nominated for a 2010-2011 Prairie Pasque Award (grades 3-5), which is run through the South Dakota State Library. Another state I’d love to visit!

The kids vote and the winners are announced every April during National Library Week.

Untold tale of Bill Finger #6: Superman by Bill Finger

Bill Finger is best (un)known for co-creating Batman, but he contributed lasting elements to the Superman mythos as well.

Though kryptonite, Superman’s weakness, was first used on the Superman radio program, Bill was the first to include it in a comic book story; in the same story, Superman reaches perhaps an even more significant milestone: he first learns of his alien heritage. Bill also wrote the story introducing Superman’s first love, Lana Lang.

2/13/22 addendum: The stellar sleuthing of Brian Cronin determined that the first time Batman faced off against Lex Luthor without Superman (Batman #130, 1960) was written by...no drum roll needed...Bill Finger. 

North Haven, CT school visit

After my kickoff school visit of the year, a Connecticut paper ran two photos, which the school was most kind to scan and email:

Turning the Page #1

From 2001 to 2010, I had the honor of volunteering for an enriching New York City program called Authors Read Aloud (part of an organization called Learning Leaders). I was one of a group of authors who visited with students in underfunded New York City schools (mine were always in the Bronx).

Each author would meet with two classes per visit, four times a year; this setup allowed the authors and students to develop more of a personal ongoing relationship. This struck me as the genius of the program. It enabled more growth than a one-off presentation and gave everyone (including the authors) something to look forward to.

During the summer of 2010, I moved from Connecticut to Maryland. Authors Read Aloud doesn't (yet) exist in the Washington DC area. Sad as I was to say goodbye to that program, in my new environment I stumbled upon another program that may help fill that emotional gap.

On 11/4/10, I volunteered for the first time for a Washington DC program called Turning the Page.

It, too, sends volunteer authors to schools in lower-income neighborhoods, but beyond that, the structures diverge.

A Turning the Page author goes to schools after hours, as part of what they call community nights. After we eat dinner together, the author gives a short presentation for the kids—and their parents. Then the kids leave for mentoring while the author conducts a (fairly lengthy, as these things go) Q&A session with just the parents. The families get not only a free meal but also a free, signed book.

And therein lies the genius of this program.

Moms, dads, grandparents, and/or guardians who are actively interested in writing and reading send a powerful message to their kids. Motivated parents = motivated students.

Further, TTP buys a supply of the author's books in advance, and each child whose parent attends the event gets a signed copy at no charge. Before that, however, the books serve vital purpose:

On a side note, my book about Superman has given schools an easy way to promote positive attitude, though each school I've seen pounce on this has gone about it differently. To wit:

As of now, the only TTP-related stumper I'm grappling with is this: Parents who would take the time to attend a TTP event are probably already vested in their children's education. They may still benefit from what an author has to say, but they won't need convincing of the value of their presence there.

So besides food and fun and books, what else can we do to attract the parents who don't go?

Untold tale of Bill Finger #5: Bend him, shape him

Because of Batman’s physical prowess, Bill sometimes jokingly called him "Acro-Batman." In at least one instance (see Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-46, page 193), Batman referred to himself that way as well.

Surprisingly, "the Dark Knight" was the nickname that really caught on.

Focus on authors' notes

At Simply Donna, I enjoyed a post focusing on authors' notes in books for young people, which, now that I think about it, is a blog topic I've not seen before. I would've enjoyed it even if the author's note from Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was not one of the ones she mentioned. She describes the story I reveal there as "nothing short of fascinating."

To put it simply: thank you, Donna!

Great ideas for schools #4: Signs of education

At Fiest Elementary in the Cy-Fair school district of Houston, signs outside each classroom remind students that teachers were once students, too.


In doing so, these signs emphasize the value of higher education to kids who are still in primary education.

Every so often during the Q&A at the end of my author visits, a student asks if (and/or where) I went to college. What this shows is that a teacher (or a parent) has already planted the seed of the importance of college in a young mind. These Fiest signs reinforce that every day.

The Bobstacle and the Billain

Some Batmaniacs believe that only one obstacle stood between Bill Finger and official co-credit for Batman alongside Bob Kane: Bob Kane. The Bobstacle.

Others might argue that there is another villain in the saga of Bill Finger: Bill Finger. The Billain. The man with so strong an imagination and so weak an ability to lay claim to it.

In this sense, he was his own archenemy.

To be clear, Finger did publicly reveal his role in the creation of Batman, and I believe it took courage for him to do so. Sure enough, when he did, Kane wrote an open letter excoriating Finger for his long-overdue honesty. This was in 1965, at which point Finger had been hiding in the Batcave, so to speak, for more than twenty-five years. (Clarification: Finger's personal network and other comics creators had known of his Batman work, but fans didn't.) From then on, Finger did publicly take credit for his ideas (while also crediting Kane and others for their contributions).

But what Finger did not do is take a stand against Kane. He took credit but did not demand credit.

Or, to be more accurate, if he ever did do this, there's no known record of it. (I do have one personal letter that Finger wrote—to be fully shared here as we near publication—in which he claims he spoke firmly to Kane to correct errors of memory, but that doesn't mean he actually did it; even if he did, it didn't improve his overall station.)

But it was neither the Billain nor the Bobstacle who first publicly linked Finger to Batman. That distinction goes to editor Julie Schwartz. In the letter column of Detective Comics #327 (5/64), Schwartz wrote that Finger had "written most of the classic Batman adventures for the past two decades."

(Though Finger was profiled in Green Lantern #1 in 1941, and Batman is mentioned, the piece does not link the two.)

Then in Batman #169 (2/65), Schwartz gave Finger creator credit…for the Riddler. A popular and enduring character, yes, but no Batman. While both Schwartz shout-outs were validating, neither went so far as to call Finger the co-creator of the Dark Knight himself.

In a 1972 interview, Finger said, "Bob Kane was using me as a kind of tool all this time, to bolster his own paycheck." I believe it is Finger's most forceful indictment of Kane on record. (And it's not very forceful.)

After Finger's untimely death in 1974, Carmine Infantino, the then-President of what would soon be renamed DC Comics, wrote in a printed tribute: "Few men have contributed as much to comics as Bill Finger." 

To which I add no men have contributed as much to Batman as Bill Finger.

It's just such a shame that Bill could never vanquish the Billain.

1/12/18 addendum courtesy of Robert Greenberger: "Julie Schwartz hadn't paid attention to the Bob Kane stuff back in the '40s since he [Julie] started at All-American. So, in 1964, he gets the Bat-titles and he wasn't really interested, so didn't read up on the character or ask management about their arrangement with Bob Kane. He just knew Kane had x number of pages to produce each month. He brought in Joe Giella to harmonize between Shelly Moldoff's ghosted pencils and Carmine Infantino's 'New Look.' As a result, Schwartz had Batman using a gun in [a] story, a slip up he admitted to. Then in the text page [in 1964, see above], he mentioned Bill Finger, not knowing the company's prohibition about crediting Finger with anything related to Batman. He always told us in the office he got into hot water with management over that, but Kane himself didn't notice or at least didn't complain. That had to wait until the Jerry Bails piece [1965]."

Jerry Robinson on Bill Finger biography

In the interview pioneering Golden Age Batman artist Jerry Robinson gave The Comics Journal in conjunction with his recently released biography Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics, he is asked if he feels any other comics creator of his era also deserves a book:

Maybe a biography of Bill Finger, the writer. Somebody might be working on one. I hope they do.

I've interviewed Jerry myself for that very project, multiple times, starting in 2006. As most anyone in comics knows, he's an unwavering gentleman; for example, in the Comics Journal interview, I think he was simultaneously giving a little plug for and being protective of my book. (I don't think he knows that it has already been announced; it's due out in 2012.)

I don't mean to make more of that minor mention than it merits. But with all that Jerry has to keep track of in his 88-year-old mind, he still was able to allude to my book without giving more away. I am impressed, but given his classiness, not surprised.