Bob Kane’s niece

NPR’s All Things Considered interviewed me about Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.

Prior to that, I had had no contact with Bob Kane’s family.

“What?” you are probably wondering. “You didn’t consult anyone from the family of one of the main characters of your book?”

That’s just it—Kane is not one of the main characters in the book. In fact, he barely appears. It is Bill’s story. Batman, to a large degree, is Bill’s story. Creatively, Bob was almost completely irrelevant to what makes Batman endure. (He did not write a single Batman story.)

Plus, Bob’s version of the Batman creation story is hardly hard to come by. For Batman’s nearly-75-year existence, nearly every published telling of it stemmed from Bob. 

That said, I did reach out to Bob’s family, more than once, but did not hear back.

Until I was on NPR. (In other words, after the book was out.)

Bonnie Rosenzweig, who identified herself as Bob’s niece and whom I had not heard of before, posted a comment under the NPR segment:

I would like to know where Marc Tyler Nobleman is getting his facts from. Having grown up with Bob Kane, as his niece, I can attest to the fact that he indeed was the soul [sic] creator and the original artist behind Batman. Bill Finger was a personal friend, and they collaborated as friends, however Bill was not the inspiration for Batman or for the original artwork.

Truth be told, I was happy to hear from Bonnie. My response:

The book includes an extensive list of works cited (the even fuller version will be posting to the book’s site). This includes your uncle’s 1989 autobiography Batman and Me, in which he admits that Bill designed Batman’s costume. Several other DC Comics publications say the same.

Meanwhile, my response to an unrelated comment by someone else included this statement:

Kane was a perpetual liar according to most everyone I talked to who knew him; he contradicted himself even within his own autobiography.

Bonnie’s response to that:

Marc Tyler Nobleman, shame on you for calling Bob Kane a liar. Did you personally know the man. I grew up with him and know almost everything about him. My brother is even named after Bruce Wayne. I have reread my copy of his autobiography to check your references to the book. In my opinion, and with my personal knowledge of Bob Kane you have glorified Bill Fingers involvement, giving him credit for creating Batman is just not true. Some of what you say is correct as far as their collaborative efforts. What is not true is the sequence of events. Bob Kane was the originator and was working at DC when he created Batman. He met Bill Finger after he already created and illustrated the character. Bob was an amazing artist and had an incredible imagination. My guess is your putting out there a lot of sensational misinformation in order to sell your book. People just need to read Batman & Me to be better informed. At least it is coming from the source, and not a third parties interpretation. [all sic]

MTN:

You are right: I did not know Bob personally. I am talking only about his professional dealings with Bill. And since neither you nor I was there, we both have to rely on the accounts of Bill and Bob, to a lesser extent, those who knew them then.

I also encourage anyone to read Batman and Me. It verifies many of my points. In fact, in the book, Bob contradicts himself. On p. 36, Bob shows drawings allegedly made in 1934 of the Batman we know today. But on p. 41, he gives Bill credit for suggesting Batman’s cowl, scalloped cape, dark color scheme—essentially his whole costume—in 1939.

Further, in 1965, Bob (in so many words) called Bill a liar in a condescending letter reprinted here. However, some of what he wrote in ‘65 goes against what he wrote in ‘89. Again a contradiction.

Yes, Bob worked at DC before Bill. Yes, Bob came to Bill with a character sketch. But by Bob’s own admission, Bill overhauled Bob’s design and Bob presented that to DC. Bill wrote the first Batman story and hundreds more; Bob never wrote a Batman story.

If I want to sell books I need to tell the truth. Misinformation is (usually) a quick route to the end of a career.

A few more points worth rebutting:

BR: Bill was not the inspiration for Batman or for the original artwork.

MTN: I did not say he was. But Bob’s original artwork was discarded in favor of Bill’s costume design.

BR: I grew up with him and know almost everything about him.

MTN: Insofar as what Bob told you. I wasn’t the first to point out the pattern of dishonesty in Bob; it stands to reason he would have maintained the charade for his family, too. The stakes were too high.

BR: Bob Kane was the originator and was working at DC when he created Batman. He met Bill Finger after he already created and illustrated the character.

MTN: Bob originated something, but by his own admission, it was not the version that was published. And he did not meet Bill after he had created the character. (Again, see Batman and Me, page 41.)

Bears repeating: If I want to sell books I need to tell the truth.

Batman is a fictional character. 

So is Bob Kane.

6/24/17 addendum: The comments on the NPR piece have been removed. I am glad I copied them first.

The latest on my picture book “Thirty Minutes Over Oregon”

The quest continues for a publisher for my nonfiction picture book manuscript about a man who flies—but not with a cape. (As was typical for WWII pilots.)

What also continues: praise for that manuscript, called Thirty Minutes Over Oregon (which may be retitled Thirty Minutes Over America).

courtesy of Julia Sarcone-Roach

My determination to bring this story to a wide audience was already sky-high but comments like the following fuel it even more:

“It’s so, so cool, and so moving. In a way, it reminds me of the mega-bestseller Unbroken—but for picture-book readers!” — editor, major publisher

“It’s touching and speaks nicely about ideas of nationalism and patriotism (both here and abroad), and multiculturalism, all in a really interesting way.” — editor, another major publisher

“I am blown sideways, gobsmacked, dumbfounded. What an extraordinarily moving story. It simply must be told. I can’t believe it hasn’t been picked up—that is a travesty! And I love how Marc promotes/pitches it on his blog; why, it’s heroic! His passion for the story is palpable—contagious even. He is a gifted storyteller. This tale zigs, it zags and then…whoosh, it dives and hits!” — writer

“The best argument for continuing to write children’s nonfiction I’ve heard.” — Julie Winterbottom, former Nickelodeon Magazine editor

“The story about World War II, Thirty Minutes Over Oregon, has to be published. I am amazed that the story exists and we don’t know about it. That’s what I mean, his passion is contagious.” — Michelle Haseltine, middle school teacher

collected after my keynote at the Nevada Reading Week Conference (though Thirty Minutes Over Oregon took up maybe 5 or 6 minutes out of an hourlong presentation, it got more feedback than anything else I discussed):

“Very interesting—this is great history no one knows about. I hope it will be published soon.”

“I am interested in Thirty Minutes Over Oregon. Hopefully it will be published.”

“Want to read Thirty Minutes Over Oregon.”

“Especially poignant was the publishing process story of the Japanese [pilot] who bombed Oregon.”

“The Japanese bomber story was amazing.”

“Hope the Oregon book goes public.”

“Loved his story about Thirty Minutes Over Oregon and hope it gets published.”

“Interesting Oregon bombing story!”

“The sad story of a great story not yet finding a publisher.”

This was not specifically about Thirty Minutes Over Oregon but is relevant:

“I loved your book [Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman], and your #nerdybookclub post. The more middle grade nonfiction picture books, the better.” — Adam Shaffer ‏@MrShafferTMCE

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman is about persistence.  

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman is about integrity.  

Thirty Minutes Over Oregon is about redemption, and that’s a theme I can’t recall seeing in picture book nonfiction.

Will it take flight in 2013?

An aged author meets his fans for the first time

In 2011, I had a transformative experience as an author fan and as an author myself. I had the great fortune of helping to set up a surprise in which author Edward Ormondroyd, whose first book came out in 1957, met an audience of his fans for the first time in his career.

I have blogged about it in pieces and recently retold the story in one go at the site of the NPR radio show Snap Judgment.

Please read (or revisit, as the case may be) the story and if moved by Edward discovering groupies in his golden years, please comment there (and here, of course). My involvement aside, it is a lovely story about a deserving man.

"Bethesda Magazine" 9-10/12

Bloopers from my early days in publishing

From late 1994 until mid-1997, I worked in marketing at Abbeville Press in New York City. (Never mind that I never took a marketing class in college and if I’d been asked to define “marketing” during the job interview, my bluff would have been painfully obvious.)

 

My naïveté was not limited to the nuances of promotion. I recall three other instances when I felt foolish at work—but in one of those instances, also unfairly maligned.

blooper #1

In my early weeks on the job, one of the senior (and intimidating) editors asked me to look up something in Books in Print. (This was pre-mainstream-Internet.) I confessed to not knowing what that was.

She looked at me with disbelief. “My daughter used it all the time in college.” The takeaway, case you missed that, is that her daughter was way smarter than I was. No self-respecting young publishing grunt can be unfamiliar with Books in Print! (For the record, the number of times I needed to refer to BIP after that: zero.)

blooper #2

At first, I had two bosses at Abbeville, and one was Dan Tucker, with whom I’m still friends today. (I’m still friends with the other boss, too, but she doesn’t play into this story.) Today, Dan runs Sideshow Media, a stylish book developer that he founded in 2000.

At a point during my first year on the job when I had been there long enough to know better, Dan was frustrated because a company called Ingram was expecting special terms for something-or-other. In trying to be empathetic, I said something to the effect of “What makes some company I never heard of think they’re so important?”

Dan said they are a leading book distributor and one of the biggest names in publishing.

For those keeping score, the checklist so far of things I hadn’t heard of but should have:

• Ingram
• Books in Print
• marketing

blooper #3

In a meeting, marketing and editorial were discussing a book we would be publishing called Seven Trails West. It was rip-roaring, coffee-table nonfiction about the various ways different pioneer groups, from the Pony Express to the Transcontinental Railroad, ventured deeper into America.

Here is the cover that the designers presented to us:

I liked it but had one comment, which was not even criticism. Calling upon my film theory background, I said that in cinema, moving from east to west is conventionally represented by showing the item in motion (typically a plane) starting on the right side of the frame (east) and moving toward the left (west). This, of course, aligns with the way we read maps; if you were to trace a trail from east to west with your finger, you would be moving it from the right side of the map to the left.

You’ll notice that the unwashed gentleman on the cover is gazing to the right—which, in the paradigm, means to the east. I suggested it might be more visually (even if subconsciously) sound to flip the image so he’s looking to the spine of the book—AKA west.

One of the senior editors, but not the Books in Print one, half-turned to me and said “That is without doubt one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve heard.” I’m paraphrasing, but whatever her exact language, I felt eviscerated in front of the whole room.

Frankly, I don’t remember what happened immediately after that, but later Dan gave me a little pep talk, saying he understood my point. I think others did, too. But the cover was not changed.

I still never refer to Books in Print, still am not able to succinctly articulate what Ingram does, and still think of my cover suggestion every time I see the book on my shelf. 

Gaze west, young man.

Changes for the new edition of “Boys of Steel”

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman came out in 2008.

In 2013, it is venturing into two new territories: paperback and ebook. I suggested a paperback to acknowledge Superman’s 75th anniversary. Putting out a new edition would also enable us to a) make a few corrections and b) pitch the book to the Jewish Book Council Network. (A title must be new the year you propose it.)

These are the tweaks I requested:

1) cover - add starbust to the effect of “Superman’s 75th anniversary: 1938-2013”
2) change the year of Superman’s creation from 1934 to 1933 (the year had been debated but after Boys of Steel came out, close-to-conclusive evidence for 1933 surfaced)
3) change the black-and-white movie screen on the second-to-last illustrated spread to this:

4) last page of author’s note - italicize Action Comics
5) copyright page - insert “Superman © DC Comics” (a big oversight, I know, yet one that has thankfully not caused any problem)

A note on the movie theater scene: The fall before the book came out, my editor e-mailed me a PDF of the entire layout. In that version, the movie screen is in color; it’s where I captured the image above.

When I next saw the book, the screen had been changed to black-and-white without consulting me. I suspect an art director assumed color was a mistake, and understandably so. However, the first screen representation of Superman was the Fleischer cartoons that began running in 1941, and they were in vivid color. I did not know of this change until it was too late to change it back.

Alas, due to cost, it will also not be changed for the new edition.

If you have found any goofs in the book, speak now or you may have to hold your peace until the 100th anniversary.

Super anniversary, super book

Welcome to the 75th anniversary of Superman, AKA 2013.

Tomorrow I will announce related news on Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, and today I am thrilled to finally be able to reveal that my friend Brad Ricca has a Superman book of his own coming out this year.

 Cleveland Magazine 1/09

It’s called Super Boys. Here’s the cover in English and a teaser ad in Kryptonian:

Brad is a grade-A researcher and grade-A guy, and he’s been working hard on this for years. Please join me in not being able to wait to read this book.

State of the Union League Book Fair

On 12/6/12, I had the honor of participating in my third holiday book fair at the Union League Club in New York City (my first was 2008, second 2009).

This year was especially fun because several friends (Peter Brown, Brian Floca, Shana Corey) were there and also because my latest book is a true story that took place in New York. It did not seem to be a deciding factor for sales but I enjoy historical proximity.

One bummer: Elizabeth and Chris, friends I’d made at the last two I attended, had to back out at the last minute. Since the club does not post participating authors online, about a week earlier, Elizabeth had e-mailed me a copy of the author lineup (with her mom’s must-sees circled). 

Spirits were so high that I failed to take any pictures there. If I’m lucky enough to be invited back, I won’t make that mistake again.

The full lineup (and I feel my book could have just as easily been listed in two other categories):

Bill Finger returns to radio

Thanks to Los Angeles Public Library librarian Mara Alpert (and NPR), Bill Finger recently returned to a medium he wrote for (Nick Carter, Master Detective; Mark Trail) in the 1950s...and I, indirectly, to the city in which I lived from mid-1997 to late 1999. (Tangentially, Bill himself never made it to California.)

On KPCC (89.3 FM), which, according to Wikipedia has “among the widest-reaching broadcast areas of all public radio stations in Southern California” (approximately 600,000 listeners weekly), Mara included Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman on her list of favorite children’s books of 2012.

On the station site, the accompanying imagining of Bob Kane’s red-garbed, stiff-winged, ill-fated Batman is not, for some reason, the one from my book. This is the one from my book, by the illustrious (and illustratorious) Ty Templeton:

Mara’s interview runs almost seven minutes; the Bill portion starts at 2:48 and runs just over a minute. She calls Bill the Boy Wonder a book she is “dying to talk about” and describes it as “really well written and very interesting.”

Thank you, Mara and KPCC!

My night with TED

The summer of 2012 brought two Teds. 

One was Ted, the Seth MacFarlane movie I didn’t see. 

The other was TED, the series of events consisting of compact talks by misfits, madmen, and other geniuses.

On 6/7/12, I spoke on a TED stage. Not the big one. And I was not even in the same school district as my best. But the experience was a nation-builder, that’s for sure.

Here are glimpses I didn’t include in my recap:

Of the 31 impressive people there, I know at least one has been invited to the Big TED in 2013—fellow writer Josh Prager. In 2000, in the Wall Street Journal, he published one of the most compelling articles about publishing I’ve read—he found out what happened to the millions of dollars in royalties the book Goodnight Moon has earned. I am looking forward to scoring my guesses of who else will get the nod.

This is the stage mere hours before we spoke. Seeing the TED letters just sitting there as the props they are was both humanizing (someone just sets them up like a window display?) and mythic.

"Riveting...engrossing" - "Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books" on "Bill the Boy Wonder"

The Bulletin of the Center of Children’s Books penned one of the most colorfully written reviews of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. 

Some of my favorite words and phrases in it:

“riveting”

“delightfully laced with ‘bill’ and ‘finger’ puns”

“Engrossing and appropriate as the information in the main text may be for young listeners and readers, a six-page appended author’s note once again saves a heckuva lot of the good stuff for the older readers who will tackle its denser, sparsely photoillustrated prose.”

Among the reviews for this book (as well as all of my others), this is the only known instance of the word “heckuva.”

Batgirl works at the library

The original version of Batgirl was a librarian. You didn’t know this but many librarians do. Even the American Library Association does, as evidenced by this bookmark and poster:

I couldn’t find larger resolutions of them whole, but here’s a larger shot of just the art:

Thanks to Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I have now met two real-life Batgirl librarians.

The first is Angela Smith, lower school librarian at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. She didn’t need me to tell her who Batgirl really is, but I did suggest (when I spoke at Sidwell on 9/21/12) that she dress as Batgirl for Halloween. She was game:

  

The second is Jess Stork, librarian in the Washington DC system, who set the bar high for future bat-themed events. On 9/13/12, she hosted me for an evening presentation at the Palisades Neighborhood Library, and it was instantly obvious how committed she is:

Yes, those Oreos are bat-configured. (Not bat-flavored, however.)

She is not only a librarian but also an engineering genius. She rigged a laser obstacle course; kids had to reach through to get a book without getting zapped:

Speaking of zapped, a highlight of the evening was a comment from a girl who was about 10 years old: “If Bob Kane was alive, he’d be really mad at you.”

More librarians as Batgirl:

Chrissie Morrison, NY; photo credit John Aiello

Grace Shellenbarger, PA

Laura Ward and family, PA

Krystle Tiedeman, PA (in her Batgirl-decorated office)

Tangential P.S.: It appears many librarians are finding this post. If you are one of them, please also see this post...and if you are convinced by it, comment under it. (Some would argue that it, too, is about a hero, though not one with a cape.) The post has already generated one of the most overwhelming response rates this blog has seen, but I want and need more. The more positive feedback I get, the more likely that book will  happen...[1/6/14 addendum: I sold the book!]

Why I don’t ask family and friends to review my books online

The New York Times ran a fascinating and freaky article about Amazon’s evolving policy in policing book reviews.

Apparently, if a family member and/or friend of an author posts a review of said author’s book, Amazon will remove the review.

Unless I missed this, the article does not explain how Amazon knows who a person’s family and friends are. This is not the first time we’ve heard that our online activity often reveals more to sites than we may realize, yet it never stops being creepy.

I don’t believe the article specifies if Amazon removes all reviews by people an author knows. Seems like algorithms can’t do all the heavy lifting here, and manually culling certain reviews would be time-consuming. 

Also unaddressed: unlikely as it seems, what if a loved one writes a negative review? (Looking at you, frenemies.) Would Amazon delete that, too?

I found one comment perplexing and perhaps paradoxical. An Amazon spokesman: ‘We do not require people to have experienced the product in order to review.’”

So Amazon will remove reviews by people who have read a book and know the author but not ones by people who have not read the book. This does not have the best interest of the consumer in mind.

A review is, by unverified definition, commentary on an item with which the reviewer has engaged. And the definition does not place any conditions on the reviewer—it could be anybody.

Just because your mom or first grade teacher or secret crush reviews your book does not automatically mean I will disregard it. If it’s not just a gushing review but a well-observed gushing review, I don’t care who wrote it. I would take that over a poorly written review by someone the author has never met.

This brings me to the policy announced in the post title: I do not to ask my inner circle to review my books.

I do brazenly e-mail family and friends (and status update, and tweet) about my new releases, signings, and speaking engagements—but I feel that is less ethically questionable and it’s certainly more private. Whether or not a person responds to such an e-mail remains between that person and me.

However, asking a confidante to post a review ultimately involves others. It is a form of mass, if mild, deception.

I want all user reviews to come from people who are users, not used. When an author asks relatives and friends to post a review, some who liked the book oblige not because they feel they have something distinct to add to the conversation but simply because they want to help a person they care about. Some who did not like the book might oblige for the same reason. And some might do so out of guilt.

None of it leads to organic feedback. I wouldn’t want to put a loved one in any of these awkward positions. 

But if a friend voluntarily posts a review, I’ll welcome it because it has a sincere origin.

The last question: what about asking strangers—for example, readers of one’s blog—to review your book?

You see how easily this gets murky?

Jingle Bill Rock

And so concludes the longest content lapse I have allowed since launching this blog in early 2008. To those who noticed, I apologize. To trot out that old chestnut on a day when chestnuts are especially apropos, the radio silence was due to circumstances beyond my control.

To resume, I’m honored to share that Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman has been named to multiple “best of 2012” lists and holiday gift guides. (Hey, there are still ten more shopping hours till the end of Christmas!) 

USA Today 12/14/12

holiday gift guide to the best graphic novels of the year 

“Deeply researched…revelatory” 

Special thanks to David Colton, who also put Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman on the front page of the Life section of USA Today.

I’m not only thrilled but also relieved that my book got ink in USA Today. This is because, in August, I was told that the paper would cover the book somehow. Of course, I didn’t take that as a guarantee, but did feel confident it would probably happen…so when I designed Bill the Boy Wonder promotional postcards, in August, I included USA Today on the “as seen in” list.

Even if the book ultimately did not make it in, it would still not be a lie per se—or so I rationalized—because Boys of Steel had been in USA Today. If anyone asked, I would claim that “as seen in” referred not specifically to the Batman book but rather to me as an author. I’m glad this didn’t come to pass because no one would have believed me. 

Washington Post 12/23/12

comics gift guide: 12 favorite reads of 2012 

Number one, baby! (Disclaimer: They are not ranked qualitatively.)

“Deftly, with care, give[s] Finger his due”

Thank you again to Michael Cavna, who also covered the book earlier this year.

MTV Geek

best graphic novels of 2012

Ditto thanks to Valerie Gallaher (and company), who ran perhaps the funniest Bill-related headline of the year.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

2012 Guide Book to Gift Books
 
“Meticulously researched” 

Tablet

best kids’ books of 2012

“Fascinating”
 
Lastly, I’m flattered that the trailer for Bill the Boy Wonder made the list of “best Batman-themed picture book trailers of 2012.” (Disclaimer: this is a list of one, and self-generated.)

Thank you again, kind reviewers. And thank you also to readers, young and young at heart, who have privately given me equally humbling reviews of a book that has been so very special to me.

Book trailer conventions worth breaking

Are book trailers new enough that my making a single one qualifies me to dispense advice about them? Probably not, but then again, most of us sling opinions about things we’ve never done and never will do (play pro football, sing at the American Idol finals, be the leader of the free world).

And for what it’s worth, I did put in twice as much time on my trailer than I'd planned.

So…the following list of book trailer conventions worth breaking is not comprehensive, not ranked, and not likely to shatter the core of what you thought you knew, but will hopefully be helpful nonetheless:

#1 – keep it watchable (no matter the length)

Generally speaking, I think shorter is more strategic. But when someone says “It was too long,” what he probably means is “It’s not interesting enough.” Something longer and engaging is better than something short and forgettable. So rather than focusing on keeping it short, focus on keeping it watchable. (Book people tend to have longer attention spans anyway.)

#2 – show book interiors (picture books only)

If you have a clever way to do so, by all means. But if it will be just a pan-and-scan variation of the same samples that will be on Amazon, why bother? As with your book itself, take the trailer as an opportunity to give readers/viewers something they haven’t seen before…and won’t see elsewhere again. If you do include interiors, I encourage you to include something else as well.

#3 – explain the premise in detail

Surely your book is resplendent, but sell it with a tease, not a torrent. Think back cover, not inside front flap.

#4 – (related) use intertitles plentifully

Yes, books are read—but book trailers don’t have to be. Every project should take ample advantage of its medium. Therefore, in making a trailer, pay attention to words, yes, but also to sound, pacing, composition, and other aspects of filmmaking. In fact, a good challenge: use as few intertitles as you can.

#5 – avoid material that is not in the book

What for? You’re not studying for a test! Actually, an interesting tidbit that for whatever reason did not make it into your book could be the hinge of a good trailer! In ‘80s TV parlance, such a tidbit was often called a “blooper.” On DVDs and downloads, it is called a “deleted scene.” And in this case “deleted” is a positive; “deleted” = “I want.”

#6 – do not have Batman in your trailer

No, do. If your book allows for it, and you stick to fair use, and you can bribe someone to don the costume, you will confirm what Gotham City has known for 70+ years: it’s nice to have the Dark Knight on your side.

If you want to see examples of each of the above in action, here is my trailer.

You want your book to stand out so be sure your book trailer does, too. Good luck, multi-hyphenates!

Calling all gays and lesbians of 1980s New York

While researching Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, I went to nutty lengths to find people who knew Bill Finger or his family. Given that Bill had died in 1974 and left less trace than you would believe, I had little choice.

His first wife Portia died in 1990, so I felt I had a shot of finding friends of hers, many of whom were gay. There is a gay and lesbian center near where she was living when she died, so I made this flyer and posted it there:

Since that didn’t work, I’m posting it here. (By the way, the phone number is old and inactive.)

Favorites from "Vocabulary Cartoon of the Day" (grades 2-3), round 3

artist: Mike Moran

 

Favorite cartoons from this book, round 1 of 3.

Favorite cartoons from this book, round 2 of 3.