BILL: THE BOY WONDER: THE SECRET CO-CREATOR OF BATMAN

Holy Revelation, Batman!

It’s a scene that conjures familiarity in our collective memories. A gray scale city nightscape that hints at danger. Suddenly, a beam of light is thrust skyward, cut with the unmistakable symbol of a bat. Fear not. Nearby, a winged figure will appear, a hero to fight injustice.  Whether your recall of Batman originated from a comic book or a screen, every American can identify this iconic symbol. 

 It turns out, however, that everything most of us thought we knew about the creation of Batman is false. Or, at least, a half truth. There was a secret co-creator of Batman.

In BILL: THE BOY WONDER (Charlesbridge 2012) author Marc Tyler Nobleman shares the story most of us never knew about the true provenance of Batman. The greatest creative influence behind our winged hero appears to have been humble shoe salesman Milton (Bill) Finger, who longed to be an artist and writer.

A chance meeting with cartoonist Bob Kane tipped Bill’s future. Bob had an idea for a character, but it wasn’t working. Bill had the creativity to fully conceptualize the character- from concept to story lines to physical characteristics, emotional back story, and added characters. Yet, Bob Kane refused to share credit for Batman, though in later years, humility got the best of him. While Kane became rich and famous, Bill Finger remained essentially an anonymous underpaid ghost writer, until revelations about his involvement began to trickle onto the public scene during the 1960’s and 70’s.

The book follows Finger from a young man, deeply invested in his Batman character, to beyond his death in 1974. Rich in detail and enlightening in fact, the text is sprinkled with clever wordplay with the use of bill, finger, and bat- the author’s homage to Bill Finger's own punnish style.

Illustrator Ty Templeton's illustrations provide the ideal emotive backdrop and visual representations through a delightful blend of comic book/ graphic novel style art.

Nobleman’s signature seems to be in the depth of his research as showcased in his author’s notes. His six-page addendum in BILL: THE BOY WONDER does not disappoint. Here, you'll find the story behind the story.  A must read.

One of the author’s most profound discoveries actually righted another long-time injustice. Before Nobleman's intense research, no known living heir survived Bill Finger, and royalty payments were being sent to the wrong person. Marc Tyler Nobleman will forevermore be credited with the remedy. He uncovered Bill Finger’s only living heir, a granddaughter. Thorough research is the foundation of this ground breaking book, the first to pull Bill Finger out of obscurity and return him to his rightful parental place in Batman’s family tree.

Justice has been served.

Learn more about Marc Tyler Nobleman and BILL: THE BOY WONDER at his website/blog, Noblemania.com.

See my previous interview with Marc regarding his book, BOYS OF STEEL.

See my interview with Marc regarding championing a picture book.

Interview with Julia Moberg - PRESIDENTIAL PETS

Forty-four presidents have occupied The White House and all but a few have brought animals with them. PRESIDENTIAL PETS: THE WEIRD, WACKY, LITTLE, BIG, SCARY, STRANGE ANIMALS THAT HAVE LIVED IN THE WHITE HOUSE by Julia Moberg (Imagine! Publishing, 2012 - an imprint of Charlesbridge) introduces young readers to the furry and feathered friends of our nation's leaders.

Who knew Thomas Jefferson had bear cubs or that Andrew Jackson had a cursing parrot or that martin Van Buren had two baby tigers? Young readers will want to learn which president kept sheep, bald eagles, pigs, a hyena, a lion, a zebra, a badger, snakes, etc, and which man kept an alligator in the bathroom. Some critters came with the presidents while others were gifts from dignitaries.

     Double page spreads are dedicated to each president, in order of term, and include bite-sized highlights of each commander in chief and the animals they shared The White House with. Kids will appreciate the generous white space, the fun cartoony illustrations by Jeff Albrecht, the fun verse introduction to each prez, and the short information snippets categorized as Presidential Stats, Tell Me More!, and Accomplishments and Events. Ultimately, the content goes just beyond the presidential pets to provide a clever introduction to the historic legacies of our presidential leaders.

     A table of contents and bibliography may have better cemented the book as a classroom source, but it is still a worthy recommendation with great kid appeal.

Author Julia Moberg was kind enough to answer a few questions about the creation of her book.

Welcome Julia. Please introduce yourself, your editing background, and what drew you to children's books.

I'm Julia Moberg, and PRESIDENTIAL PETS is my second book. I have had the pleasure of working in the publishing world for the past 10 years. I started at a small company called Newmarket Press, where I worked as an publicity and marketing assistant on film and television books. From there, I landed a job at the Penguin Group, working in their managing editorial department for one of their adult imprints. I learned a lot about how the publishing industry works through both of these positions, but I always knew that children's books were what I ultimately wanted to work on. I left Penguin and went to work as the editor for the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club for six years.

The books I read growing up left the biggest impressions on me. I guess you could say that authors like Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Mary Downing Hahn, Maud Hart Lovelace, and Robert Newton Peck drew me to children's books.

What was your general journey to publication with PRESIDENTIAL PETS?

Because I worked in the publishing industry, I decided to agent the book myself. I sent the manuscript around to all of my contacts at the various houses. Although many of the publishers liked the subject matter, they thought that poetry was too hard to sell these days. But then Charles and Jeremy Nurnberg at Imagine Books wrote back expressing interest in the subject matter. They wanted me to shorten the poems and asked me to add some fun facts about each president. I re-wrote each poem, and added fun facts. Soon after, they offered me a publishing contract. They assigned me a wonderful editor, and we started the huge task of verifying all of the factual information. Soon after, Imagine found Jeff Albrecht, who illustrated the book.

What interested you in the topic of presidential pets?

I've always been fascinated by little-known pieces of history. I first learned that Abraham Lincoln had a dog through a work colleague of mine,  and that intrigued me. I started reading more on the subject of presidential pets, and was amazed that there were all these wacky and weird animals that had called the White House their home. I immediately thought: This is a book for kids!

Researching forty-four presidents seems a monumental task. How did you tackle the research process? What kinds of sources did you reference?

It was a monumental task. Originally, I just started listing all the basic information, such as date of birth, who the first lady was, and how long each president's term was. But then as I continued to learn more about each president, I realized that the book could be so much more than a compilation of each president's pets. It could ultimately tell the story of our country. So I began to research, select, and write more in-depth accomplishments and events that happened during each presidency. I used encyclopedias, White House records, newspapers, presidential museums and estates, and various other books and sources for reference. We had to be very careful and absolutely sure that each fact was true. A few times I did have a piece of information from a lesser source that we could not verify, and would have to cut.

I noticed there is no bibliography included in the book. Was this a publisher decision?

The publisher decided to include an index in the back of the book rather than to include a whole bibliography.

Your coverage for each president goes beyond their respective pets and introduces bite-sized facts about each man's presidency and family life.  How difficult was it to narrow down which facts to include?

It depended on the president. Some presidents it was difficult to decide which facts to include, and others it was a struggle to find enough facts! William Henry Harrison, for instance, was only in office for 31 days. He accomplished very little, and as a result I had very little to write about him. Other presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was in office for 12 years, had more than enough information to include. Ultimately, I wanted to include the facts that would interest kids the most. I wanted the reader to learn something without realize they were learning.

Who had the weirdest, wackiest, strangest animals you came across in your research?

One of the weirdest & wackiest animals was John Quincy Adams' alligator. It was a gift from a Frenchman named Marquis de Lafayette and lived in a East Room bathroom for at least two months. This was definitely one of the strangest animals that has lived at the White House, and was also one of the first animals I researched for the project.

Learn more about Julia Moberg at her website (currently being updated) and at https://www.facebook.com/PresidentialPets.