Author: tomversation

10 With Tom
10 questions in 10 minutes

Marc Tyler Nobleman, shown here, is the author of books including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, Brave Like My Brother, and Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, which helped correct the 76-year-old credit line of one of the most iconic fictional characters of all time. This effort is the subject of the Hulu documentary Batman and Bill, premiering in October.

I had the chance to ask Marc the 10 With Tom questions:

TOM: You rescued the legacy of Batman by taking over 10 years to have Bill Finger proclaimed co-creator of Batman so he has his rightful place next to Bob Kane. Why was this so important to you?
MARC: Because it was so important to so many. For decades, Batmaniacs have clamored for this (rumblings at cons, message board posts) but there was no organized campaign to rally around. I had intermittent delusions that Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman alone could lead to change, and if not, felt it could serve as a tangible focal point to educate people and build a groundswell of support for additional efforts. At the heart of the issue, the man who co-created one of our greatest champions of justice suffered from an egregious cultural injustice and it simply wasn’t fair to the Finger legacy, the Finger family, or Batman fans.

TOM: You also talk about the creators of Superman. Who would you prefer to be, Batman or Superman. Why?
MARC: Superman. Power of flight = no airport security lines.

TOM: You interviewed Peanuts voice actors a couple of years ago. That’s such a clever idea, what possessed you to do that?
MARC: Thank you. In between what I am supposed to be doing (writing books and speaking at schools/conferences), I like to fill gaps in pop culture history, particularly the eras I’ve lived through. Everyone has a story, even those who think they don’t. I believe in documenting as much as possible while the principals and firsthand witnesses are still here. The internet has been a boon for the kind of oral histories I do, in terms of both tracking down people and providing a platform to present the result. If there even are any magazines that would run such a niche feature, it’d be there-and-gone; so many fans would miss it. Online, the stories are generally easier to access and available indefinitely.

TOM: Can you draw?
MARC: Certain things! Actually, I’m a lapsed cartoonist. For several years I was regularly licensing single-panel cartoons to publications including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Good Housekeeping. I also drew a book of cartoons for Scholastic. I started cartooning professionally with only one goal: break into The New Yorker. I got as far as having my own rejection folder there, and was proud of it! One day I’ll give it another go.

TOM: If you could spend the day inside any newspaper comic strip (other than Batman or Superman), which would it be?
MARC: Given how often I’m speaking in elementary schools, I already feel like a recurring cameo in Peanuts. But beyond that, Little Nemo in Slumberland for the visual stimuli alone.

TOM: Word of the moment?
MARC: Unconventional.

TOM: What is your favorite book of all time (not including your own)?
MARC: Morality Play by Barry Unsworth.

TOM: What’s the one thing you would like to change about yourself?
MARC: I’m in a constant state of trying to sleep and exercise more. At the moment, I’m doing better than usual.

TOM: What was the best phase of your life, and why?
MARC: Fatherhood. It encompasses all else (love, fun, challenge, responsibility, fear) and ultimately matters most.

TOM: What’s the one thing that people always misunderstand about you.
MARC: Perhaps some don’t realize that my persistence is not only a personality trait but also a bridge to do my job: tell stories to people whom I am confident will be moved.

Thanks for being a good sport, Marc! Marc is one of the great personalities in Tom Falco’s 10 With Tom series.

I was going through some old comics I did in the mid-90s. And I found some from the 1980s, too! I don’t know if I ever submitted them to the syndicates, I used to like the process and the journey, rather than the final destination back then. I would draw and enjoy the process but not send the work in.

I did find a bunch of comics that King Features published in the mid-90s as part of a comic called “The New Breed,” where they were grooming new cartoonists for something bigger and better. But I quit in the middle of it all when my business took off, I didn’t have the time; the road not taken. I regret that now.

Anyway, I found an old letter from King Features and I don’t think I noticed it at the time, but there was a handwritten note that said that they loved my single panel comics and they wanted to buy them at will a few at a time for “The New Breed,” but as a regular feature it lacked a look or style. They said it was “generic.” Their words. They said I didn’t have a unique style for the characters. I wish I had noticed it back then or at least remembered that as I would have worked on my style for single panel cartoons. So to that end, I am thinking of reviving “Paws,” my comic about Tombo the Rabbit and Jacomo the Mole. People loved it when I published daily, I even had a large dedicated audience on Instagram.

Paws is a single panel comic, which I love because I find it interesting and fun to do the gag in such a small space, without dragging it out through panels and in these days of social media, I feel that the single panel is easier to see and read on things like cell phones and tablets.

A vintage Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon ad by Hirschfeld. How many Nina’s can you find?

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has a story about an Alaskan newspaper, the Skagway News, where the editor is also the only writer, editor lays out the paper, brings it to the printer, picks it up and distributes it.

From the article: “As the editor/reporter,” the listing for her job explained, “you will be responsible for writing every story, laying out every issue, sending it to the printers and picking it up in Whitehorse, [Yukon Territory], two hours away. You and our business manager are also responsible for distributing the papers throughout town and mailing them to the Lower 48.”

I love this, as I have been doing this for over 11 years with the Coconut Grove Grapevine the daily news in our little sailing village in Miami, FL. Well, every part except the having it printed, because the Grapevine is an online publication and I doubt it would ever exist if it wasn’t, although in the early 1980s, the Coconut Grove Grapevine was a monthly or twice monthly printed newspaper which I worked on as a kid, that’s where I got the name for the online Grapevine.

I worked at a place where I typeset and layed out newspapers and the Coconut Grove Grapevine was a client.

Interestingly enough, many of the people I know in Coconut Grove today, worked for the original Grapveine, mostly as writers just starting out.

But anyway, I’ve always been proud of the current Coconut Grove Grapevine as being a one-man operation – I find the news or edit the press releases that come in, I take the photos, interview people, design the layout and stories, sell the ads, etc. etc. Very much like the Skagway News. And I do mine all part time although it seems full time.

Anyway, here’s the Skagway article in the CJR.