The May/June 2013 issue of The Horn Book includes the first article I have written for that esteemed magazine. It is a variation and extension on thoughts about writing dialogue in nonfiction I first expressed here.
Online:
Just as personalities can be encoded with patterns even the person possessing the personality doesn’t realize, writing styles can, too.
Both of my superhero picture books, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, take a similar approach on the second page: they use the rule of threes. (This is often associated with humor, but can be used in other ways as well.)
(The previous page teases that Jerry Siegel, Superman writer,
was with his friends when at home rather than school;
this page is the surprise reveal.)
The rule of threes in and of itself is not the pattern I’m pointing out—lots of writers use it, of course. The pattern is using the rule of threes on the second page. (Normally I would reserve the word “pattern” for three or more instances, but…okay, head starting to spin.)
I didn’t notice I’d repeated this tactic until after the second book was out. Because I didn’t do it consciously, I probably can’t explain it satisfactorily. It may be as simple as this: it’s a handy device to quicken the pace, which works especially well toward the beginning of a story because it tugs readers in via a rhythm.
Later in both books, I refer back to the threesome. In Boys of Steel, it reiterates the list—twice, actually:
In Bill the Boy Wonder, I refer back less specifically: Let’s see if I end up using the rule of threes on the second page a third time.
Head spinning faster now.
Superman is the ultimate law-abider. So it’s borderline traitorous for me to write a book about him that breaks some of the “rules.” Luckily, none go so far as to be criminal.
broken rule #1—Do not write nonfiction picture books on pop culture figures.
At first this may seem invalid because plenty of others have also broken this rule (and, for that matter, all of the other rules I’ll list). Yet this still comes up. It’s a commentary on commerce, not content. There can be editorial resistance to historic figures who are not part of traditional curriculum. Teachers are pressured to stick to material that will come up on tests; anything else can be perceived as a waste of time. Therefore, some editors worry that this situation will doom sales for a book on an unconventional topic. I am happy to report that the fact that Superman and his creators, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, are typically not covered in social studies has not hindered classroom use of Boys of Steel. In fact, the book has multiple applications to curriculum, even if the Man (or Boys) of Steel will not be on the test.
broken rule #2—Do not write picture books about writers.
It does seem that a book featuring illustration after illustration of a person sitting at a desk would quickly become visually boring. But who says writers do nothing more than sit at desks? In writing any book there are challenges, and in writing any picture book there are additional challenges, and one of them is varying your images no matter what the subject. Boys of Steel contains only one image of Jerry at his typewriter. The rest is other kinds of adventure.
broken rule #3—Do not use dialogue in nonfiction picture books.
I’ve already written on this, but the recap is as follows: if you treat it like any other fact and source it appropriately, why not? In Boys of Steel, I include statements the Boys made in interviews but presented as dialogue. It livens up the text as dialogue tends to do, and it brings the reader closer to the protagonists. Yes, the lines of dialogue may have occurred at different times in real life than when they appear in the book, but this is a convention we regularly accept in nonfiction. No nonfiction is “pure” nonfiction—not even autobiography.
broken rule #4—With biographies, start with birth, end with death…or at least mention birth and death.
We are living in the Golden Age of Picture Book Biography, which allows writers unparalleled freedom in how we tell our true stories. Everything in the book must be factual, but not every fact must (or even can be) in the book. We need not present our tellings chronologically or wholly. Sometimes the birth and/or death of a figure are simply not essential details in our approach. (To the subjects, they were, of course, notable milestones.) I start Boys of Steel in roughly 1930, when Jerry and Joe met, and end it in roughly 1940, soon after Superman’s stratospheric rise. (I do address the rest of their lives briefly in the author’s note.)
broken rule #5—Refer to your main character by name.
Perhaps this is not quite a rule, but it certainly is the standard. Not counting the subtitle and author’s note, Boys of Steel contains the word “Superman” precisely zero times. This was not because I was hindered by copyright/trademark restriction or because I made an oversight. This was simply because I could. In my structure, the Boys create Superman toward the end of the story proper, which means I got that far without using the word; it then became a fun challenge to see if I could get to the end without it. Readers come away thinking I’ve used the word, but they are actually extracting it from images alone.
broken rule #6—Have a happy ending.
Real life sometimes doesn’t, so books about real life sometimes can’t either. Kids can handle the truth (relative to their age, of course). It does no favors to sugarcoat—or omit—certain tragedies. Every biography addresses struggles the protagonist faced en route to success, so why can’t the book end on a struggle? The illustrated portion of Boys of Steel does end on a high note, but the author’s note reveals that the Boys went on to face considerable suffering. Learning about injustice or misfortune or other unpleasantries may sound depressing, but often it is empowering. It can get kids fired up to help prevent similar situations in their own lives and to go do good in the world.
These are the kinds of rules even Superman would condone breaking.
Soon after Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman came out in 2008, I posted what I called a “tour” of the book, pointing out details, tricks, and other Easter eggs that even astute readers might otherwise miss.
Here is the tour for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.
As is typical for contemporary picture books, the pages aren’t numbered. (Publishers fear that could turn off readers by calling attention to their relatively short length.) So I’ll reference pages by their first few words.
Get your copy of the book and follow along...
“Every Batman story…” (inside front cover)
backstory – I originally envisioned this text (both white and yellow) as a teaser/cold open on the page before the title page. It’s still before the title page…
“After Milton Finger graduated…”
design – This image is a (rotated) close-up of the scene on the title page. See little Bill?
never-published information – Bill’s given name was Milton; Bill graduated high school in 1933.
design – I wanted the three “secret identity” starbursts throughout the book to be consistent in color scheme (happened) and size (did not).
backstory – The “first secret identity” line was intended to be a hook. People reading a book about a superhero would not be surprised to see mention of a secret identity (singular)…but it would be unusual for someone to have more than one.
“Bill loved literature…”
design – Throughout the book, Ty depicts Bill in blue and Bob in yellow. Bill liked to wear blue Oxford shirts. And the yellow stands for…
“That weekend he sketched…”
design – I love the scene in the first panel but felt the apartment looked too grand for a young artist in New York. I was (peaceably) overruled. Similarly, I felt the sidewalk in the second panel was too wide, but creative license won that one. In early drafts of the manuscript, I described the look of Bob’s character and first gave the name “Bat-Man” in the text, but once I started to lay out the book in my mind, I saw that these reveals would have greater impact if instead we showed them in the art.
“Wings aside…”
design – We deliberately showed only parts of Batman rather than the whole for two reasons. First, delayed gratification: the later it comes, the greater the effect. Two, we had to be selective about showing characters owned by DC Comics: the fewer, the better.
attention to detail – That bat is a reproduction of how the drawing really looked in the 1937 Webster’s Dictionary, which would’ve been the most current edition when Bill and Bob were building Batman in 1939. (The fish, a bass, is also authentic.)
“In April 1939…”
attention to detail – The image is based on a period photo of a newsstand. The comic covers are ones that would have been on the newsstand at approximately the same time as Detective Comics #27 (Batman’s debut). This is the first “full” appearance of Batman in the book, though I consider it too small to count.
“Bill and Bob would sit in Poe Park…”
attention to detail – This image is based on period photographs of Poe Park.
“Though Bill had wanted Bat-Man…”
design – The sentence starting “Bat-Man became Batman…” makes sense in print, but requires elaboration/clarification when read aloud.
design – This marks the second appearance of Batman, though only his head on a comic book cover. Still no big splash.
“Almost immediately Bob hired…”
attention to detail – Those two guys standing in the background are Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who were friends with Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson (seated).
design – This is an example of taking advantage of the medium of picture books. The fact that Bill and Jerry played darts is not significant to the larger story, but it is visually interesting so it became the setting for the information conveyed in the accompanying text. Otherwise it could’ve been another scene of guys at a desk.
“But Bill stuck…”
attention to detail – The phrase “superstitious, cowardly hearts of criminals” is a nod to Detective Comics #33, which first presents the origin of Batman and in which Bruce Wayne says “Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts.”
backstory – No gun is visible on purpose, though the threat is still evident.
“Steadily, silently, Bill built…”
attention to detail – In the first sketches, Batman did not appear in this scene because the text is about Batman’s sidekick and villains.
“Other comics creators…” attention to detail – When I first saw the sketch in which both the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings are visible, I said I didn’t think that there was a ground-level vantage point (even with the lower skyline of the 1940s, when this scene took place) from which such a view existed. Upon seeing images like the one below and thereby learning I was wrong, we situated the scene on East 30th Street in an attempt at authenticity. backstory – I did not want the inset showing Bill shaking an editor’s hand, for two reasons. One, we already had a handshake image (Kane and editor Vin Sullivan) and I felt including a second one would dilute the (tragic) significance of the first. Two, I doubt it happened. I would guess that an editor simply called Bill to ask for a story, and it was as unceremonious as that. I was overruled, and it was okay. attention to detail – The gimmick book examples came from published sources and the astounding memory of Charles Sinclair.
“In 1948 Bill and his wife…” never-published information – Bill nicknamed his son Fred “Little Finger.” attention to detail – The ticket window is based on several period photographs. design – Originally, the text specified the way Bill snuck Fred into the museum, but after we began discussing art, it became clear to me that it would be more fun to reveal the trick in the art.
“While his son…” backstory – The quotation “I’d like to return to the innocence of my childhood” was not essential, but I included it because it comes from the only known instance of Bill being mentioned/quoted in a mainstream publication (The New Yorker, 1965) in his lifetime.
“Bill was fond of writing…” attention to detail – The size of the plug seems disproportionately small compared to the size of the fork and plate, but we’d already gone through several sketches to get the trajectory of Batman popping out of the toaster seem plausible (ha) so the size concern was one I had to let go. attention to detail – If I had not caught that the absence of Batman on the earlier spread featuring the supporting characters/villains would seem like a goof, this would have been the first full-on appearance of Batman in the book.
“To get his stories…” attention to detail – This desk scene is, unbelievably, perhaps, based on a 1940s photograph of Bill’s workspace. Yes, I went from being told only two photos of Bill exist to having not only 11 photos but also one of his writing desk. attention to detail – That unassuming little paperweight is not just an illustrator flourish.
“During the first twenty-five years…” attention to detail – Here is the page from the 1943 story in which Bill’s name appears…sort of. Look carefully...“In 1964 that changed…” backstory – Ty Templeton made up the blue-armored figure partially visible behind Julie Schwartz. I did not know this until after the book came out. I would have pushed for a glimpse of a known character, but I understand Ty wanting to limit potential intellectual property claims.
“The next summer…” backstory – I wanted either Bill to be wearing a tie or one other panelist not to be because I felt Bill could come off as shlubby if he were the only one that casual. I was overruled.
“Jerry also did his own…” attention to detail – The print over Bill’s desk…was a print over Bill’s desk. Thanks (again) to Charles Sinclair for injecting even more accuracy.attention to detail – The image of “If the Truth Be Known…” looks that way because this scene takes place in 1965, when photocopies did not exist but mimeographs did in all their smudgy purple glory.
“Bill’s final Batman…” never-published information – Bill’s death date (previously reported as January 24).
design – The “Come Monday” construct calls back to the first historic “Batman weekend” (1939).
“Now grown…” never-published information – Bill was cremated; Fred spread his ashes on an (Oregon) beach in an apropos shape. (You have to see this.) “In Bob’s later years…” design – I did not think we needed the “Bob Kane” credit box there to identify him, and in fact worried it might be confusing, but was overruled.
“Jerry Robinson had long wanted…” attention to detail – This image is based on a photograph of Jerry’s home office. I asked for the TV to show a still from the credits of the 1960s TV Batman show, though it’s been “modified to fit the screen.”
“It was named…” attention to detail – That’s Jerry again, with Mark Evanier. We sought permission to include the Comic-Con imagery.
“From Milton to Bill…” backstory – I normally don’t like asking questions in my text, but could not resist the penultimate line.
copy of guestbook (last page) never-published information – Through a fluke both sad and fortunate, this remnant of Bill still exists.
“Bill was the greatest…” (inside back cover) backstory – Two of these three quotations were not my original suggestions. I had used a quotation from Lyn Simmons, Bill’s second wife, and another by another associate of Bill’s, but neither of them appear in the story proper and my editor, Alyssa Mito Pusey, felt it would be better to quote characters the reader already knew. I was hesitant at first but came to see her point…and am so glad I did. I love it this way.
I love it all this way.
Thank you, Alyssa, Ty, Martha, and the veritable flash mob of others whose knowledge and talent combined to make this a book about which I am overflowing with pride.More Bill Finger secrets abound, if you know where to look...
By: Marc Tyler,
on 7/5/2013
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