Ty Templeton

I received Bill the Boy Wonder through Librarything's Early Readers program that gives members the chance to win a free book before publication in return for a review.
Honestly I was surprised when this arrived as I thought I'd won it because the website's program chose me based on the books in my library on pulp and comic book history. It turns out that this is really a kids picture book.
I'm sure that this is the sort of book that I'd have devoured at the age of six or seven.
While the show more book is mainly about how Bill Finger was really the main writer and creator of Batman and how Bob Kane took all the credit for himself, there's lots of material about the creation of Batman and Robin and the development of those characters in the golden and silver ages.
For the grown up me, however, the best part of the book was the author's note at the end. It is essentially a terrific fanzine article about his search for information about Finger and what he found.
He also includes many never-before-seen photos. Or at least all the ones he was able to find.
This author's note is packed with new and interesting information.
Nobleman should also be thanked for finding Finger's granddaughter and helping to see that Finger's residuals from DC Comics were redirected to her.
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the whole package though. It's half kids picture book and half serious comic book scholarship for adults.
I think that this would have been a better project if it were split into a kids picture book about the entire history and development of Batman and all the folks who helped create it and a lengthy book for adults detailing the creative side of DC comics over the years.
Nobleman obviously has the research chops to do justice to a still-shrouded part of comic book history.
His author's note was so interesting that I'd love to see what he could do with a chapter on Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nickolson, one on Donenfeld and Liebowitz, a look at the Siegel and Schuster story, Marsten, and all the other creators, particularly the less well-known or recognized ones, the hook-up between National and All-American, and the Captain Marvel and Wonder Man lawsuits. There has to be a lot more buried stories and Nobleman seems to have a knack for digging them up. It'd be nice to see him try. show less

Bill the Boy Wonder, written by Marc Tyler Nobleman and illustrated by Ty Templeton, is a fantastic picture book biography of Bill Fingerman, the “secret co-creator of Batman.” Templeton’s illustrations are diverse enough to capture both historical accounts and colorful recreations from classic comics. It’s a handsomely produced work, with its text captions and blocking resembling comic book panels. This is truly an all-ages book in that adults interested in comic book history are show more likely to get more out to the book from kids, but it’s still enjoyable and engaging enough for younger readers.

This is a well-researched book, too, with an extensive author’s note at the end detailing all the research that went into writing it. While a great emphasis of the book is about how Fingerman was cheated out of receiving credit for his role in Batman, it also covers his inspirations and creative process, and it‘s fascinating to think of all the things that culminated in some of pop-culture‘s most famous images.

The book is actually more positive towards Bob Kane than other books I’ve read, and it really emphasizes more on the positive of Fingerman‘s life, which I think is the better approach to make. The authorship of comics, especially in terms of who created a creator, is complicated because it often involves a team working for a company, and it is likely that the company holds the creative control over the character. This can lead to many writers, artists, or their heirs not seeing a cent of the millions a company makes from comics, merchandise, and movies featuring their characters and storylines. I hope with books like this and researchers like Marc Tyler Nobleman, creators will get the recognition they’ve earned for helping shape our culture and imaginations. show less

I've never been into Archie comics, but they were handing this out for free at FlameCon, so I picked it up. Based on that and on the rainbow pants featured on the variant cover, I was expecting to find LGBTQ characters in this issue. Alas, the cover and giveaway were misleading, and everyone here is still super-straight.

The first story, about Jughead learning to drive, is pretty funny. With the second one, we get into the kind of "high school boy tries to attract the attentions of high show more school girl" plot that's pretty cliche at this point. In both these first two, the art and characters are fun.

The last story is apparently in a "classic" style and features two pin-up girls competing for a boy's attention. I don't see the appeal of this kind of thing at all, TBH. show less

Comics professionals have known for a while that Bill Finger was not just an early uncredited writer of Batman stories, but the character's co-creator. Bob Kane's contract ensured that he was always listed as the sole creator, but this brief biography of Finger in comics format gives him the credit he deserves. The text afterword, on the author's research and attempts to find photographs of Finger and people who remembered him, was fascinating.