DI : You ’re an illustrator as well as an author . But for this Holy Scripture , RossMacDonald drew the wonderful illustrations . Who came up with the originalidea for the book and how did the work get doled out ?
MTN : The thought was mine . I spell the manuscript on spec and sell it . My editor and I suggest various illustrators to one another and we in the end agree on Ross - and he agreed to do it ! I do n’t think of myself as an illustrator , actually - that entail more talent than I have . I am a cartoonist - a humourist who can eke out unrefined little video to go with my words , as long as those image do n’t let in cars , chandeliers , pre - war construction , and others things I am no good at drawing . DI : Joe and Jerry were turned down by publisher after publishing company , for morethan three years . This is a conversant story ( I lead that J.K. Rowling wasturned down by every publishing company in the U.K. before Scholastic , of allcompanies , took a chance on HP ) . Did you have difficulty buzz off this bookdeal ? What was the cognitive operation like ?
MTN : This is yet another affair I have in common with Jerry , Joe , and J.K. - my work , too , has been rejected in slightly alarming numbers . BOYS OF STEEL have 22 nos . In the destruction , however , two not bad publisher expressed interest - for me , a win - win place . There are a lot of photograph books on schoolbook name - Columbus , Roosevelt , King , etc . - but mine had a soda pop culture angle . So whenever potential , I question editors who I thought would have such a sensibility . One editor program I approached because she had done a picture book on the puerility of Dr. Seuss , and she end up being the one who took BOYS OF STEEL .
DI : Boys of Steel is plain for young grownup reader . Did that makewriting such a biography hard or easier ?
MTN : It looks like it ’s for young readers , but I key it as an all - ages book . However , yes , it is compact and stylized , not a comprehensive life story , so in that regard I had to be selective about what info to include . The idea and the enquiry had been in me for so long that it was not unmanageable to whittle it down to the key beats . In fact , the original ms focus only on one night – the nighttime of Jerry ’s " epiphany"–and the following day , when Joe first drew Jerry ’s conception . But I expanded it to about a decade , roughly 1930 - 1940 , cover the rest of their life in the text - only afterword .
DI : In the book , you imply that Joe and Jerry were the first to hail upwith the idea of a hero who would be a stranger in a regular place ratherthan a regular soul in a strange place ( like Tarzan or Buck Rogers ) . Wasthere really no case law for this type of Heron ?
MTN : To be sure , Superman was composed of elements of previous role . But while Tarzan and Buck Rogers were in unfamiliar background , both were still on their dwelling major planet , and both still interact with others of their kind . Superman was the last of his race , far from home . He was also a benevolent alien - something new in scientific discipline fiction at the time . Another component of Superman that felt unexampled was that his HERO identity was the veridical him and his CIVILIAN identity was fabricated . This has fluctuated over the years , particularly with Smallville , where Clark Kent is portrayed as the genuine him and Superman is / will be the " new " face .
DI : I always assume the S on Superman ’s costume was for Superman , orperhaps sword . If it was really for Siegel and Shuster , as you observe , which came first : the S - stigmatization or the name Superman ?
MTN : I do n’t state it is ONLY for " Siegel " and " Shuster . " ( In the Scripture , that is a direct quotation from them , by the way . ) It just so happened to be the first letter of the alphabet of both their names AND " Superman . " The name " Superman " get along first , then the " S , " which they then blithely realized could also stand for themselves . DI : Joe and Jerry naively deal all rights to the eccentric , along withtheir first story for a measly $ 130 . Was this common during those days?Did authors frequently give up their rights to make a deal ?
MTN : It was the Great Depression . Any line of work was knockout to come by , and any gig could be your last for who knows how long . As I write in the afterword , for every Superman there were dozens of characters who went nowhere , so look at through the lens of the time , it ’s hard to fault God Almighty for selling an musical theme to make a spry buck . To Jerry and Joe ’s credit , however , they began to inquire for renegotiation in 1938 - -yes , the same year Superman debuted , so after he had made a big splash but before a real indication that he had staying power . I do n’t trust Jerry and Joe were as naive as is often adopt .
DI : In the forties , Jerry and Joe write some strips with Superman capturingHitler and Stalin and delivering them before the world . Something to thetwo of them being Judaic in any of this ? Payback?MTN : This was a one - off strip done for LOOK magazine in 1940 ( which I mention in my afterword ) . I would guess that it was payback on some story , but probably more of a provocative gimmick . Jerry and Joe did not mention their Judaism in any consultation I have see or heard . I do n’t think faith was a dominant part of their lives or a in particular strong influence on their work .
DI : While on the Jewish theme , let ’s let the cat out of the bag about Superman ’s Kryptonianname , Kal - El , which in Hebrew means " all that is God " or " all that Godis , " as you mention in the book . Did the boys know Hebrew well ?
MTN : They were first - generation Americans . I do n’t know how often they get wind Yiddish or Hebrew at home . Again , they did n’t discourse Judaism in interviews I know of . Jerry ’s widow woman is still alive and this would be a expectant question to ask her .
DI : Like many visionaries , from Mozart to John McTammany , Joe and Jerrydied rather penniless . In the book , you publish that in the 1960s Jerry hadto take work as a mail salesclerk for $ 7,000 a class . As for Joe , his brotherFrank had to hold up him . To add insult to injury , their names were takenoff the strip . How did the folk music at DC cartoon strip sleep at nighttime ?
MTN : There are two incline to this , of course - the Almighty ' and the ship’s company ’s . In March 2008 , I blogged about what Jerry and Joe did right , what they did incorrectly , what DC did right , and what DC did wrong ( in my flawed estimation ) . To the first of those four categories , I would now add what I mention above : how they ( Jerry in particular ) pushed for renegotiation almost immediately after Superman ’s debut . For the first few years of Superman , Jerry and Joe were making a great salary , especially for the times . Not enough to retire on , I ’m sure - but something to build on . I do n’t know what come about to that money . Superman was so inordinately successful that I do agree with their exertion to incur a greater parcel of the profits - but DC was not acting illegally . Immorally , perhaps , but not illicitly . And as I note in the afterword , when they settle with Jerry and Joe in the seventies , it was on moral reason . I think it was brave of Jerry and Joe to continue to struggle for themselves against a grownup corporation and it was admirable that DC did in the end give the families security department , even if it did n’t come up as too soon as most of us with tender hearts would have liked . How did they log Z’s ? The early direction slept just all right , I ’m certain . Things became more enlightened in the 1970s .
DI : What are you working on now ?
MTN : A picture book on Bill Finger , the uncredited co - Almighty of ( and I would even contend the prevalent force behind ) Batman , plus several other nonfictional prose flick Christian Bible that have likewise riveting story but which do not regard superheroes . Watch my web log for details as they produce !
