Batman & Bill

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1

(camera shutter clicking)

(cat meowing)

(soft whirring)

Good morning, guys.

Good morning.

Have you heard of Batman?

Yes.

Just checking and just kidding.

Of course you've

heard of Batman.

So I have had the honor

of getting invited to

speak all over the world

to tell the story that

you're about to hear.

And everywhere I go,

whether it's Tanzania in Africa

or Chile in South America

or Hong Kong or Thailand

or the United Arab Emirates,

everywhere I go,

I show that symbol,

and I have not been to a school

anywhere in the world where

someone doesn't know it.

Now don't worry if you're

not interested in superheroes

because I've done

this many times,

and I can guarantee everyone

here, including staff,

that you will walk out

of this room in an hour

with a different perspective

than you have right now,

I guarantee it.

On every Batman story

since the first in 1939,

there was only one name

in the credit line.

"Batman created by Bob Kane."

Here he is.

And here's the thing

about that credit line:

It is not true.

The reason I do explain why

that I like superheroes

is a little bit pat,

and it maybe is a

little bit disingenuous

because I wasn't thinking

like this as a kid.

But I do like stories

of selflessness

and I like stories of sacrifice,

and superheroes sacrifice

something on a daily basis.

Superheroes are not doing this

to get paid or praised,

and it is not about them.

They are doing something

for the greater good,

then they disappear

into the night.

The notion of that is

so rare in real life.

I mean, we know so few people

that can afford to be selfless.

As a six-year-old,

I wasn't thinking like that,

even as a 12- or 15-year-old.

I just liked a good story,

a good adventure,

and I still do,

so it was a combination

of those things,

this purity of purpose

and then just a

great cliff-hanging,

rollicking adventure.

Here is the Batman section.

One, two, three, four

full... almost full shelves.

And compare that to Superman.

Not knocking Superman,

but just looking at the reality.

Here's Superman

up to about there.

Batman is not only

the most identifiable

and recognizable and famous

and beloved superhero,

but he is one of

the most recognizable

fictional characters

of all time.

Can take almost any

Batman book off the shelf

and open to the title page.

"Batman created by Bob Kane."

Bob, for the few people who

come from another planet,

who may not know what you do,

what is it that

you're known for?

You've got to be kidding.

I am, of course.

Bob Kane is the original

cartoonist of Batman

and the man who has

been credited on Batman

for most of Batman's history.

When I was 18, I tripped across

a character called Batman.

Bat... how do you

pronounce that?

- Batman?

- B-A-T-man.

It was called

"Batman by Robert Kane."

In 1938, two gangly kids

from Cleveland, Ohio

sold an idea for a

character named Superman.

Superman was a huge

influence on Bob Kane,

not the creative side,

the financial side.

So I thought of, yeah,

"How much money is

Siegel and Shuster making?"

They were the

creators of Superman.

And in those days, in '39,

they were making

$800 apiece a week.

When Bob Kane found

out how much money

the Superman creators were

making on a weekly basis

which was $800 at the time,

he went to an

editor at National.

He said, "Listen, Bob, can

you do another superhero?"

I said, "For that kind of money,

you'll have it on Monday."

For that kind of money,

you'd be the superhero.

Boy, you better believe it.

I'll steal it somewhere.

And I went home,

and lo and behold

I thought about all

my childhood heroes

when I was a kid and

my world of fantasy.

And on Monday, I came up with

a very crude drawing of Batman.

And the rest is

history that Batman...

Batman is my claim to infamy.

Well, like most adults

that like superheroes,

my interest started

when I was a kid.

I just never outgrew it.

And that began a passion

that I had most of my life.

I had a little

gap in adolescence

when I had to distance

myself from things

that could get in the

way of girls and life,

but for the most

part, I've stuck

with superheroes my whole life.

I am an author of

books for young people,

and some of them are

books for all ages.

And I've written about 75 books.

This is my first-ever book.

The Felix Activity Book.

Tour de force, I'm sure you

remember it well from 1996.

And then here's the epic sequel,

Felix Explores our World.

I think the recurring

theme of my nonfiction

is untold stories.

Boys of Steel.

Biography of Jerry

Siegel and Joe Shuster,

creators of Superman.

There are sometimes

tragic stories

behind these iconic characters.

Marc loves to bring out

the story behind a story,

so he goes deep,

and he's also very

persistent also

as a human being.

You got two toothpastes

because you didn't know

if I wanted fluoride or not?

- Yeah.

- Because they just announced

that fluoride is a toxin now.

I know that.

I told you all along.

It's in the water,

it's in the toothpaste.

No, I know it's there,

but that doesn't mean

- it's a toxin.

- Oh, you're filming us?

I definitely feel sometimes

that I'm not only

married to a writer,

but also even

more so a detective.

When I decided to write a book

on the story behind Batman,

it hadn't been done yet.

Whenever you start

a research project,

you can't possibly know how much

or how little

you're going to find.

In this case, I was going

into the Batman book

knowing that there were secrets

that hadn't been

widely discussed,

but I had no way to know it

was a lot more than that.

So this story, for me,

was uncovering a

big superhero secret

that should have been

blown wide decades ago.

(car horn honks)

In New York in 1965,

was the first

official Comic Con,

and the reason that

this is considered

the first official Comic Con

is because it was the first time

that professionals showed up,

not just fans in

a hotel basement

with some back issues.

This was historic,

this was a big deal.

They didn't know it at the time,

but it was a big deal.

There were 200 of us

at that Comic Con.

And this place was so sketchy.

And we got there,

and my mother freaked

when she saw where we were.

There was literally

a guy drunk, unconscious

on the floor in the lobby,

and roaches on the walls,

and she just said,

"We're out of here,

we're leaving."

The hotel itself,

a few months later,

actually, much of it collapsed.

Luckily, it didn't do so

while we were in there,

but none of us was

particularly surprised

to hear that the Broadway

Central had collapsed.

My mom finally said,

"Okay, we'll stay,

and you can go up to this

comic book convention,

but don't touch anything."

And as we went through the bar,

we saw Otto Binder

sitting there at the bar

with another guy drinking.

And we go in and we sit

down on the stools.

And he goes, "What are

you boys drinking?"

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