WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Brad Meltzer's "The Book of Lies" spins off a factoid of cultural history: In 1932, Mitchell Siegel, the father of Jerry Siegel, died in a robbery of his secondhand clothing store in Cleveland.
The autopsy said it was a heart attack; family rumor said it was murder.
What isn't in dispute is that a few years later, Jerry Siegel would co-create "Superman, the Man of Steel," who was impervious to bullets, or anything else ... except Kryptonite.
For Fort Lauderdale's Meltzer, a self-confessed comics geek and author of several bestselling novels and graphic novels, that was all he needed. His new novel combines the story of the Siegel family with the biblical saga of Cain and Abel.
How did you first find out about the death of Mitchell Siegel?
Two years ago, I'm on book tour in Sarasota. A woman stands up and says, "I know more about Superman than you'll ever know. Jerry Siegel was my uncle." It was a meteor to the back of my head. And at the same place, another guy stood up and said, "I was in the army with Jerry Siegel."
His niece was the one who invited me into the family. I had heard rumors about Jerry's father - maybe he was shot, maybe it was a heart attack. I became obsessed by the fact that in 50 years Siegel never mentioned that his father was killed in a crime.
The reason we have Superman is because a little boy lost his father. Well, not a little boy - his father died in 1932, when Jerry would have been 17 or 18. Anyway, I started digging. I found a letter to the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after his father died, about why we don't need any vigilantes, and it was signed by A.L. Luther. Eventually, I had to ask myself, what's going on here?
But there's some discrepancy as to whether Mitchell Siegel was in fact shot or died of a heart attack brought on by the holdup.
Jerry told his wife and his daughter that it was a heart attack. But on his mother's side, they all heard that he was shot. I found the death certificate, and it says he died in a robbery. The autopsy says it was a heart attack, but there were shots fired. Back in the Depression, the most popular gun was a .22, cheap and leaving a small wound. It's possible that the autopsy missed a .22 wound. Unless he's exhumed, we'll never know for sure.
The odd thing is that there was no police investigation. A guy dies during a crime - let's assume that it was a heart attack - there should be an ensuing investigation, because even if it was a heart attack, that's a potential manslaughter charge. But nothing happened. And Jerry Siegel never mentioned all of this to anybody.
Ultimately, maybe it doesn't make a difference unless you're Mitchell Siegel - dead is dead, and for Jerry his father's death was the grain of sand that stimulated the pearl.
It is the pearl, wearing a giant red cape. We are a country founded on our legends and myths, but we never want to stop and think about where the myths come from. The reason we nominate Obama and McCain is that they're both heroes, one of whom takes on bad guys in a POW camp with his bare hands. It doesn't take a Ph.D. to tell you we are desperate for heroes.
The standard heroes of the Depression were Tarzan and Flash Gordon, heroes designed to transport you elsewhere. After 9-11, the first big movie was "Spider Man" - someone designed to save us. These are the great stories of our time, and they persist for a reason - because they say something about us. The secret to our lives is that we're all boring and weak, and that's why so many of the Superman rip-offs fail - they forget to have the Clark Kent side.
Did you hire researchers in Cleveland or go there yourself?
I did it myself. I went to the house where Siegel grew up, went up into the attic, found out Siegel's real name because I found a Russian army expert who dug up a Lithuanian army census and found the family name.
The idea of the death of a father spawning the myth of Superman is immensely powerful - where did the idea of bringing in the death of Abel come into it?
It was fascinating to find out the father story, but it was almost too geeky even for me. I'll tell you more about my own lunacy than you need to hear. Eleven years ago, I was pitching a follow-up book to my first novel, and I pitched them the Cain and Abel story. The editor looked at me and said, "You're an idiot. You're an unknown author, and we're marketing you as the next John Grisham. Don't write a biblical thriller."
I had this moment when I could be strong, or I could cave, and I caved faster than anybody on earth. And I wrote the book they wanted me to write and it was my worst-selling book ever.
Just the story of Jerry Siegel's father didn't seem enough, and I had this Cain and Abel story, so...
Would it be fair to say that Superman spawned the comics industry as we know it?
In terms of what we see around us, absolutely one hundred percent. It was Superman that caught the country's attention, it was Superman who sold bonds during WWII, it was Jerry Siegel whose enlistment was used for propaganda.
The odd thing about Jerry Siegel is that he basically peaked when he was 21 or 22, when he created Superman with Joe Shuster. What happened afterward?
They worked for 10 years at DC comics, then Siegel got fired for asking for more money. They had sold off their rights to the character for $130. Jerry lost everything, and tried to create a new Superman and it didn't work. DC eventually felt bad for him and hired him back a decade later. And the story he writes on his return is Superman goes back to Krypton and sees his father, who doesn't recognize him. Superman can save Krypton from exploding and save his dead father, but if he does that, he will no longer exist. And he chooses in that moment to sacrifice himself because he would rather be with his father than have him die.
Eventually, Jerry ended up leaving DC again. He got so poor, he wound up delivering mail at the power company. But his wife is a spitfire, and when the first Christopher Reeve movie came out, she mounted a campaign to give Jerry and Joe a pension. They gave them $20,000 a year apiece for life to avoid a major public relations disaster.
Tell me about buying the old Siegel house for a museum.
The house is in a horrible neighborhood, and it's a shame. It's a mess. A group of us, a group in Cleveland and a lot of comic book creators, have gotten the right of first refusal on the house. When they want to sell, we'll buy it and fix it up as a museum. We're putting together a Web site for people who want to help (ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com.)
Where'd the Web site name come from?
I call it that because I don't care about your school, or how much money you make. It's ordinary people who change the world. The Wright brothers changed the world, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster changed the world.
Your marketing for this book is very innovative. There's a trailer that features Joss Whedon and Christopher Hitchens, and there's a soundtrack to listen to while you're reading the book. I'd guess you feel books are traditionally under-marketed?
Books are as entertaining as any movie or TV show, but we market them like we're still printing them on a hand press. It's snobbery, and that's why we're going to be left behind. Do I think every book needs to be marketed like this? No. Does the book need a soundtrack? Of course not. But the most interesting thing to do is what hasn't been done before.
If publishing wants to avoid getting swamped by other mediums, it has to keep up.
Scott Eyman writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail; seyman AT pbpost.com