His recurring subjects include literary and film noir, the Hollywood studio system and the American comics industry.
[2] De Haven is also the co-creator with author Laura Browder of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, honoring the best debut novel published during a calendar year.
[1] The author noted in an interview that he agreed with Robert Crumb's observation that the Thirties was the pinnacle of American culture.
[1] As a freelance journalist, he has written criticism for publications such as The New York Times Book Review and Entertainment Weekly.
"[3] He states that his prior novels about comic strips are what prompted DC to contact him about writing the period piece.
For the novel, he took as his inspiration the early Superman stories of the 1930s through the 1950s, in which the hero is less concerned with super-villains and Lex Luthor and more with clearing slums in the New Deal era and exposing corrupt politicians.