Sally cashes in on her bet with Bart. Great Shuster composition.
Jerry Siegel (w), Joe Shuster (a), “Spy,” Detective Comics 16 (June 1938).
A few people noticed the “pop” reference as a mainstay of Midwestern dialect (and, you know, the right word). This actually proves useful later on in figuring out who wrote what in some Silver Age Superman comics…
I did a guest post today on the DC Women Kicking Ass tumblr. They always have great stuff and their twitter @dcwomenkicknass is a must follow.
So I guess Superman was close to a Star Trek crossover, but it didn’t happen. Read more over at the always entertaining Comic Book Legends Revealed. That being said, there are a lot of Jerry Siegel characters on this cover. The Legion of Super-Heroes was a rarity by the time it was introduced in 1958 — it was an original concept: teenagers in the future, representing different worlds, are inspired by the old histories of Superman to fight for good. Not bad, right? But as Rich Johnston reports, it was just cancelled again. Jerry Siegel did a ton of anonymous work on the early Legion and really defined the characters. He also did something that revolutionized superhero narrative. You may like him for it — or really not so much.
UPDATE: “Superman” IS in the new Trek movie! Saw it last night. So this wasn’t just opportunity blogging. Go see it — really enjoyed it.
A newly-rediscovered photo of Jerry and Joe has surfaced courtesy of The Cincinnati Enquirer. According to Jeff Suess:
Siegel and Shuster appeared in Cincinnati on Jan. 31, 1942, for the local premiere of the first Max Fleischer “Superman” cartoon at the Palace Theatre at 14 E. 6th St. The Enquirer reported that kids, thinking Superman’s creators shared his super powers, would poke them with pins. They even appealed to fans: “Please don’t bring firearms or other weapons to test their physical prowess.”
Read the rest of the article here.
I think the cover image of Action Comics #1 (he’s lifting the car, etc.) was crucial to the character’s initial surge of popularity. One thing I really wanted to identify was the central image of the automobile. I’m car guy but not really car guy so I enlisted some help — mostly my Dad and other relatives like my Uncle Don (definite car guy). Family values in Cleveland, man. At one point, my Dad was carrying around an Action #1 reprint just to ask people for me. That was the extent of my use of “research assistants.” It worked.
A lot of people have written about the cover — my favorite is Grant Morrison’s explication in his Supergods, which is a history/self-help/alien abduction memoir about his experience and thoughts about the superheroes he writes.
Huge fan of Morrison’s work, ever since I read the monthly Invisibles in grad school and added “Time Machine Go” to my everyday vocabulary. His Superman work is self-evident, especially All-Star and his tremendous run on JLA. His New X-men is also must-read, especially if you’re a teacher (or remember being a student). But enough gush — maybe my favorite Morrison Superman is a weirder one: the one-shot Final Crisis: Superman Beyond issue that is partly in 3-D (it comes with “4-D Vision Upgrade” glasses) and treats Superman as a multiversal/metatextual being across different storylines, corporations, and imaginations.
Jerry Siegel (w), Joe Shuster (a), “Spy,” Detective Comics 16 (1936).
One of my favorite comics characters, all-time, is the Spectre. The character was created by Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard Baily, debuting in More Fun Comics #52 in 1940.
The Spectre was a surrealist take on the new creatures called superheroes. It was also, to the kid’s eye, flat-out scary.
Being a huge fan, I spent a lot of time on this weird character, and got to talk to some people who could answer who actually created him.
Jim Corrigan was a detective who was killed by the Mob. But he was resurrected by, well, God really, to become a divine spirit of retribution with unlimited powers. He could grow, shrink, turn people to skeletons — he was way more powerful than Superman, which was kind of the point. He operated in “Cliffland.”
To top it off, it had a real noir feel to it.
Corrigan’s secret identity is further complicated because he is technically no longer alive.
And, of course, since Jerry Siegel was the author, he wrote from his own life.
You’ll meet this man on the left, too. And no, he’s not Bernard Baily.
He’s the Spectre.
The chances that I’ll ever write Superman are less than getting bit by a radioactive spider on the moon while being bombarded by cosmic rays and getting powers, but I let myself write the Spectre, just a little bit, sorta, in the book — yeah I could say it was for dramatic effect and to draw in the reader, but it’s more like I just couldn’t resist. Sue me…oh wait, forget I said that.
Below: detail from one of my favorite Spectre pages, from Madame Xanadu with art from Amy Reeder Hadley.
Iron Man 3 — the still-shocking success story in Hollywood — opens this weekend. This was the ‘Iron Man’ Jerry and Joe met back in the thirties. Dials! Knobs! Hands on hips!
Je
rry especially would be obsessed with metal men for most of his career, largely due to their major presence in the pulps. He met a few ‘real’ robots, and incorporated steel suits and android hybrids in much of his work, from very early (his 3rd story) to very late (his last). And oh yeah — his and Leo Nowak’s Robotman, which has some really crazy stuff in it.
BTW my favorite Iron Man issue is below — Annual #5 from 1982 (my comics sweet spot), with a fantastic Jerry Bingham cover. In 1982, it was all about the TRON background grid layer, which was a design NECESSITY in all things.