| Jerry
Siegel and Joe Shuster first met at Glenville High School in Cleveland,
Ohio in 1930 where both were on the staff of the high school newspaper.
Shuster had moved to Cleveland from Toronto, Canada when he was 10.
Jerry was already a science-fiction pioneer at that time, having published
the first science fiction fanzine,
Cosmic Stories in 1929 when he
was 14 years old. It was done on a typewriter with carbon paper.
Joe's mind was also teeming with science
fiction images including this drawing done on May 2,1931 when Joe was only
16 years old. |
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copyright 1985 by Jerry
Siegel and Joe Shuster. From Siegel And Shuster: Dateline 1930's
#2 pub by Eclipse Comics |
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In October 1932, the two collaborated
on a new fanzine, called Science Fiction, this time mimeographed. The third issue of that magazine,
published in January 1933, featured a Jerry Siegel story called "Reign
of the Superman" about a fantastic villain who used his super brain for
evil.
The splash page from that story (reprinted
in Comic Book Price Guide #18) shows a giant who looks suspiciously
like Luthor hovering over a bread line. Yes, the evil Professor Smalley
took advantage of the depression gripping America to recruit subjects for
his hideous experiments. |
| Shortly after this story
was finished, Jerry was seized with a new idea. Instead of having
the evil Superman prey on the victims of the depression, why not a good
Superman who would avenge the misfortunes of the downtrodden? Quickly,
he got Joe Shuster busy sketching the new character and working the story
up- this time in comics format. A new company, Humor Publishing,
had just released three album-sized comic books, Detective Dan,
Adventures
of Detective Ace King, and Bob Scully, Two Fisted
Hick Detective. |
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| Siegel contacted them and they seemed
eager to add Superman to their line, so Joe Shuster drew up an entire Superman
story, including two cover sketches. Unfortunately, Humor stopped publishing
comics after those two one-shots and the deal was never concluded.
Depressed, Joe tore the original Superman story to shreds. Only the
two cover sketches survive, which can be seen in Comic Book Price Guide
18 and Comic Book Marketplace 36 |
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That idea scotched Jerry and Joe turned
to new concepts and soon had a contract with the Cleveland Shopping News
to put out a monthly comics tabloid called Popular Comics.
They had almost completed the first issue when the publisher changed his
mind and reneged on the deal. |
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Two of the strips our boys devised for
that tile were Gloria Glamour and the Waif (seen at
left from Eclipse Comics' Siegel and Shuster: Dateline 1930's#1).
Both characters would show up many times in future work.
copyright 1984 by Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shuster
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| Meanwhile, Siegel tried shopping
his Superman idea to other artists and actually convinced pro artist Russel
Keaton, (who had been ghosting Buck Rogers) to work up a series of sample
strips. This 1934 version, in which baby Superman is sent back from
the future rather than from another planet, helps show the order
in which the concepts of "the Man From Tomorrow" developed. Only
nine of the original strips have surfaced, but there are believed to be
more, as well as scripts for addtional stories, some of which made it into
the early issues of Action Comics. |
| Eventually, Jerry and Joe began reworking
the Superman concept into a comic strip. They put together several
weeks worth of samples and sent them around to the syndicates with no luck.
But with each rejection, they repacked them and sent them on to the next
prospect. |
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Some time in this period, the idea of
putting Superman into an acrobat costume featuring a cape and leotards
came into existence. This early picture of Clark Kent looking askance
at the Man of Steel dates from 1934-5 and was part of the package sent
around to syndicates to promote the strip. This particular "S" design
on Superman's shield has only been seen in one other picture which must
therefore date from the same time period. |
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