Superman turns 75 this year, and celebrations of the Man of Steel’s anniversary are already in full swing.
One podcast celebrating Superman’s seven-and-a-half centuries is Hey Kids, Comics! The show, hosted by father and son duo Andrew and Micheal Leyland, launched in early 2011, looking at comics from all corners of the genre. Not only is the show a consistently enjoyable listen, it is unique in that it presents a multi-generational look at classic comic book stories both new and old.
In the most-recent episode, the Leylands kicked off part one of their newest series, “Happy Birthday, Superman!”.
As this is the first episode of their anniversary celebration, the Leylands kick things off in style by looking at a set of stories all written by Jerry Siegel himself — a couple of which were also illustrated by Joe Shuster!
First up is a look at the first half of the historic SUPERMAN #1. Written by Siegel and illustrated by Shuster, these stories were published originally in ACTION COMICS #1 and #2 and tell Superman’s first published adventures as he frees someone wrongly accused a murder, brings the true killer to justice, then stops a case of spousal abuse, before taking on corrupt politicians, munitions manufacturer and international war. It’s Superman in his purest form… by the men that dreamed him up.
The guys then take a look at the Superman story from ACTION COMICS #3, a tale since titled “The Blakely Mine Disaster, and again brought to you by Siegel and Shuster.
They then move on to ACTION COMICS #23, which features Superman’s first encounter with a maniacal scientist known only as… Luthor. Join Siegel and Shuster (with a little help from Paul Cassidy on inks) as they introduce “the greatest criminal mind of our time!”
And finally, the guys close out the episode with a look at the classic “Superman, Matinee Idol” from SUPERMAN #19. In it, Siegel and Shuster (with a little help from Ed Dobrotka and John Sikela) tell a tale of Clark Kent and Lois Lane going on a date to see a feature — which just happens to be the secret-identity-revealing Fleischer Bros. Superman cartoon!
