Can you imagine having dinner with Jerry Siegel? How about Jerry Siegel, Batman co-creator Bob Kane and Jack “King” Kirby? For three lucky guys, it happened.
Pictured in front is Mark Hamill. Center row from left are Kirby, Siegel, Kane and Miguel Ferrer. In back is Bill Mumy.
According to Bill Mumy’s website, the meeting took place in 1988. Though, Amazing Heroes #120, where Mumy talked about the meeting, gave the date of January 10, 1987. Given that the issue came out in the summer of 1987, that date is more likely correct.
Here’s what Mumy had to say about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:
The night was a lot of fun. We looked through old books they had done, and even some brand new ones they were doing. It was strictly a social night: good food, good company and great memories.”
Siegel’s final published work came in 1984. So, any “new” work they were luck enough to have seen probably wasn’t his.
In a 1999 interview with John Morrow, Hamill talked about how the meeting came together:
I’ve been a fan of comics since I was a kid. Certainly anybody that had the interest I had in comics knew who Jack Kirby was. Later, I became much more aware of his plight, vis-a-vis getting his artwork back from Marvel Comics. Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer are two friends of mine who are both actors, but who I met through comic books rather than through acting. They were the ones that arranged to have this dinner where Jack and Roz were invited, and Jerry Siegel and his wife were there. Bob Kane was there and [his wife] Elizabeth. When I was invited I said, “Sure, I’d love to come.” Just in terms of their importance to the industry, it’d be like having dinner with Max Fleischer and Walt Disney and Walter Lantz to the cartoon industry. They were titans, really.
While the interview mainly discusses Kirby, Hamill went on to describe Siegel as “very self-effacing, and very quiet, and not as bombastic as Bob was.”
In 2011, he told a similar story to Forces of Geek:
“Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer are two actors that I know, not through acting jobs, but because we all are comic book collectors. And it was just one of those situations where we had an opportunity to invite – it was Jerry and Joanne Siegel, Roz and Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, and Elizabeth. At that time that it was, I’m guessing – oh, gosh, was it ’85 or ’86? Whatever it was, it was a chance to have dinner with these living legends, but also to sort of let them know how much what they had done had meant to us. Everyone gets honored after they pass away, and it’s too bad, because it’s too late for them to really know that. And I don’t know. It was just a monumental night, because I thought, “Gee, is this where in animation it’s the equivalent of having Walt Disney and Max Fleischer and Walter Lantz all in one room.” So it was a thrill of a lifetime, especially for fanboys like us.”
He also told the story to CNN, elaborating a bit more on Siegel’s personality:
“He was like the most tragic example of how the writer can get a raw deal, having sold ‘Superman’ to National Comics for $130. Jerry was a much quieter person [than Kirby or Kane], and just a really nice guy.”
Coincidentally, the mid-’80s meeting wouldn’t be the last encounter with Siegel — or at least his creations — for Mumy or Hamill.
In 1998, Mumy and Peter David co-wrote a story featuring the Spectre in LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE 80-PAGE GIANT #1. The 10-page tale was penciled by another comics legend: the great Steve Ditko, one of his final works to date for the company.
For Hamill’s part, he went on to voice the Spectre in two season-two episodes of “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”: “Chill of the Night!” and “Gorillas in Our Midst!,” both from 2010.
Were you lucky enough to meet Jerry Siegel or Joe Shuster? Share your story!
