Most people are unaware that Jerry Siegel wrote longtime pulp-favorite character, the Shadow, during his time at Archive Comics in the 1960s. Unfortunately, this was a very short-lived period when the character had shed his .45-carrying, noir roots and taken on a cape-wearing, super-hero vibe. But, the barest essentials of the Shadow were still there in spirit.
The “Legion of Super Heroes” cartoon, which ran on The CW network fro 2006 to 2008, also spun out into a tie-in comic book that ran for 20 issues from 2007 to 2008.
Issue 13 of the series featured a scene set in the past and saw Clark Kent and Lois Lane heading to Shuster Airfield.
Shuster never did any artwork for Legion of Super-Heroes stories. The team made their debut in 1958, long after Shuster had left DC Comics. However, it’s still great to see the homage, given his co-creation of one of the series’ stars: Superboy.
Cleveland, Ohio, was the boyhood home to both Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and their hometown often was made reference to in early stories from the pair. Siegel’s and Shuster’s two-fisted P.I., Slam Bradley, operated out of Cleveland and, in at least two early Superman stories, the Man of Steel, as well! This panel comes from a Slam Bradley story and, while the Cleveland News-Press did not exist, two of the largest newspapers in the city at the time were the Cleveland News and the Cleveland Press. By coincidence, the two papers later were merged under the Cleveland Press banner.
Let’s face it. There are a lot of Superman podcasts. Heck, there’s an entire network of ’em. But for all the love given to the Man of Steel in podcast land, his teenage incarnation doesn’t get near enough attention — particularly in his Golden Age form.
In 2011, one man, even if only for a brief, shining moment, sought to rectify that.
After his Superman podcast Superman Forever Radio went on hiatus, J. David Weter launched The Smallville Chronicles, a (far too) short-lived podcast whose original mission was to document the Boy of Steel’s stories, beginning with his very first appearance.
Unfortunately, after the show’s third episode, it, too, came to an end and the episodes soon vanished from the Internet. But in September, like a Kryptonian flame-dragon rising from the ashes, Superman Forever Radio was resurrected. And now in episode 52, David has also resurrected the lost Smallville Chronicles episodes, repackaging them into one great episode.
Over the course of the three episodes (now one), David looks at the first three Superboy stories: the character’s debut from MORE FUN COMICS #101, “The Cruise of the Jolly Roger!” from #102 and “A Modern Cave Man!” from #103.
All three stories were penciled by Joe Shuster, and the first was written by Jerry Siegel, his only true Superboy story in the Golden Age. The first story also bears the distinction of Siegel’s most extensive telling in the comic books of the origin of Superboy/Superman until the Silver Age.
While I don’t think David has any plans to bring back The Smallville Chronicles, not only is Superman Forever Radio a worthy listen for Superman fans, it’s made all the better by taking the “lost” from the Smallville Chronicle’s “lost episodes” and giving a fan’s look at some rarely seen Siegel and Shuster material a new home.
From time to time, I will post a roundup of posts and links from around the web that are of definite interest or worth a read, but perhaps not directly enough connected to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster themselves to merit an individual post.
On Dec. 11, the first full-length trailer for “Man of Steel,” the newest big-screen interpretation of Siegel’s and Shuster’s most-famous creation, was released. While only related to Siegel and Shuster and their work on Superman inasmuch as, hey, they created him, both of their names are listed big and bold in the credits at the end of the trailer.
Times sure have changed. Siegel and Shuster were not listed among the credits in the original theatrical teasers or trailers for “Superman: The Movie.” In fact, as has been oft-told elsewhere, it was the production of that movie that was a major catalyst to the events that ultimately lead to Siegel and Shuster getting their credit added to the movie and restored to the comics.
As a big-screen interpretation of Superman tries to chart a new flight for the first time in years, it’s great seeing them both credited from the get-go.
Over at his blog, 20th Century Danny Boy, Daniel Best has put together an interesting post talking about a circa-1938 order in Australia that labelled DETECTIVE COMICS and a handful of crime and detective pulp magazines as “literature calculated to encourage depravity.” The label resulted in the magazines being banned and barred from being imported into the country.
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had two regular features running in DETECTIVE COMICS at the time, “Spy” and “Slam Bradley.” There is no indication from Best’s post that either strip was directly responsible for the ban; it seems the objection was more towards the content of the magazine as a whole. However, one line is eye-catching.
The line stating that “the alleged Comics at the latter end of the book are included, it appears, only as an adjunct to the main theme of crime, and the title of the publication is calculated to deceive the purchaser as to the contents” is noteworthy because “Slam Bradley” was, in all but a few cases, the final feature in each issue. “Spy” bounced around a bit more, but usually was positioned in the approximate center of the issue, though farther back in earlier issues.
One wonders if the customs officials weren’t looking for reasons to ban the magazine, given that the complaint seems to be that the crime stories have either too much crime… or not enough. Either way, even though the Siegel and Shuster features might not have been directly responsible, they were certainly effected by it, and it makes for an interesting footnote in the history of their work.
Over at the Fortress of Baileytude, Michael Bailey has posted two of the “Famous Covers” cards from the 1991 DC Cosmic Cards trading card set. The cards highlight the iconic covers to ACTION COMICS #1 and SUPERMAN #1, both illustrated by Joe Shuster.
Click on over to the Fortress of Baileytude for a look at the back of each card, which talks more about the comics.
Also included in the set was another “Famous Covers” card highlighting ALL-STAR COMICS #3, which featured the first meeting of the Justice Society of America, including the Spectre, a character co-created by Jerry Siegel.
The cover was illustrated by Everett E. Hibbard, but the six-and-a-half page Spectre sequence inside, despite what the card’s back says, is thought by many comics historians to have been written by Siegel.
 AboutSiegel & Shuster: Mythmakers is dedicated to celebrating the collective and individual lives, works and legacies of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. |
