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Author | Topic: Superman from the 30s to the 50s |
India
Ink Member |
posted September
23, 2002 08:29 PM
All the crossovers reprinted in ...Multiple Earths were already printed in the JLA archives (I should know, I own them all). So all the cost in restoration was already paid for for those books (and each volume cost me about seventy-five dollars Canadian WITH a store discount, while Multiple Earths only cost me about thirty dollars Canadian--so I expect there was a bigger profit margin on those archives, even if they didn't have a big print run). Before the archives, I know that almost all those JLA/JSA crossovers had been reprinted at least once before--so the chances of having usable stats was greatly increased. As I understand it, there are several problems with restoration. If you photocopy a page from a comic book you wind up with either a B&W white copy with several shades of grey or a color copy with several dots of color. With the B&W those shades of grey are made of many little dots of black--that black overlaps with the actual black inks so trying to make a B&W copy of just the actual inked lines without the grey involves somehow trying to get those little black dots out without also removing the inked lines. With a color copy, the photocopy tends to fade the black lines and you have to get rid of all those color dots while at the same time retaining the inked black lines (which might actually look brown on a color photocopy). Now you could just use the photographed pages and print those--and this has been done. Marvel has done it a lot and the recent Art Spiegelman Jack Cole's Plastic Man also does it. But you wind up with pages that look like photographs of comic pages--and the qualitative aesthetics of that are debatable. As I understand it the usual practice these days has someone re-inking the entire page. The page is blown up to a larger size and the new inker tries to trace the exact lines of the original inker. This takes a lot of time, and you have to pay the guy doing the re-inking. The Theakston process seems to have been some kind of process that bleached out all the color dots from an original comic book page, leaving only the black ink. This process, of course, destroyed the original comic book. Thus it was preferable to use comics that reprinted older comics (since the older comics tend to be higher priced collector's items). So if you have an eighty-page Giant from the sixties that reprints stories from the fifties, it's preferable to capture the images from that Giant rather than destroying more collectable fifties comics. With the Superman archives, they Theakstonized a lot of the first volume because the original issues of Superman reprinted stories from Action. If one issue of Superman contains Superman stories from four issues of Action then you only have to destroy one issue of Superman rather than destroying four issues of Action. But as I understand it, most of the archives that have followed since then have not used the Theakston process as it is too costly. In the sixties, most Giants didn't reprint forties material because DC didn't have the plates (or photostats) for those stories. They did reprint fifties stories because they had those plates (what happened to those plates in later decades? I don't know). In the late sixties (around when Carmine Infantino was promoted to an executive position), DC tried reprinting some older material. In these cases they had to re-ink the pages (Infantino himself re-inked a "Here Comes Alfred" story). But only a few of these stories were done. As E. Nelson Bridwell explained it in a Superman letter column (I posted on this several months ago in the "Superman in the Seventies" thread), Carmine Infantino asked Jack Adler, National Periodical's production ace at the time, to come up with a process that would allow them to reprint older stories without laborious re-inking. Adler was an inventive genius (he had come up with his own 3-D viewer that was actually better than the later ViewMaster invention but he couldn't secure a patend, and when ViewMaster came along he was done out of a fortune), he did all kinds of production tricks that should have been impossible at the time given the printing processes for comics in those days--in the early seventies there were covers and even inside stories that used photographs, all thanks to Adler who often took the photos himself. Accepting Infantino's challenge, Adler came up with a process that allowed National to reprint loads of vintage stories (and the early seventies comics of those days are full of these). Actually ENB says that Adler came up with two processes, one being more expensive than the other. I gather the cheaper process was the one that was mostly used on DC comics (although the Famous First Editions are quite good and maybe used the more expensive process). Judging by the quality of some stories, though (eg. Lou Fine stories in the 100 Page Super-Specs, where Fine's delicates lines don't always reproduce) this cheaper process probably wasn't the greatest, but it did the job. Just what these two processes were I don't know. I expect, given Adler's genius for photographic processes, he may have used some fancy photographic techniques, perhaps using different color filters to filter out all the color dots on a comic page to render just the black inked image. Why these processes aren't used now--what drawbacks make them unusable--I don't know. I have both the Superman and the Batman From the 30s to the 70s, but not the Shazam! From the 40s to the 70s. I remember finding these Bonanza hardcover books in the early seventies--probably at Coles--reduced for sale. I think each book cost me about a dollar (I also got the Ms. paperback publication, Wonder Woman, which reprints 40s WW exclusively, at around the same time, probably at the same store, for about the same obscenely low price). My Bonanza books are still in pretty good shape--that white paper has hardly aged at all--even though I've done nothing to preserve them and they sat for many years in my musty basement apartment, back when I lived in a basement suite. Consequently they do have a bit of a musty smell, but not as pungent as some books that I kept in boxes on the floor in that suite. I would prefer to have new-ink smelling editions to peruse, though. I guess such huge volumes would have to be priced even higher than the archives--about the price of DC slipcover volumes. But such boutique items could probably be sold to old timers who tend to salivate over such things, and render DC a small profit. While they're at it they could do to reprint Fleisher's Great Superman Book as it was printed on inferior newsprint (whereas the Batman and WW encyclopedias were printed on whiter, better paper) and my copy has not stood the test of time. Curiously, The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told softcover was also printed on inferior paper, whereas the volumes that followed, dedicated to other DC characters, got better paper. I smell a conspiracy--or maybe that's just the paper I smell. IP: Logged |
Aldous Member |
posted September
24, 2002 12:07 AM
India, All the years Australia (and NZ) were issuing reprint comic books -- the exact same comics as in America, except they were just nicely clean black and white, ie. all you got, basically, was the "inking" -- how were those comics (and this involves just about any and every DC comic) delivered to the Aussie publishers? Plates? What -- metal plates? I don't think there were photostats or photocopies or anything like that till the early 70s were there (I'm not sure about that)... And the Aussie reprints go wayyyy back. Anyway: you know what I'm asking. For instance, with my black and white Aussie edition of Superman #233 (early 70s)... the Aussie guy rings the U.S. guy and says, yep, send us Superman #233. We'll reprint it. How did he send it? In what form was it? IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted September
26, 2002 03:35 PM
I really don't know. While it might seem that I know a lot, I really don't. In my last post, I had to do a lot of guess work, and it's quite possible I was wrong on some things. I've relied mainly on my memory--and my memory relies on things I've read in comics, magazines, books, and on these message boards. Maybe I should have another look at the Metropolis Edition of The Amazing World of Superman--that was the book that first taught me about how comic books are made (and since there were lots of changes in this process after its publications, I'm overdue for a refresher course). From that book, as I recall, National sent their pages to a company that did the separations, making negatives for the different four colours (a black negative, a blue negative, a yellow negative, and a magenta negative--which would each generate a corresponding positive lead plate), and then there was the company that actually printed the comic. So there were two companies involved in the process of printing the comic after it was produced at the National offices. So it seems possible that either black and white pages were sent to foreign locations, and these were made into negatives there, which generated plates, OR the actual black negatives themselves were shipped to these foreign locations. I doubt they would have sent color negatives since this would have been an added cost--when they could just as easily have mailed notes on what colours should be used for each page. All of this was done through the mails of course (I imagine they had to pay insurance on these shipments, since if these were lost or destroyed in transit it would cost them a lot in lost production). What are separations? As I understand it (I have to use that phrase a lot here), someone takes the colors of the colorist as suggested colors for the page, but actually these are translated into numbers. The numbers reflect a ratio of different colors. For red, you have so much magenta (so many dots of magenta) for so much yellow to create an illusion of red. To create different browns or greys you have a certain balance of magenta, yellow, and blue to create the illusion of those shades. So someone creates a page of magenta reflecting those percentages, and likewise a page of blue and a page of yellow, in addition to the page of black (provided by the black inked page). When all these four colours overlap onto one printed page--voila--you get a full colour comic. And man am I having a hard time as a Canadian deciding how to spell "colour." Since we're talking about American processes, do I use their spelling for these processes? or do I use the proper word, which for Canadians is "colour?" Now, from what I remember of these things I read very long ago, I'm led to believe that DC kept negatives of their published comics on file and not necessarily stats or b&w originals (I think the originals were destroyed, except where given away or sometimes returned to the artist--the policy used to be against returning originals to artists, but some editors broke that rule--now the policy requires originals to be returned to artists). Whether they kept just the black negatives or all four negatives I don't know. And what has happened to the negatives? that I don't know either. IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 06,
2002 06:56 PM
comprehensive chronology of precursors and context for the creation of Superman by Siegel & Shuster: circa 2000 BC--the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, legendary hero of Babylon. 2000 - 1400 BC--Minoan civilization on Crete. 1600 - 1100 BC--Mycenaean civilization in Greece. over 3000 years ago circa 700 BC--the Iliad & Odyssey by "Homer" recount in epic poetry the oral stories of the Trojan War handed down through many generations in Ancient Greece. 29 - 19 BC--until his death, Vergil writes the Aeneid, the Latin epic poem about the mythic founding of Rome. 1500 - 500 years ago--Celtic tales give rise to Arthurian legends of knightly heroes possessing great courage and strength. 8th century AD--the Old English poem of Beowulf (a dragon-slaying hero) is written down. circa 1200 AD--the Elder Edda collection of Icelandic poems is written down. 13th century AD--in Iceland, Snorri Sturlusson (1179 - 1241) writes down the Prose Edda. 1468 - 1471 AD--Sir Thomas Malory imprisoned in Newgate prison in England until his death writes Le Morte d'Arthur, which is published on July 31, 1485. 16th - 17th century AD--legend has it that Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague (1525 - 1609) knew how to arrange the secret names of God in such a way as to create a Golem, a man brought to life out of clay, to serve his bidding and protect the Jewish people (the rabbi's name means Lion of Judah, by the way). When "emet" was written on the Golem's forehead it came to life. When the first letter was erased it left "met" meaning death and the Golem became dust. The Golem is said to have been a champion of the Jewish people in Prague before it crumbled to pieces; its remains are reputed to still exist in the "Golem's room" of an ancient Prague synagogue. 1752--Micromegas by Voltaire (Steranko offers this as one of the first works of speculative fiction about life on other planets). 1816--nineteen year old Mary Wolstonecraft--along with her lover, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley--spends a summer of poor weather as guest of George Gordon, Lord Byron (another reknowned Romantic), in his Swiss villa, along with Byron's doctor, John William Polidori. Given their imprisonment indoors, due to the weather, Byron proposes that the four of them each come up with a horror story. This gives rise to Mary's fantasy of a modern-day Prometheus (the Titan Prometheus stole fire from heaven and gave it to man, for which he was punished by the gods). Mary Shelley creates Victor von Frankenstein, a scentist who sparks human life in a dead form (like the Golem myth). This novel is completed in 1817 and then published in 1818 as Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus. Wolstonecraft and Shelley were married in 1817 after the unfortunate death of his first wife. 1865--De la Terre a la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) by Jules Verne. 1876--August 13 - 17, at Bayreuth, Germany "Der Ring des Niebelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelung") is performed for the first time in its entirety (over a four day period). Originally conceived by composer Richard Wagner in 1848 as an allegorical response to the revolutions throughout Europe in that year, this operatic cycle took decades to complete and ultimately bring to the stage. The cycle was drawn from the Nibelungenlied, an old German epic, and several Scandinavian sources including the Prose Edda and Elder Edda. The four operas in the cycle are: "Das Rheingold," "Die Walkure," "Siegfried," & "Gotterdamerung" ("The Rhinegold," "The Valkyrie," "Siegfried," & "Twilight of the Gods"). 1883 - 85 --philosopher Friedrich Nietsche writes Also Sprach Zarathrustra (Thus Spake Zarathrustra) which announces the doctrine of the Ubermensch (Superman). 1898--The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. 1901--The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. 1903--"Man and Superman" by George Bernard Shaw is first performed on stage. 1905 1912--"Under the Moons of Mars," by Norman Bean (aka Edgar Rice Burroughs), published in six parts from February to July in [i]All-Story Magazine (later in 1917 published as the novel A Princess of Mars); "Tarzan of the Apes", by Burroughs, published in October, also in All-Story. 1914 1915 1917 1918--The allied powers defeat Germany and Austria, the Great War ends with a loss of ten million souls. 1919 1920 1923 1924 - 25 --Hitler writes Mein Kampf in prison. 1926--"Metropolis" (silent) directed by Fritz Lang, an example of German Expressionist film-making, tells the futuristic story, with certain religious overtones, of a struggle between the rich upper class (who live in the towers above the city) and the poor working class (who live and work below the city). 1927--May 20 - 21, Charles Lindberg makes first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris. 1928--August, "Armageddon--2419 AD," a short story by Francis Philip Nowlan, is published in Amazing Stories, and then in 1929 is adapted as a comic strip, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century." 1929 1930 circa 1931--Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first meet at Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and find a common interest in science fiction. 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 IP: Logged |
Aldous Member |
posted October 06,
2002 07:44 PM
quote: That is superb. A neat piece of work.
quote: Yes, there was a hell of a lot going on in the world, never mind the debut of Superman comics. The conduct of Chamberlain is one of those "if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it" cautionary examples: no oppressor or dictator was ever stopped by appeasement or diplomacy. Churchill would have liked Superman -- a bully needs one thing: a sound thrashing. The Superman who appeared in these early Action Comics understood that. IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 06,
2002 08:53 PM
A few random things about the chronology. So far, I couldn't track down the exact date of Julius Schwartz's birth, just that it was in June of 1915. Schwartz and Weisinger were born in the exact same year. I could only track down that Mort was born in New York, but not if he was born in the Bronx. In any case at some time in his childhood he was in the Bronx, and went to high school there--although I don't know if Julie and Mort went to the same high school in the Bronx. But they became part of the same science fiction club in the Bronx. Although one year younger than Siegel & Shuster, Weisinger & Schwartz in the Bronx seemed to have led the way ahead of the Cleveland boys, as they put out their mimeo fanzine before Jerry & Joe. Not that it's likely the two pairs of teens knew anything about the other. It's also interesting to find that both Boring and Swan were born in Minnesota, albeit fifteen years apart. I couldn't determine where Boring was born in Minnesota, although it seems he had some art school training in Minneapolis (where Swan was born). I could rationalize including birth-dates for Boring, Weisinger, Schwartz, & Swan because they have some indirect relationship to the early Superman, and they are of later importance to the whole legend. But including Schaffenberger was possibly just a personal desire to include a favourite artist. Schaffenberger was at Fawcett mainly in the 40s, and didn't come to the Superman books until later in the 50s. And if I included Kurt--then why not Al Plastino, John Forte, Pete Costanza, Stan Kaye, Jack Burnley, et al? Well, because the date and place of Kurt's birth seemed significant--that he was born in Germany in 1920 brings a certain connection to the history that makes it more compelling. I was also indulgent in including some info about Canada, but it's my home and I feel connected to Superman through all those Canadian connections. My indictment of Vincent Massey might have been too much for the purposes of this thread--although the irony of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is one of those things that amuses me in a pessimistic way. I think that the movie on some level was meant as an allegory for the times. And there was a second movie (but I don't know. if it was with the same cast) which was about the Pimpernel during WWII, made in Britain to boost British morale during the war--where the allegory stops being an allegory and becomes a literal truth. The Baroness Orczy's book (her name was Emmuska Magdalena Rosalia Marie Josepha Barbara, the Baroness Orczy) was one of those that I read as a teen which had a profound influence on me. The strange relationship between Percy and his wife is amazing. He's virtually masochistic, allowing his wife to verbally abuse him, all the while knowing the real truth. One evening after she denounces him, after she leaves, he kisses the ground at each place where her footsteps fell as she left him. The attitude and look of Lois Lane in the stories from Action no. 1 and the reprinted version in Superman no. 1 have Lois looking a lot like Merle Oberon, and reflect that haughty Lady Blakenay personality (especially in the scene at the night club where Lois gives Clark a tongue-lashing). On the CBC, in Canada, they often play late night movies of old British classics, especially those Korda movies starring Merle Oberon. They did when I was a teen and they still do now. Ah, what a lady that Merle Oberon! I goofed up on the italics with the [/i] a couple of times--but I always seem to goof up with those. When they were in their teens Schwartz, Weisinger, and another science fiction fellow were crossing a street and hit by a truck which put Weisinger in hospital and this is when Weisinger became productive about writing science fiction. That's a rough encapsulation of something I read on a website--I'll see if I can track down the exact details later. Anyhow, this reminds me of Jim Shooter who started writing and drawing comic book from his sick-bed--and maybe that was a connection between the editor and the young writer. Confinement seems to bring about great ideas (or not so great in the case of Hitler). Like Siegel & Shuster, Mary Wolstonecraft was a teenager when she created Frankenstein. And she was confined (by weather). But she probably was also depressed--her mother died in childbirth, she and Percy Bysshe Shelley had a tortured relationship, she had lost one child by him and was probably pregnant with another at that time in Switzerland at Lord Byron's villa. An important element of creation seems to be depression--but not depression the extent of an inability to act. Friedrich Nietsche was a very depressed man, and his philosophy was born from that. Siegel and Shuster as Jews had to be aware of the depressing world climate. Joe Shuster was one of the masses, not the Masseys. They were both of working class families, with limited prospects for the future, and they were living in the middle of the Great Depression. But like what Nietsche said "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 06,
2002 09:05 PM
Expanding on what I said about Weisinger, this is cut and pasted from a website called "Talent Pool"--it has annoying pop-ups so I won't put up a link. Anyhow, the information for this site seems to be from the Julius Schwartz book Man of Two Worlds--unfortunatley I haven't yet been able to track down a copy of this book.
quote: IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 12,
2002 06:43 PM
Here's a truly remarkable listing of other early Siegel & Shuster work that I've swiped from the DC archives board: Owen Cardiff Darcy New Fun The Big Comic Magazine #1 New Fun The Big Comic Magazine #2
New Fun The Big Comic Magazine #6 More Fun The Big Comic Magazine #7 More Fun The Big Comic Magazine #8 More Fun Comics #9 More Fun Comics #10
New Fun The Big Comic Magazine #6 More Fun The Big Comic Magazine #7 More Fun The Big Comic Magazine #8 More Fun Comics #9 More Fun Comics #10 More Fun Comics #11 More Fun Comics #12 More Fun Comics #13 The Comics Magazine vol. 1 #1 More Fun Comics #14 More Fun Comics #15 More Fun Comics #16 More Fun Comics #17 More Fun Comics #18 More Fun Comics #19 More Fun Comics #20 More Fun Comics #21 More Fun Comics #22 More Fun Comics #23 More Fun Comics #24 More Fun Comics #25 More Fun Comics #26 More Fun Comics #27 More Fun Comics #28 More Fun Comics #29 More Fun Comics #30 More Fun Comics #31 More Fun Comics #32
More Fun Comics #11 More Fun Comics #12 More Fun Comics #13 More Fun Comics #14 More Fun Comics #15 More Fun Comics #16 More Fun Comics #17 More Fun Comics #18 More Fun Comics #19 More Fun Comics #20 More Fun Comics #21 More Fun Comics #22 More Fun Comics #23 More Fun Comics #24 More Fun Comics #25 More Fun Comics #27 More Fun Comics #28 More Fun Comics #29 More Fun Comics #30 More Fun Comics #31 More Fun Comics #32 More Fun Comics #33 More Fun Comics #34 More Fun Comics #35 More Fun Comics #36 More Fun Comics #37 More Fun Comics #38 More Fun Comics #39 More Fun Comics #40 More Fun Comics #41 More Fun Comics #42 More Fun Comics #43 More Fun Comics #44 More Fun Comics #45 More Fun Comics #46 More Fun Comics #47 More Fun Comics #48 More Fun Comics #49 More Fun Comics #50 SIEGEL AND SHUSTER ARCHIVES VOL. 2 (201 pages) EARLY WORK (51 pages; originally collected in SIEGEL AND SHUSTER: DATELINE 1930s) Cover Illustration (1 page)
New Comics #2 New Comics #3 New Comics #4 New Comics #5 The Comics Magazine Funny pages) vol. 1 #2 New Comics #6 New Comics #7 New Comics #8 New Comics #9 New Comics #10 New Comics #11 New Adventure Comics #12 New Adventure Comics #13 New Adventure Comics #14 New Adventure Comics #16 New Adventure Comics #17 New Adventure Comics #18 New Adventure Comics #19 New Adventure Comics #20 New Adventure Comics #21 New Adventure Comics #22 New Adventure Comics #23 New Adventure Comics #24 New Adventure Comics #25 New Adventure Comics #26 New Adventure Comics #27 New Adventure Comics #28 New Adventure Comics #29 New Adventure Comics #30 New Adventure Comics #31 Adventure Comics #32 Adventure Comics #33 Adventure Comics #34 Adventure Comics #35 Adventure Comics #36 Adventure Comics #37 Adventure Comics #38 Adventure Comics #39 Adventure Comics #40 Adventure Comics #41 SIEGEL AND SHUSTER ARCHIVES VOL. 3 (190 pages) SPY (151 pages) Detective Comics #1 Detective Comics #2 Detective Comics #3 Detective Comics #4 Detective Comics #5 Detective Comics #6 Detective Comics #7 Detective Comics #8 Detective Comics #9 Detective Comics #10 Detective Comics #11 Detective Comics #12 Detective Comics #13 Detective Comics #14 Detective Comics #15 Detective Comics #16 Detective Comics #17 Detective Comics #18 Detective Comics #19 Detective Comics #20 Detective Comics #21 Detective Comics #22 Detective Comics #23 Detective Comics #24 Detective Comics #25 Detective Comics #26 Detective Comics #27 Detective Comics #28
Detective Comics #1 Detective Comics #2 Detective Comics #3 SIEGEL AND SHUSTER ARCHIVES VOL. 4 (194 pages) Detective Comics #4 Detective Comics #5 Detective Comics #6 Detective Comics #7 Detective Comics #8 Detective Comics #9 Detective Comics #10 Detective Comics #11 Detective Comics #12 Detective Comics #13 Detective Comics #14 Detective Comics #15 Detective Comics #16 Detective Comics #17 Detective Comics #18 SIEGEL AND SHUSTER ARCHIVES VOL. 5 (191 pages) Detective Comics #19 Detective Comics #20 Detective Comics #21 Detective Comics #22 Detective Comics #23 Detective Comics #24 Detective Comics #25 Detective Comics #26 Detective Comics #27 Detective Comics #28 Detective Comics #29 Detective Comics #30 Detective Comics #31 Detective Comics #32 New York World's Fair #1 IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 12,
2002 06:46 PM
Owen Cardiff Darcy Member posted October 11, 2002 11:43 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The material in Vol. 2 from SIEGEL AND SHUSTER: DATELINE 1930s is supposed to be previously unpublished early work, predating their first DC work in NEW FUN THE BIG COMIC MAGAZINE #1 (2/35). (I'm not certain because I haven't read this material.) SIEGEL AND SHUSTER: DATELINE 1930s was published in 1984. The material in Vol. 1 from NEW FUN THE BIG COMIC MAGAZINE #1, 2 and 6; MORE FUN THE BIG COMIC MAGAZINE #7 and 8 (numbering continued from NEW FUN THE BIG COMIC MAGAZINE) and MORE FUN COMICS #9-50 (numbering continued from MORE FUN THE BIG COMIC MAGAZINE) is cover dated Feb. 1935 - Dec. 1939. The material in Vol. 2 from NEW COMICS #2-11, NEW ADVENTURE COMICS #12-14 and 16-31 (numbering continued from NEW COMICS) and ADVENTURE COMICS #32-41(numbering continued from NEW ADVENTURE COMICS) is cover dated Jan. 1936 - Aug. 1939. The material in Vol. 3-5 from DETECTIVE COMICS #1-32 is cover dated March, 1937 - Nov. 1939. The story in Vol. 5 from NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR #1 was published in 1939 (no month given). IP: Logged |
Aldous Member |
posted October 15,
2002 12:34 AM
Speaking of the wonderful team of Siegel & Shuster... I was just looking at a reproduction of the cover to Superman #1, and it occurs to me that the logo ("Superman") must be hand-drawn. Did Joe Shuster design the first Superman logo? IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 15,
2002 04:06 PM
I believe so. It looks like every time S&S did a story, Joe had to draw a logo for that story. Eventually it seems they finally came up with a standardized logo from Shuster's designs that was used from then on. IP: Logged |
Osgood
Peabody Member |
posted October 22,
2002 05:08 PM
Just wanted to tip you guys off - at the DC index site, Mike has begun featuring one entire comic book per week to be perused. I won his trivia contest, so I got to pick this latest one - More Fun #106 from 1945. Inside, there's an intriguing glimpse of a very early Superboy story. I was surprised to see young Clark Kent strutting around without glasses! And no Ma and Pa Kent in sight - at least in this short story, or much of a supporting cast at all, for that matter. Apparently, it was a long journey to Smallville! (the Weisinger setting, not the TV show) Here's the link: IP: Logged |
Osgood
Peabody Member |
posted October 26,
2002 05:00 PM
^ IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 26,
2002 07:29 PM
That's a lot of FUN, but also a lot of clicking and scrolling. The Boltinoff (Clover and Dover) and Meskin (Johnny Quick) art is the best. It seems like the influence of Simon & Kirby was being felt in those days (on Green Arrow and Aquaman). The Superboy story has a certain Captain Marvel, Jr. feeling. I wonder who did the art--Fred Ray? IP: Logged |
Lee
Semmens Member |
posted October 27,
2002 05:59 AM
quote: Bob Hughes, on his Who Drew Superman? site thinks the art on this story
is by Marvin Stein, more well-known for his inking over Jack Kirby's
pencils. IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 27,
2002 07:42 PM
Curious since it has a soft kind of look. Not the hard kind of look that I associate with S&K or solo Kirby. It has a kind of realism that is like Mac Raboy, but a bit too uneven in style. IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted October 27,
2002 09:24 PM
In reference to the More Fun Superboy, I'm stealing this post from Mr. Utley on the Archives forum (80 and 100 page topic) and pasting it up here.
quote: IP: Logged |
Osgood
Peabody Member |
posted November
06, 2002 05:39 PM
Guess what - this week's featured comic is Showcase #10 - the 2nd Lois Lane issue from 1957 before she got her own comic! All 3 stories are illustrated by Wayne Boring (Kurt Schaffenberger started drawing her in LL #1) and to my knowledge, have never been reprinted. Interesting reading - and even in 1957 there are the sure signs of the painfully convoluted Weisinger plotting - particularly in the second story entitled "The Sightless Lois Lane", wherein Superman takes drastic steps to preserve his dual identity. Enjoy! IP: Logged |
Osgood
Peabody Member |
posted November
08, 2002 12:34 PM
^^ IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted November
23, 2002 05:01 PM
I found this page which has an interview with Merrily Mayer, daughter of Sheldon Mayer, from Comic Book Artist no. 11, and I thought I'd share a bit of it here... http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/11merrily.html This part pertains to the early days of Superman...
quote: The entire interview is well worth a look. => IP: Logged |
Aldous Member |
posted November
28, 2002 05:05 PM
"SUPERMAN'S NEW FACE" Action Comics #239 (April 1958) At the Daily Planet, Perry White hands out gifts -- and criticism. He gives his reporters, including Lois and Clark, new metal Press identification cards, with their names in cut-out stencil. Perry says, "A pity I can't give these to REAL reporters!" The editor thinks his reporters have been slack lately. Lois tells Perry she is on the case of a big crime story. Clark tells Perry he is about to get a "swell" story on Dr. Norton, a scientist who claims he can create new elements. As Clark leaves the Planet office for his interview, he mulls over the fact that Norton has talked of creating Kryptonite, something Clark wants to know more about. A laboratory assistant enters the lab of Dr. Norton with Clark's new Press card in his hand. He tells the doctor that the reporter is waiting outside to see him. The doctor, however, is at a critical stage of an atomic experiment, and tells his assistant to have Kent wait in one of the offices till the experiment is completed. As Clark waits in an outer office for the doctor, he makes a discovery with his X-ray vision. Intending to make a quick check to ensure no Kryptonite is in the lab before he goes in, he finds that Dr. Norton's atom-generator's chain reaction is out of control and is going to explode. Clark switches to Superman and flies into the lab. Dr. Norton says, "There's not time enough to evacuate the area!" But Superman flies upward with the generator, a huge piece of broken floor still attached, and takes it into the stratosphere, far above the surface of the Earth. Superman is confident the explosion cannot hurt him, but as the generator explodes, it creates tiny particles of Kryptonite, just as the explosion of the planet Krypton created Kryptonite. After the blast, a dazed Man of Steel heads back towards Earth, his hands covering his face. "My face! MY FACE!" Superman kneels over a river to inspect his reflection. The tiny particles of Kryptonite have been driven into his face -- not enough to paralyse him, but enough to have scarred his face, changing it. The reader is not able to see the change. Superman decides then and there: "I can't let anyone see my face now!" Superman hastily improvises some bandages to cover his whole face and head, after the fashion of the invisible man from the novel by H.G. Wells. He then returns to the laboratory to make sure there is no lingering radioactive contamination. As he completes his check, police and reporters arrive. Lois is horrified... "You mean, your face was disfigured? Oh, no..." "It's true," says a bandaged Man of Steel. "I can't let you see what it looks like now!" Lois is crying while other reporters discuss the situation. "But he doesn't say what his face looks like now!" .... "It must be fearfully scarred and changed, for him to hide it like that!" Lois is hopeful that something can be done for Superman. "A plastic surgeon..." But Superman tells her no surgeon could possibly use a scalpel against his "impenetrable" skin. Superman tells her he will see what he can do to help himself, however. Suddenly, Lois remembers that Clark Kent was supposed to be covering a story at this very laboratory, and wonders aloud where he is. Superman makes an exit, and speeds straight home to his civilian apartment. From his telephone, he gives his report on how Superman dealt with the laboratory disaster, but, as he explains to Perry, "...My narrow escape shattered my nerves! I'll have to take a little time off!" Perry thinks Clark is a "softie," yet reluctantly agrees to him taking time off. When Lois hears of Clark's circumstances, her old suspicions about a Clark-Superman double identity are re-awakened. "That's funny -- Superman's face is disfigured, and now Clark won't show HIS face here!" In the meantime, Superman is on a desperate quest to remove the facial scars. He sets up a super-chemical laboratory on a mountain-top and creates "powerful chemical solutions." It all ends in failure as Superman, his head bowed, realises no solution can dissolve the Kryptonite scars. "I'll have to try something stronger!" While this is going on, the citizens of Metropolis are shocked at the news about Superman. A typical family is pictured (father smoking a pipe, pretty wife with nice hair-do, and a little boy complete with striped t-shirt) watching television as the newsman asks of Superman's face, "Is it scarred so terribly he can never show it again?" In an effort to be even more helpful, the TV newsman holds up an artist's impression of what Superman may look like now, under the bandages. At the sight of the hideously disfigured countenance, the little boy bursts into tears... "I don't wanna see Superman look like that...!" His mother consoles him... "He may not look that bad! We -- we must hope for the best!" Even in the midst of his own worries, the Man of Steel keeps watch over Metropolis. He spots a speeding getaway car, the police in hot pursuit. He flies down and grabs the getaway car right off the road. The criminals are astounded, figuring Superman would have too much on his mind right now to bother with them. "You figured wrong!" Superman tells them. "My face may have changed, but my feeling toward thieves is UNchanged!" Outside police headquarters, reporters corner Superman, holding up the drawing from the TV news item. They ask him if this is what his face now looks like. Superman tells them he cannot give a statement. "But," asks a reporter, "will we ever see your face again?" Superman tells him... "I can't promise that!" Increasingly desperate, Superman unwraps the bandages as he approaches an erupting volcano. Perhaps, he thinks, the terrific heat of an active volcano might burn off the Kryptonite scars. But after a dive into flaming lava, the scars remain. "It'll have to be something stronger than fire -- " Night falls, and the Man of Steel zooms homeward to his city. A storm is approaching Metropolis, which gives him another idea. As terrific bolts of lightning are generated by the storm, Superman takes them full in the face, but even this force cannot affect the Kryptonite scars. The strongest force in nature having failed him, Superman wraps his head in bandages once again, and, as he is doing so, from his high vantage point he sees a lightning bolt strike a river tanker, setting it ablaze. The crew manage to escape using lifeboats, but the Man of Steel, in order to prevent a gasoline explosion, dips the ship underwater. Unfortunately, the fire has burned away the bandages, and his face, which the reader still has not seen, is once again exposed. He searches the river bottom and finds an iron plate from an old shipwreck. He bends the iron plate into a full-face mask, secured in place by a piece of chain around the back of his head. He tows the fire-damaged tanker back to shore where reporters have gathered, and by the time they see his new mask, it has eye-slits cut into it, presumably made using heat-vision. A reporter assures Superman that no matter how badly marred his face is, he'll always be the city's hero... "Can't you show your face?" "No," says Superman, "not the way it is! Never!" A reporter tries a new angle. "What if this isn't Superman at all? It could be an alien being from another planet with super-powers who's taken his place..." Superman doesn't reply to this ridiculous piece of speculation, but Lois is horrified... "You're just trying to make a sensational scoop! It isn't true!" Later, Superman sits in a secluded area of what looks like a city park, brooding over his terrible problem. "No natural force is stronger than lightning, yet there must be SOMETHING that would do it..." While the Man of Tomorrow is deep in thought, Lois Lane has snuck up behind him, intending to snatch off the iron mask and prove the "alien" story untrue. Superman is so preoccupied, he doesn't even detect her presence. But, at the last moment, her hands reaching out, Lois balks. "No," she thinks, "I can't do it! Superman has done so much for us all -- I can't disobey him and expose his poor disfigured face!" Soon a sensational newspaper "extra" hits the night-time streets, with a ghastly alien visage under the headline: "Is an alien impersonating Superman? Is this his new face?" At the office of the Daily Planet, Perry explodes. "We'll put out an extra denying this wild story! Get everyone on the job, including Clark Kent, nerves or no nerves!" (In an interesting continuity gaff, an editorial slip-up perhaps, the sensationalist paper Perry is holding up and railing against is a Daily Planet edition!) Superman, in his civilian apartment, his face in shadow, takes the call from Lois that he must return to work at the Planet. He knows he must go, for her suspicion is plain, and other people will eventually suspect also. Superman changes to his Clark Kent clothes and attends to his face at a mirror. "Only one way I can do it, and that's to hide my scars..." Now the reader has their first glimpse of the Man of Steel's face since the accident. He looks like Clark should usually look, except that he has affixed a small strip of adhesive tape to his forehead. "It'll look like a band-aid and hide the scars I cannot permit anyone on Earth to see!" Clark arrives at the office to begin work on the night-time "extra". Lois seems disappointed that Clark's face is unchanged, "except for that adhesive tape!" Clark explains he got an accidental bump today, undoubtedly due to his jumpy nerves. Lois figures she must have been wrong, for "no small scar on his forehead would make Superman hide his face so desperately." Perry wants his reporters to churn out stories re-telling the great things Superman has done for the people to show how silly the "alien" story is. Clark thinks... "I'll have to work fast -- the Kryptonite radiation from my scars will soon burn through the thin adhesive!" As Clark works, he runs out of time, for the radiation starts to burn through. He looks at his reflection in the windowpane to his left... "In a moment they'll all see -- " Desperately, Clark sends "concentrated X-ray vision" to blow the fuses in the office and douse the lights. With the office plunged into darkness, Clark starts changing to Superman. Then, an "amazing apparition" appears in the dark... "Look -- Clark Kent's NAME in glowing letters! And it's moving!" .... "What in the world's causing that?" An instant later, Superman streaks upward from the Planet building. "The atomic radiation of my Kryptonite scars burned through the adhesive!" As he peels away the strip to reveal the words "Clark Kent" imprinted onto his forehead, the Man of Tomorrow thinks, "Atomic action -- why didn't I think of that? It was that atomic explosion that caused it all in the first place!" Superman thinks back to the accident. The atomic generator exploded, creating Krytonite particles which blasted Superman's face through his own metal stencil Press card which Dr. Norton had laid down on the generator. This branded Superman with his own name. As he looked at his relection in the river for the first time after the accident, he decided, "If anyone sees this, my identity is out -- I've got to hide my face!" Having hit upon the "atomic action" idea, Superman speeds to a far away region of the universe to find a planetoid of almost pure uranium. Arranging a fuse for detonation, he initiates the mightiest atomic explosion of all time and bathes in the released forces. Finally, "It worked! The atomic blast didn't harm my invulnerable body but it burned out the Kryptonite particles that scarred me!" Replacing the adhesive strip while in his Clark Kent identity, the Man of Steel returns as Clark to the Planet with an excuse about having gone for fuses. Lois wants to know the reason for the words "Clark Kent" glowing in the darkness of the office. Clark explains that it was his metal Press card which had been charged with "glowing particles" after being put down on the atomic generator in Norton's laboratory, and which had been returned to him by Superman.
IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted November
30, 2002 08:31 PM
An intriguing story. While I've never read it, yet it has a lot of themes that are quite familiar. EC is lauded for its subversive slant on 50s Americana. But you don't have to read EC to find this. It's everywhere. All kinds of repressed fears coming to the surface. One thing that is so charming about many of the classic Superman stories is the way they fit a kind of model of action. Beginning in the Daily Planet. A sort of signal to the reader that this is another routine day, but just wait--soon the routine will be blown apart somehow. My brain isn't up to developing these ideas much further. But one day maybe I'll revisit this topic. => IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted December
02, 2002 11:10 PM
For future reference, I thought I would post this link that was put up on another thread concerning Earth 2 Superman (not the same as Siegel & Shuster Superman in my view)... http://my.execpc.com/~icicle/SUPERMAN.html IP: Logged |
Aldous Member |
posted December
04, 2002 03:27 PM
quote: I detest origin-interference stories, one example being that "Earth-1 Superboy" trained "Earth-2 Super-boy" in the use of his powers, then when "Earth-2 Super-boy" grew up, he adopted his Superman identity based upon the example of "Earth-1 Superboy." Honestly, I don't know how writers come up with such garbage. As a contrast, I've just been re-reading Green Lantern from Showcase #22 through the early issues, and it's so impressive how John Broome continually revisited his initial "sketchy" Green Lantern origin, slowly fleshing out all the details of the deeper significance of Abin Sur passing the Battery to Hal Jordan. He did this carefully, and with great integrity. IP: Logged |
India
Ink Member |
posted December
05, 2002 04:15 PM
And then they had to go and do "Emerald Dawn"--which supposedly tried to improve upon John Broome's work--ha! But the integrity of the original work remains. I love Earth 2 Superman--but at his best he's a construct from the imagination of E. Nelson Bridwell and a few other geniuses, looking back in hindsight and reshaping the golden age for a parallel universe. Which is quite different from what S&S did. IP: Logged |
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