Superman Through the Ages! Forum

So 1958 was an amazing year to be reading Superman.  As you know, I am working on indexing all of the old, forgotten Superman newspaper strips.  I am up to 1958.  How is this for a series of 3 back-to-back storylines:

1) Brainiac
In April 1958 a storyline began involving an alien named Romado, who is clearly a prototype for Brainiac, who would first appear in Action Comics #242 (July 1958).  Romado has a computer-enhanced mind, and collects miniature cities in bottles from around the galaxy.  He has the shrunken Kryptonian city of Dur-el-va, which he traps Superman in.

2) Bizarro
Bizarro appears in the strips in September of 1958.  Though Superboy #68 (cover date of October 1958) hit the stands earlier, this story was actually written first.  In this early version, Bizarro has a "B" on his chest.  What is creepy is that Superman convinces Lois to betray Bizarro and trick him into getting exposed to his version of kryptonite, which "kills" him. (Though as Superman says, how can you kill a shadow...)

3) Metallo
December 15, 1958 begins a new story of Professor Vale saving a patient from a horrible accident, and having to put in a mechanical heart, etc. to save him.  He is powered by uranium pellets, with the possibility of some other rare mineral....I haven't read much of the story yet, as the year ends, but it is clearly the first Metallo story.  This is winter 1958.  In the comics, he first appears in Action Comics #252 (May 1959)

Here are some images from my site:
(http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep91_105/episode104.jpg)
Romado playing chess with Superman - the pieces they are playing for are cities on Earth....

(http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep91_105/episode105.jpg)
First Bizarro...

(http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/daily/ep106_120/episode106.jpg)
First Metallo...

Absolutely incredible stuff, I hope these are all published in book form some day.

I see a lot of Curt Swan in some of those Wayne Boring strips.

this is.... kinda amazing!

i mean three of the classic characters who were invented in 1958 and they all appeared previously in the newspaper strips! makes me wonder if the strips were used as tryouts

They were, many character ideas 1st appeared in the strips before appearing in the comic books.

Sort of makes you wonder why no one credits these strips for the origins of these characters.  So far off the top of my head the strips have the first bald Lex Luthor, the first comic telephone booth change, Mxyzptlk, Bizarro, Metallo, and a proto-Brainiac.  What major characters (separate from say the first couple years at Superman's inception) are left?  I guess Superboy and Supergirl are the obvious ones, but what about classic villains?

I didn't realise this at all; I assumed that the strips were just another quick cash-in on Superman's success. Also, the original newspaper strip versions of Metallo and Bizarro seem scarier than the comic-book versions - or is that just me?

They seem to me to be as well....

ANOTHER ALTERNATE EARTH!  Why wasn't THIS one shown in COIE? ;-)

These are very interesting.

A chess game to decide the fate of cities on Earth. High stakes game.

Thanks binarysunrise.

Titano 1st appeared in the comic strip as well I believe under a different name. It also worked the other way around, as stories from comic books were re-done in the strips.

The idea of using the bottle cities a chess pieces is such a great visual! I am surprised this was not used for the Brainiac version in the comics.

probably the same reason why theres no Earth-E or Earth-B in it! imagine the story with three very slightly different supermans hanging around....

then again, im taking a joke too far  :P i just found it odd that they first appeared in the strip rather than the comic, you think they would start out in the comic (which would be seen as the definitive medium for superman i would think) and then get recycled for the strips

and yes, bizzaro and brainiaic are more scary, and the metallo seems more realistic and destressed, unlike in the comics where he takes it with ease "ooh ive got a robot body now, back to the life of crime!"

The "B" symbol on Bizarro's chest also almost made it into the comic book, apparently.  Here's a house ad from Superboy #67 showing the next issue, but in that next story, the "B" had changed to an "S".  And the art for the house ad appears to be by George Papp (for Bizarro, anyway, Superboy is by Plastino I believe), so it's not taken from the comic strip (which, by the way, is obviously by Swan despite having Boring's name on it).

(http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p45/peteross/ComicAds/Superboy67BizarroWeb.jpg)

Actually they used landmarks to represent the cities (Eiffel Tower for Paris, for example).  When Superman lost - I think he lost the pieces for Paris and Metropolis, then they were bottled up...

In yours opinion the newspaper stips of Superman were better of comics books? ,for artwork and stories ?I think so.