Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this here before- I couldn't find anything in the Links area of STTA about it but I apologize if this is old news!

You can view many of the episodes from Superman's 1940s newspaper strip online at a wonderful website... several of the sequences are available from start to finish, and there are Sundays there as well. Even the story of Superman rescuing Santa Claus from enslavement by Hitler! No kidding.

http://www.thespeedingbullet.com

Well, its news to me...very cool site!

cool, thanks for the heads up!

That's an absolutely incredible find!  Thank you for the heads-up, I'll certainly be adding links to the site.

Anyone have any idea when the story in which Clark revealed his identity to Lois and they got married was published?

:s:

Fab site; thanks!

I'm glad you all like my site.  It's really starting to take shape in the past few weeks as I have more time to spend on it these days.  Currently I am working through indexing the daily strips from 1948 to 1950, and there are some really interesting stories (the Ogies come back, for example).  I also have a lead on the rest of the 1943 Sunday strips.

Please let me know if any of you can assist my research with information about the strips or knowledge of other sources to continue the project...

Thanks again,
Jared
http://www.thespeedingbullet.com

welcome to the boards and come back often.

I've heard about this story...and something about how much later it turned out all to be a dream or something?  I am way too young to have read these strips when they came out (I guess I could have read World's Greatest Superheroes...but for some reason I didn't).  These strips are a fascinating read, and this story is just one more example about why attention should be given to them.

Anyways, I have yet to come across it.  I have read a full decade of the dailies (3,000 strips so far), and am now fully into the Wayne Boring era. I would bet it would be sometime in the mid-fifties, but my predictions have been wrong everytime I made a guess about the strips so far :)  The stories keep me surprised at every turn...

I'll be sure to let you know if the story appears in the next 18 months that I have yet to read (then it's back to tracking down or begging others for more of the strips).

I'll keep updating the site.
Thanks.


http://www.thespeedingbullet.com

It would be interesting...actually, any stuff you make available would be cool, I have never ran across much on the newspaper strips...nice task to take on... 8)

There have been 4 drop-dead gorgeous TPB's released. I would track them down if I were you Mel.

Maybe, maybe...

Break my streak of buying no comics related material since 1971? 8)

Even better, they just released this month the set of dailies in a nice *cheap* hardcover.  ISBN 1402737858, $13 on amazon.   This covers strips from 1939 to 1942.

I saw that in a bookstore last week and it is beautiful!

I haven't checked it out yet.  Is the quality any different than the deluxe slipcase hardcover edition from a few years back?

Man, that's a great site!  It reminds of the wonderful days of yore when The Comic Reader would reprint the comic strips of Superman and Batman (about 2 pages/2 weeks worth) in their pages.  

I REALLY wish Kitchen Sink had continued on with more editions of their paperbacks.  I've read and reread those strips about 100 times!  ;)

And sometime this week, I'm gonna give your site a link on mine!  I'm gonna post about your site on my Yahoo Club now, at least!  LOL

Great site! The design on it is fantastic, too. I've never seen most of this stuff before; the Sundays are gorgeous.

Hm.  So I skipped ahead in my archiving, and I think I might have found the Lois and Clark wedding story.  I don't have all of it, but it starts in December 1949.

(http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/downloads/wedding.jpg)

From what I have, it looks like Lois marries Clark, but she is convinced he is Superman.  Clark tells her he isn't, and she fires a gun with blanks in it at him in an attempt to prove his alter-identity. Clark evades this attempt (still lying to her), and they continue on their honeymoon cruise.  The cruise is hijacked...and I run out of strips.

Perhaps this is the lead in to the story we both heard about.

Really? Interesting. In Richard Donner's original version of Superman II that is exactly how Lois exposes Clark's secret!

In Eddy Zeno's biography of Curt Swan he mentions that while Swan work on the Superman Daily strip, he did a seperate version of "Superman's Return to Krypton". Which in the comics was drawn by Wayne Boring. http://superman.nu/returntokrypton/srtk/ This story ran in the strip from Aug. 13th through Nov. 12th 1960. I am not sure if you have access to strips from that period but I would love to see some of this if its possible.

Your site is great binarysunrise, helping to reveal a forgotten part of Superman's history!

Yea, I've talked with Eddy about the strips from this period.  The source he was using in Canada has since tossed their microfilm.  At the moment I only have up to mid-Jan 1950 :(  

I'm having difficulty finding newspapers that carry the strip in the 50's.

I REALLY, TRULY wish someone like Kitchen Sink Press would go ahead and reprint all of the rest of the Superman strips, including The World's Greatest Super-Heroes (and the Superman strip that took it over).  

*sigh*

I hear you.  I'd love to have a nice set of the dailies sitting on my shelf.  I'm about to redo my about page, and decided to make a list of the top 10 reasons why the dailies are important.  I guess #1 would be that they contain un(re)published Siegel era Superman material...

I swear that there is a market for this stuff, but I guess the problems like in tracking down the source material (I've spent two years and have only amassed up to 1950) and then to "clean up" the material for publishing (that'd be a lot of work....there's around 12,000 strips from all the series dailies and sundays...)

Kitchen Sink Press went out of business in the 1990's

I didn't know that.   :(  :(  :(

Sterling puts out the new version of the Kitchen Sink Press dailies/sundays.  I don't know much about them, but I bet they would be more into reproducing books, rather than doing original research on the dailies.

here is his website if you want to know what he has been up to:

http://www.deniskitchen.com/

and here is the site of who publishes the re-prints:

www.sterlingpub.com

Hey, if you guys have a chance, could you swing by my site and check out the "Pen and Paper" article?  I am trying to figure out the chronology of the writers and artists of the Superman strips.  What I have at the moment is a rough draft based upon internet research at a bunch of different sites.  If any of you have knowledge of this aspect of Superman trivia, please double-check my work.  My main questions are:

1) Do I have the current chronology correct?
2) The writers section is quite rough...who am I missing?
3) Who drew the strip from 1960 to 1966?  One source said Swan, but Zeno's book states he stopped in 1960 (though this was from an interview...haven't read the book yet).  Another source suggested Al Plastino, but I can't confirm it...

Thanks!!

2nd request...

Does anyone have the "Giant Superman Annual #1" from 1960?  From what I see on the internet, it contains 3 dailies from 1953.  Just wondering what the story was, or if anyone knows of any other reprints of the dailies in the regular comics....

Binarysunrise,

here is a link to a site I didn't see listed in your references:

http://hometown.aol.com/comicsproj/credits.html

It is listing of credits to most U.S. newspaper strips up until comparatively recently.

It lists the following as writers on the strip, without specifying whether dailies or Sundays:

Jerry Siegel   1939-1943
Whitney Ellsworth   1941-1945
Alvin  Schwartz    1944-1958
Jack Schiff    1942-1962
Bill Finger    1959-1966 (this is what it seems to be saying)
Jerry Siegel   1959-1966

It lists Al Plastino as an artist in the 1960s, also Wayne Boring from 1948-1966 - although he definitely started earlier, and did not stay on the strip throughout this period, obviously.

With regard to Boring, he did not do any work on the comic books for the period 1962-1966, then made a brief comeback in the comics around 1966-67.

I am pretty certain I read somewhere - unfortunately I can't recall where, possibly a comment by Mort Weisinger in the letters' page of a Superman or Action Comic from this period - that the reason Boring was missing from the comic books for these four years was that he was doing the newspaper strip.

It may be that Plastino replaced Swan in 1960 on the newspaper strip, and he, in turn, was replaced by Boring in 1962, and stayed on it until the end, in 1966.

At least that's my hypothesis, but I have never actually seen any Superman newspaper strips from the 1960s.

I don't have the original of Giant Superman Annual #1, but I do have the replica edition, from 1998.

It does have three dailies from 1953 (no precise dates discernable), on the inside back cover - strip numbers #4503 ("It's Murder!"), #4504 ("Strange Corpse!"), and #4505 ("Everyone's Rushing!").

The overall title of the continuity is not given, but the story is credited to Alvin Schwartz (writer), and Win Mortimer (artist).

Incidentally, Schwartz was awarded the "Bill Finger Award" just the other day, for excellence as a comic book writer. He is still living, and was born in 1916 (see this link for details:
http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_05_25.html#011552).

I don't know whether any other dailies have been reprinted in the comics, but I have a feeling I may have seen some somewhere. I'll check my other Superman Annuals.

The next issue of Alter Ego apparently will have an interview with Al Plastino, so you may want to check that out.

Eddy Zeno's Curt Swan: A Life in Comics says Swan did the Superman dailies from 18 June 1956 to 12 November 1960, replacing Win Mortimer - he was apparently primarily, if not solely, inked by Stan Kaye.

Zeno also writes that Boring was the main newspaper artist by 1963 - it seems Boring was really only doing the Sundays in the very early 1960s (and maybe throughout the 1950s?) - perhaps Plastino was the main daily artist after Swan, and Boring took over dailies and Sundays around 1962, which is when he left the comic books for four years?

Swan did "ghost" two Sundays for Boring, on 4 and 11 June 1961, and Zeno's book shows these strips.

Interestingly, when Superman guest-starred in the Batman daily strip (drawn by Joe Giella), in 1966, Swan drew the Superman figures.

Les Daniels' Superman: A Complete History says that the Superman newspaper strip ran from November 1939 to May 1966, then was revived from 1977 to 1983.

Someone was talking about the period in the strips where Lois and Clark marry.  I found this article from a 1949 Time magazine:
----
Oct. 24, 1949
After ten years of Superman's astounding antics, McClure Newspaper Syndicate and National Comics Publications thought that readers might be getting bored with their comic-strip hero's invulnerability. Last week the syndicators decided to put Superman in a position where he may lose an occasional round. In November, Writer Whit Ellsworth and Artist Wayne Boring will marry him off to his longtime sweetheart, Lois Lane. In the normal course of time ("even Superman can't hurry some things") Lois will present him with a Superbaby. The new challenge: "Can Superman cope with modern man's most intimate problem—namely, marriage?"
----

Sadly I don't have much more than the first few months of this story, so I don't know how these plans went, but the Superbaby sounds fascinating...

So while I am awaiting the conclusion to the 1950 Clark Kent/Lois Lane wedding, I did get a batch of 1960s strips, that has the beginning of what I think is the Return to Krypton storyline.

From what I have so far, Superman chases a gigantic living asteroid away from Earth with such superspeed he breaks the time barrier.  When he stops, he realizes that a) he's in front of a Red sun, and b) he's above Krypton.  With his remaining strength, he manages to land on the planet.  He thinks "How ironic! I survived the destruction of Krypton as a child, and now may die as an adult in that same explosion!"  He comes across a Kryptonian-movie set, and is mistaken for an movie extra....which leads to the director telling everyone he'll give them a bonus to keep their costumes on as a publicity stunt.  So, Superman is able to keep his costume on as he explores Krypton without having to explain himself to everyone.

Sadly that's where this lot ends.  In a month or so, I should hopefully have access to the rest of the story...

Finally got the rest of the "Return to Krypton" storyline.  Its sort of sad.  Lots of tragic ironies, Superman visiting his parents, and Superman falling in  love with another "L.L." (he even says "let me guess, her initials are L.L" upon first meeting her), and then there is his tragic choice of whether to return to earth or stay on the doomed planet...

On a postive note, I just got the 6 months of Sunday strips that take place immediately following the Kitchen Sink reprint...

You know, that's absolutely brilliant.  I doubt even Alan Moore could come up with something like that!

:s:

So I've given my site a nice new update, and added a section on The World's Greatest Superheroes.

But what I wanted to share today is an episode that I have not indexed yet, but thought this image was pretty cool:

(http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/downloads/superman0001.JPG)

Anyways, that's a panel from September 9, 1950.  Thought I'd share :)

Was "The World's Greatest Super Heroes" widely syndicated?  I never ran across any of it at the time...

That's a very good question. Sadly I don't know the answer to it.  I know I didn't read it, but I am not sure if I was looking at the funny pages during that time period.

I have heard of other people who did follow it, and some whose papers dropped it after the first few storylines.  I also am not sure how many carried the Superman Sunday Special line from the mid 80's - I haven't run across many of them.

Anyways, this seems more likely the case that many carried it but then dropped the series.  One paper I looked at started running another strip (spiderman or star wars...) instead.  For the original Superman 1939-1966 run, I haven't found a major US paper that carried it into the 50's.  Most dropped it in the mid-forties.  I did find a small newspaper from Canada that seemingly carried the whole run, which is what I am using for my research.

Strange that there's a good chance that no one has read the entire series before...

Kind of makes you wonder how the financial model for these syndicated series worked...I lived in a couple of cities in the 70s and 80s, "Dick Tracy" and "Mary Worth" were dropped, I read some "Winnie Winkle" (a serious strip that sprang from the humorous "Winnie Winkle, the Breadwinner" with her weird brother Perry Winkle of my mom's day), and I was able to read "Prince Valiant" on Sundays...

Well, I've started looking into the McClure syndicated newspaper history.  Found out that on September 22, 1938, Detective Comics, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and McClure entered into an agreement, which procided exclusive syndication by McClure, and that they would have copyright over Superman in these strips (which would revert back to DC when they were done).  DC would retain the original drawings, the right to use the strips 6 months later, would pay the artists themselves, and would get a stipulated share of the profits.

Originally they were in 3 newspapers - the Boston Transcript, the San Antonio Express, and the Milwaukee Journal.

Now this all backfired on DC, when a judge ruled that this was a joint venture, and because McClure had failed to adequately put the copyright notice on the strips, the entire Superman copyright was forfeit.

Luckily though, this was overruled.  I bet there was some tension around DC offices that year.....

Argh. I just finished indexing the wedding years (the period from 1949 to 1952 where Lois and Clark get married, but Clark decides to not reveal his identity to Lois).  Anyways the big reveal at the end was sort of interesting (in how things get back to normal and how they aren't married anymore) - I was expecting "it was just a dream", but was a bit surprised with how they did it. (not wanting to spoil the story).

Anyways, what bugs me is that the closest they came to having a superbaby was in one short "what if" sequence:
(http://www.thespeedingbullet.com/downloads/baby.jpg)

Ah well, I thought if they were going to do it, they should..well...do it :)

Those are very interesting to read as well...

I continue to be interested in how few papers these stories ran in, and the byline reads "by Wayne Boring"...was he writing and illustrating?  You always read how he "took over the strip" until he moved back to the books in the 50s, but I never read how he wrote these stories, which seems very unusual for a DC artist...