Le Cafe Singe Bleu Serving generous portions of history and mystery from our monthly menu
Volume 1, Issue 1: January 1, 2003
COMICS
Superman Comes To Your City
by Stacy Manning
On January 16, 1939, Superman made his debut in the daily comic strip section of The Houston Chronicle newspaper.
At one point this would have been the culmination of a dream for two young men, Jerome 'Jerry' Siegel and Joe Schuster. They'd created this character in 1933 and been trying to interest the newspapers in him ever since, without any success. But, in June 1938, Superman at long last appeared, not in the newspapers but in the upstart rival 'comic book'. He appeared in the longest story and on the cover of DC's Action Comics #1.
The story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster - their never-wavering faith in themselves and their creations - deserves an article all of its own, and will appear in our June issue (to commemorate Superman's first ever appearance in Action Comics).
Unlike his comic book adventures, Superman's appearances in the newspapers, from his first adventure all the way up to 1942, are now available for our interested patrons:
After appearing in The Houston Chronicle, the strip was soon bought by The Milwaukee Journal and the San Antonio Express, By the end of the year 1939 Superman was appearing in 60 papers. But not on Sundays. The Sunday color sections of papers provided even more room than the dailies [in the early days of newspaper comic strips the comics section was huge] - that honor was not to come until November 5, 1939.
These early strips, from 1939-1942, provide a fascinating history into the evolution of the character of Clark Kent/Superman, his creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, and the stable of artists that they hired to assist them in their work - not only with Superman but with other of their creations. (Although they'd never stopped trying to 'sell' Superman, other creations of theirs had sold - notable Slam Bradley).
The first Superman strip, which appeared on January 16, 1939, also provided the first detailed origin for Clark Kent aka Superman. In his introduction in Action Comics #1 his origin had been given in one panel, and neither his parents nor the planet he was born on had a name.
Superman's Origin
This introductory strip lasted for 12 days. In the fist strip scientist Jor-L races home to greet his wife Lora and their newborn son Kal-L. In the second strip their happiness is marred by a violent earthquake. Thirdly, Joor-L shows his stength by digging under the wreckage of their home to find Lora and Kak-L.
In the fourth strip, Jor-L computes and calculates and finally discovers the horrible truth. In the fifth, he reveals it to Lora - Krypton is doomed. In the sixth strip Jor-L finds a solution, he'll construct an ark of space and send the people of Krypton to safety in the stars!
Strip seven and the Council of Krypton laughs at Jor-L. Jor-L vows to construct the ship on his own. In strip eight, he has created a model space ship, ready for a trial journey to a planet called Earth.
Strip nine, and disaster strikes! The most powerful earthquake of all strikes Krypton. Jor-L, Lora and Kal-L race for home. Intention, put Kal-L in the model space ship and send him to earth! Strip ten, the rocket blasts off and journeys towards earth even as Krypton is ripped into a mllion fragments.
Strip eleven, and the rocket lands on earth. But friction from the atmosphere sets the capsule on fire! Fortunately, in strip twelve, a passing motorist discovers the capsule, rescues the babe, and hands him over to the nearest orphanage, wher his enormous strenth astounds the attendants!
''Early, Clark decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind, and so was created...Superman! Champion of the oppressed. The physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to helping those in need.''
The earliest stories in the comic strips were reworkings of previously published material from the comic books. There was no Comics Code, so Superman was free to solve problems with much violence - persuading criminals to talk by dangling them over the edge of a cliff, for example, and the villains are quite frequently killed - usually by being hoist with their own petard, such as dying in a fire that they'd set for someone else, or similar.
Superman doesn't fly in these early stories - he leaps. When he has to cross an ocean to stop a European war, he swims all the way. Quite quickly. There is no krypton to weaken him in these early stories - he is invincible.
Lois Lane is introduced in the very first story as a Love Lorn columnist at the Daily Star (the Daily Planet and Perry White, not to mention cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, are in the future) who wants to be a hard hitting reporter. She resents it when mild-mannered Clark Kent is given her reporting job and she is forced to return to the ladies' page. She also has little regard for Clark, who is the ne plus ultra when it comes to milquetoasts, in order to hide his identity as Superman. (Clark Kent was patterned after the actor Harold Lloyd, with circular glasses and a mild look, while Superman was patterned after Douglas Fairbanks Sr.)
Unfortunately although Lois is out in the working world, she remains a stereotypical female - ALWAYS getting in trouble and necessitating Superman to come to her rescue, and turning down dates from Clark Kent in the hopes that Superman will drop by.
As the stories continue they become more sophisticated in both plot and art, and Superman receives a code of conduct dictated by the McClure Syndicate to his creators - Superman isn't to kill anyone. The kinder, gentler Superman didn't harm interest in the hero - by 1941, the Superman strip was appearing in 230 papers. His newsprint adventures would last until 1966.
But how did Superman finally make it to the daily comic strip?
Siegel and Schuster had collaborated together since they were in their teens - Siegel was the writer and Schuster the artist - and began having success not with newspaper strips but with the new invention of comic books, in 1936, with the character of Slam Bradley. Finally in 1938 DC comics also accepted a Superman story for publication in the first issue of Action Comics. Superman very quickly became a hit with the public clamoring for more.
By 1938 Siegel and Schuster had become so successful at their chosen profession that they formed their own studio and hired 'ghost-artists' to help Schuster with all the artwork for Superman as well as their other creations appearing in the comic books.
The McClure Syndicate, which bought comic strips from artists/writers and in turn syndicated them to various newspapers, had been turning down the Superman strip idea since 1933. With his success in the rival comic books, they quickly commissioned a comic strip. Jerry Siegel continued to do the writing, the artwork was 'ghosted' by several men in the Siegel and Schuster studio.
In the thirties, comic books did not have one fifteen-sixteen page story, as they have done since the sixties. Rather, each story was five or six pages long, and there were five or six stories in a book - one story featured the main character, and then the other stories had lesser known/liked heroes.
However, even doing a five-to-six page story is a far cry from creating a comic strip in which the writer and artist have three to four panels each day to tell a story and interest the reader in returning to that same strip the next day to find out what was happening.
This daily cliff-hanging skill is one that modern day readers can observe being perfected by reading the books above.
