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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Superman </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=330 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=367 WIDTH=320 ALT="Superman. Artist: Fred Ray." SRC="superman.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"> <H1>SUPERMAN</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Original Medium:</B> Comic Books <BR><B>Published by:</B> DC Comics <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1938 <BR><B>Creators:</B> Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster<FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> Superman was the creation of a pair of teenage science fiction fans living in Cleveland, Ohio. Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster began their  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> long-running collaboration in the early 1930s, with a series of self-published <A HREF="glossary.htm#fanzine">fanzines.</A> A 1933 issue contained the story "Reign of the Superman" — their first use of the concept portrayed the superior man as a world-conquering villain. <P> A year later, they re-did him as a hero, in daily comic strip form, and tried selling it to newspaper syndicates. It was repeatedly rejected. <P> In 1938, they were working for the company that would eventually become <A HREF="dc.htm">DC Comics,</A> doing such features as <A HREF="droccult.htm">Dr. Occult,</A> Federal Agents, and <A HREF="slambrad.htm">Slam Bradley.</A> Publisher Jack Liebowitz was looking for material to fill a new monthly anthology, <I>Action Comics,</I> so Siegel and Shuster dusted off "Superman" and submitted it one more time. It became the lead feature with issue #1, dated June of that year, and was an instant hit — the very first hit character to emerge from the fledgling comic book medium. He shared the early <I>Action Comics</I> covers with other features, such as <A HREF="mramer.htm">Tex Thompson</A> and <A HREF="zatara.htm">Zatara the Magician,</A> but once the publisher realized who was actually selling the magazine, he had them all to himself. Within a couple of years, comic books were dominated by <A HREF="glossary.htm#superhero">superheroes</A> inspired by him. <P> In 1939, Superman became the first character originating in comic books to anchor his own title. In 1940, he joined <A HREF="batman.htm">Batman</A> in headlining <I>World's Finest Comics.</I> Before long, he made it into newspaper comics after all, syndicated by McClure (<I><A HREF="kingaroo.htm">King Aroo,</A> <A HREF="schoolda.htm">School Days</I></A>). He was also featured in a weekly radio series, a movie serial, and a novel by author George Lowther. By the mid-1940s, his boyhood adventures were being recounted in the <A HREF="superboy.htm">Superboy</A> comic book series. <P> By the 1950s he had a TV show, starring George Reeves, and even his main supporting characters, <A HREF="loislane.htm">Lois Lane</A> and <A HREF="jimmyo.htm">Jimmy Olsen,</A> had comics of their own. Other survivors of his native planet, Krypton, were turning up — including his dog, <A HREF="krypto.htm">Krypto;</A> his cousin, <A HREF="suprgirl.htm">Supergirl;</A> and even an entire Kryptonian city, Kandor, shrunken by the villain Brainiac and confined to a bottle. By then, some of comics' top talents, including Otto Binder, Kurt Schaffenberger (both of whom had been prominently involved with <A HREF="capmarv1.htm">Captain Marvel</A>), Curt Swan, and Wayne Boring (the last two known mostly for their Superman work) had handled the character. <P> In 1941, the <A HREF="fleischr.htm">Fleischer Studio,</A> where <A HREF="boop.htm">Betty Boop</A> and <A HREF="popeye.htm">Popeye</A> were first animated, inaugurated a series of Superman cartoons. Lavish in their production values, those cartoons are still highly esteemed by animation aficionados. The series survived the conversion of the Fleischer Studio to Paramount's <A HREF="famous.htm">Famous Studios,</A> ending in 1943 after a total of 18 cartoons. <P> Superman was again animated in 1966-67, when <A HREF="filmatn.htm">Filmation</A> (<A HREF="oghstbst.htm">Original Ghostbusters,</A> <A HREF="goolies.htm">Groovie Goolies</A>) produced <I>The New Adventures of Superman,</I> a series of Saturday morning half-hours, for CBS. The series continued in 1968-69 as <I>The Batman/Superman Hour,</I> and in 1970 as <I>The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure.</I> Incidentally, Clayton "Bud" Collyer, best remembered today as a game show host, was the voice of Superman in all animated versions up until this time, as well as on radio. <P> Since then, Superman has been featured in a series of major movies starring Christopher Reeve. He was a member, along with Batman, <A HREF="aquaman.htm">Aquaman</A> and <A HREF="wonderwo.htm">Wonder Woman,</A> of Saturday morning's <I><A HREF="super_fr.htm">Super Friends.</A></I> He was in a second live-action TV series, this one in prime time, with Dean Cain in the title role. In 1998, he was the subject of a U.S. postage stamp. Currently, he appears in new animated adventures on the Warner Bros. network. <P> All of this has earned untold millions for his publisher — but what about his creators? <P> In 1947, Siegel and Shuster attempted to regain legal control over their creation, failed, and were fired from their own character. That same year, they went to rival publisher Magazine Enterprises, where they created <I><A HREF="funnyman.htm">Funnyman,</A></I> but neither of them ever had another hit like the first. In 1978 their cause was taken up by Neal Adams, a younger comics artist widely known as a champion of creators' rights. In response to Adams's publicity campaign, DC added a creators' byline to its Superman line, and granted Siegel and Shuster lifetime pensions. Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. <P> In 1999, a change in the legal landscape seems to have given a portion of the Superman franchise to Siegel's heirs. What this means in terms of the character's future — as well as that of every other long-running character no longer owned by its creator — is something that only time will tell. <P> Today, new Superman comic books come out every week — and the character himself is one of a half-dozen or so that are known to the majority of this planet's inhabitants. Not bad, for a couple of kids from Cleveland. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><B>Webring:</B> <! Superman WebRing><script language=javascript type="text/javascript" src="http://ss.webring.com/navbar?f=j;y=don_markstein;u=10107080"> </script><noscript><center> <table bgcolor=gray cellspacing=0 border=2><tr> <td><table cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td align=center> <font face=arial size=-1>This site is a member of WebRing. <br>To browse visit <a href="http://ss.webring.com/navbar?f=l;y=don_markstein;u=10107080"> Here</a>.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table> </center></noscript> <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! 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