{"id":11916,"date":"2018-04-20T20:58:40","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T20:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=11916"},"modified":"2018-04-26T21:01:04","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T21:01:04","slug":"superman-at-80-how-two-high-school-friends-concocted-the-original-comic-book-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/superman-at-80-how-two-high-school-friends-concocted-the-original-comic-book-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman at 80: How two high school friends concocted the original comic book hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Ricca<\/a>, Case Western Reserve University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Superman \u2013 the first, most famous American superhero \u2013 turns 80 this year.<\/p>\n

The comics, toys, costumes and billion-dollar Hollywood blockbusters<\/a> can all trace their ancestry to the first issue of \u201cAction Comics,\u201d which hit newsstands in April 1938.<\/p>\n

Most casual comic book fans can recite the character\u2019s fictional origin story<\/a>: As the planet Krypton approaches destruction, Jor-El and his wife, Lara, put their infant son, Kal-El, into a spaceship to save him. He rockets to Earth and is taken in by the kindly Kents. As he grows up, Kal-El \u2013 now known as Clark \u2013 develops strange powers, and he vows to use them for good. <\/p>\n

But the story of the real-life origins of Superman \u2013 a character created out of friendship, persistence and personal tragedy \u2013 is just as dramatic. <\/p>\n

From villain to hero<\/h2>\n

When I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, my dad would regale my brother and me with stories of Superman\u2019s local origins: The two men who had concocted the comic book hero had grown up in the area. <\/p>\n

As I became older, I realized I wanted to understand not only how, but why<\/em> Superman was created. A 10-year research project ensued, and it culminated in my book \u201cSuper Boys<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the mid-1930s, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were two nerds with glasses who attended Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio. They worked on the school newspaper, wrote stories, drew cartoons, and dreamed of being famous. Jerry was the writer; Joe was the artist. When they finally turned to making comics, a publisher named Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson<\/a> gave them their first break<\/a>, commissioning them to create spy and adventure comics in his magazines \u201cNew Fun\u201d and \u201cDetective Comics.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jerry and Joe had been working on something else: a story<\/a> about a \u201cSuperman\u201d \u2013 a villain with special mental powers \u2013 that Jerry had stolen from a different magazine. They self-published it in a pamphlet titled \u201cScience Fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

While \u201cScience Fiction\u201d only lasted for five issues, they liked the name of the character and continued to work on it. Before long, their new Superman was a good guy. Joe dressed him in a cape and trunks like those of the era\u2019s popular bodybuilders<\/a>, modeled the character\u2019s speedy running abilities after Olympic sprinter Jesse Owens, and gave him the bouncy spit-curl<\/a> of Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan. It was a mishmash of 1930s pop culture in gladiator boots.<\/p>\n

When they were finally ready, they started pitching Superman to every newspaper syndicate and publisher they could find.<\/p>\n

All of them rejected it, some of them several times. This continued for several years, but the duo never gave up. <\/p>\n

When Superman finally saw print, it was through a process that is still not wholly clear. But the general consensus is that a publisher named Harry Donenfeld, who had acquired the major\u2019s company, National Allied Publications (the predecessor to DC Comics), bought the first Superman story \u2013 and all the rights therein \u2013 for US$130. <\/p>\n

Was Jerry trying to create a Superdad?<\/h2>\n
\n \"\"<\/a>
\n The first issue of Action Comics featured Superman on the cover.<\/span>
\n Philipp Lenssen<\/a>, CC BY-NC<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The world was introduced to Superman in \u201cAction Comics\u201d No. 1, on April 18, 1938, with the Man of Steel appearing on the cover smashing a Hudson roadster. The inaugural issue cost 10 cents; in 2014, a copy in good condition sold for $3.2 million dollars<\/a>. <\/p>\n

When the comic became a runaway hit, Jerry and Joe regretted selling their rights to the character; they ended up leaving millions on the table. Though they worked on Superman comics for the next 10 years, they would never own the character they created, and for the rest of their lives repeatedly filed lawsuits in an effort to get him back.<\/p>\n

But there is another more personal piece to the puzzle of Superman\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

On June 2, 1932, Jerry\u2019s father, Michel, was about to close his secondhand clothing store in Cleveland when some men walked in. Michel caught them trying to steal a suit, and ended up dying on the spot<\/a> \u2013 not in a hail of gunfire, but from a heart attack<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jerry was 17.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Jerry Siegel pictured while serving in the U.S. Army.<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some believe<\/a> Jerry may have created Superman as a fantasy version of his own father \u2013 as someone who could instantly transform from a mild-mannered man into a hero capable of easily overpowering petty thieves. Indeed, some of the early Superman stories feature Jor-El out of breath (as Michel often was from heart disease) and show criminals who faint dead when confronted by Superman. As many victims of childhood trauma often do<\/a>, Jerry may have used Superman to re-enact his father\u2019s tragic death over and over in an attempt to somehow fix it. <\/p>\n

In Superman\u2019s never-ending battle of good versus evil, this same story is repeated again and again on the page, in cartoons and in movies. It\u2019s seen in kids who pretend to be Superman, tucking towels in at their neck and playing out battles in their backyards.<\/p>\n

\"TheWhy is Superman\u2019s 80th birthday important? It isn\u2019t just about celebrating a \u201cfunny book\u201d about a guy who has heat vision and can fly. It\u2019s about using fantasy to make sense of the world, plumbing personal tragedy to tell a story, and using art to envision a more just and safe society.<\/p>\n

Brad Ricca<\/a>, Lecturer of English, Case Western Reserve University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brad Ricca, Case Western Reserve University Superman \u2013 the first, most famous American superhero \u2013 turns 80 this year. The comics, toys, costumes and billion-dollar Hollywood blockbusters can all trace their ancestry to the first issue of \u201cAction Comics,\u201d which hit newsstands in April 1938. Most casual comic book fans can recite the character\u2019s fictional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,292],"tags":[4375,4374,191,1273,4373],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11918,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916\/revisions\/11918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}