COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
“givens”: By Donald-Brian Johnson • Superman aster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able was not to leap tall buildings at a single bound! Look... up in the sky...” Well, are you looking? If you’re a young-at-heart baby boomer, there’s no way you can resist. Just reading those stirring words is enough to prompt an involuntary skyward glance, and send a host of long-forgotten thrills shivering up your spine. Now, add in the sound effects: that pinging bullet...the relentless chug of a charging locomotive...the whistling wind, as you-know-who leaps another tall building...and that stirring, march-like musical theme. Tying everything together: the stalwart figure of the big fella himself. There he stands, hands on hips, gaze serene, a huge “S” emblazoned across the chest of his somewhat long-underwearish-like leotards. His knee-length cape is flapping in the breeze. So is the huge American flag behind him. (Yes, he does appear to be standing in outer space, where breezes are hard to come by, but why quibble?) Superman! For hordes of youngsters during the 1950s and 1960s t h i s “strange visitor from another planet” was our icon. We devoured his adventures, in a host of blackand-white TV episodes, and a handful of color ones. In the movie theatres, we cheered as he bat“
F
The “Golden Age” meets the “Silver Age”: reprints of early “Superman” stories were featured in Giant Superman #183 (January, 1966). $20 to $25.
boomers remember. In his 1938 premiere, Superman grabs a pistol from a murderous nightclub singer, squashes it beyond recognition, then proclaims: “You little vixen! Are you ready
o f this world. (“Just before the doomed planet Krypton exploded to fragments, a scientist placed his infant son within an experimental rocket-ship, launching it toward earth.”) • He found it necessary to conceal his uncanny powers with a secret identity: Clark Kent, “mildmannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper”. • And, there was a woman involved: fellow reporter Lois Lane, enthralled by Superman, less-thanenthralled by Clark. (“Why is it you always avoid me at the office, Lois?” Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1 (June, 1938). (This is the cover of the 1970s reprint, not the million-dollarplus original!) $10 to $15.
“Please, Clark! I’ve been scribbling ‘sob stories’ all day long. Don’t ask me to dish out another!”) Siegel and Shuster’s Superman was somewhat less genteel than the one baby
fession from a crooked politician by dangling him from a live telephone wire (“Stop! Stop! We’ll be electrocuted! I’ll talk!”) “And so,” reads the opening story’s final panel, “begins the startling adventures of the most sensational character of all time: Superman! A physical marvel, a mental wonder, Superman is destined to reshape the destiny of a world! Don’t miss an issue!” “This Is A Job For...Superman!” Miss an issue? Who would think of it? S u p e r m a n ’s appearance on the scene ushered in what later became known as the “Golden Age” of comicdom. An entire society of superheroes, (eventually, a n entire
Giant Superman Annual #1, first of the popular compendiums (August, 1964). $50 to $75.
“ S u p e r g i r l ” (Superman’s cousin) was the star of “a comic first - a complete booklength novel!” Action Comics Presents Supergirl #360 (MarchApril, 1968). $20 to $25.
tled a seedy-looking squad of “Mole Men”. We gobbled up dime comic book after dime comic book. When the price escalated to 12 cents, we loyally stayed with him. We even saved up our quarters for those 25-cent “Giant Annuals” (which seemed to come out much more often than “annually”). Well, how could we resist? Superman (or, in comic book lingo, this “Silver Age” version of him), was our very own superhero: ready, willing, and more than able, (as the announcer always promised), to fight “a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way!” “Powers And Abilities Far Beyond Those of Mortal Men” Superman had actually been engaging in his never-ending battle long before the 1950s. The creation of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, Superman made his debut in the June, 1938 issue of Action Comics #1, published by Detective Comics (soon to become much better known as “DC”). From the beginning, there were certain
VOL. 43, NO. 44 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 2, 2012
to sign a confession? Or shall I give you a taste of how that gun felt when I applied the pressure?” (She signs). Superman also finds time to give a wife-beater what-for (“You’re not fighting a woman now!”), fling a carful of crooks into a ravine (as they exclaim, “It’s the devil himself!”), and force a con-
“Justice Society” of them), soon followed, from “Batman” to “Wonder Woman,” “Green Lantern” to “The Flash”. Aping their illustrious predecessor, one and all concealed their unique talents behind secret identities, when not stepping out to save the world in circus-y spangled attire. Some wore masks; others simply removed their eyeglasses, let down their hair (or both), and - believe it or not - no one recognized them. Superman, the comic book character, proved such an immediate hit that it wasn’t long before he found his way to other media: a radio version hit the air waves in 1940, starring Clayton “Bud” Collyer, (later famed as the host of TV’s To Tell The Truth). Bud’s meek “Clark Kent” tenor would drop to a robust baritone, as he intoned the line that had evildoers shaking in their shoes: “This Is A Job For. . .Superman!” In 1941, Paramount brought the “Man of Steel” to the movies, with a series of animated cartoons. Two liveaction movie serials starring the somewhat Superboy-ish Kirk Alyn followed in the late 1940s, before the tights were donned in 1951 by an actor who would become forever associated with the Superman role (at least in the minds of those whose childhoods coincided with the fabulous 1950s): George Reeves. A reliable second lead in the movies, Reeves’ many previous credits included a (Continued on page 2)