Back Issue #109 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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018 NON SPEAKS! JACK O’HALLORAN INTERVIEW

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SUPERMAN NOVELS BY ELLIOT S! MAGGIN

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CARY BATES’ PLANS FOR SUPERMAN V

Exploring the Superman Movies’ Effects on Comic Books, Media, and Collectibles Plus interviews with ILYA SALKIND • AARON “Baby Clark” SMOLINSKI • JEFF “Young Clark” EAST DIANE SHERRY “Lana Lang” CASE • and Superman Movie Contest winner ED FINNERAN’s recollections

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RETROFAN #3 celebrates the 40th ANNIVERSARY of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE with an exclusive interview with Superman director RICHARD DONNER! Editor MICHAEL EURY voyages to the bottom of IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe and Retro Travels to Metropolis, IL, home of the Superman Celebration! ANDY MANGELS dives in to Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of AQUAMAN! ERNEST FARINO flips through monster fanzines of the Sixties and Seventies! The Oddball World of SCOTT SHAW! unravels Marvel’s wackiest product ever: Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper! SCOTT SAAVEDRA adopts a family of SEA-MONKEYS®! Plus FUNNY FACE beverages and collectibles, a fortress of SUPERMAN AND BATMAN MEMORABILIA, and more fun, fab features! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 • SHIPS DECEMBER 2018!

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Edited by Back Issue’s MICHAEL EURY!

Volume 1, Number 109 December 2018 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Gary Frank (Detail from the cover of Superman: Secret Origin #4. Original art scan courtesy of Matthew Popp.) COVER COLORIST (Superman figure) Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek

IN MEMORIAM: Margot Kidder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

SPECIAL THANKS Cary Bates Chris Ma John Byrne Elliot S! Maggin Diane Sherry Case Deborah Moore Michael Chaudhuri/ Charlie Niemeyer Fayetteville Luigi Novi ComicCon Jack O’Halloran Mike Ciemcioch Karla Ogle/Superman Shaun Clancy Celebration Neil A. Cole/Superman Jerry Ordway Super Site Martin Pasko DC Comics Mike Peacock Kevin Dooley David M. Petrou Sean Dulaney Jon Pinto Jeff East Rose Rummel-Eury Mark Engblom Ilya Salkind Edward Finneran Philip Schweier Chris Franklin Rob Smentek Grand Comics Aaron Smolinski Database Joe Stuber Trevor Hawkins Bill Svitavsky Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Mark Tensmeyer Heritage Comics John Trumbull Auctions Mark Waid Andrew Hess Delmo Walters, Jr Ken Hommel Warner Bros. Dan Johnson John Wells Shawn C. Kelley Marv Wolfman Adam Kubert Xum Yukinori Andrew Leyland

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BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 TIMELINE: The Super ’70s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 A countdown of Super-milestones leading up to the release of Superman: The Movie INTERVIEW: Ilya Salkind: The Art of the Super Deal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How Superman became a movie, in the words of the film’s executive producer PRINCE STREET NEWS: Getting Superman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 A new cartoon by Karl Heitmueller, Jr. BACKSTAGE PASS: We’ll Always Remember Smallville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Recollections from Superman co-stars Aaron Smolinski, Jeff East, and Diane Sherry Case OFF MY CHEST: Winning the Great Superman Movie Contest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Edward Finneran’s firsthand account of his 1977 Super-experience FLASHBACK: Elliot S! Maggin: Paperback Writer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The comic scribe-turned-novelist’s Super-books INTERVIEW: Non Speaks!: Jack O’Halloran. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 A candid chat with the actor who escaped the streets—and the Phantom Zone ART GALLERY: Superman Around the World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Illustrated movie posters featuring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel TOY BOX: Superman: The Movie Collectibles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 How much of this Super-stuff is on your shelf? GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Superman Movie You Didn’t See. . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Guest columnist Cary Bates reveals his plot for what might have been Superman V FLASHBACK: Superman: The Movie and Comic Books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The original film’s legacy in DC Comics lore BACKSTAGE PASS: Superman: The Movie and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The beloved movie’s legacy in Hollywood BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $76 Economy US, $125 International, $32 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Gary Frank. Superman and related images TM & © DC Comics. Superman: The Movie © Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2018 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows, except: Prince Street News © Karl Heitmueller, Jr.; “Winning the Great Superman Movie Contest” © Edward Finneran; and “The Superman Movie You Didn’t See” © Cary Bates. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

The Kids from Smallville Three iconic images from Superman: The Movie: (left) Baby Clark (Aaron Smolinski) reveals he’s a Superbaby (with Phyllis Thaxter and Glenn Ford); (center) cheerleader Lana Lang (Diane Sherry Case) befriends outcast Young Clark (Jeff East); and (right) Pa Kent (Ford) assures Young Clark (East) that “You are here for a reason.” © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

By the time he had arrived on Earth, little Kal-El Superman: The Movie is considered by many film critics and comic-book fans as the definitive superhero film, had aged some since being rocketed as an infant from the movie that led the way for today’s blockbusters. It tells Krypton. Actor Aaron Smolinski was just three when he the story of the Man of Steel and how he comes to Earth was cast to play baby Kal-El/soon-to-be Clark Kent in the early Smallville scenes. In spite of his from the doomed planet of Krypton, grows age, though, the actor has vivid and up on our world, and eventually becomes wonderful memories of his time on our planet’s greatest champion. The film is broken up into three the set. “I do remember a lot of the acts that follow Superman from behind-the-scenes stuff,” says infancy to adulthood. Act One Smolinski to BACK ISSUE. “Like is the story of Kal-El on Krypton. talking into Richard Donner’s His father, Jor-El (Marlon Brando), walkie talkie. [I also remember the and mother, Lara (Susannah York), scene where I’m] standing under the place him in a rocket and send him truck and my arms are getting tired into the heavens and to safety. Act Three from holding them up. I remember is the story of Superman in Metropolis. hugging Phyllis Thaxter and riding the bus This is where the fully grown Clark to set. We all parked at a gas station Kent (Christopher Reeve) begins to and then were bussed to the location.” fulfill his destiny and find his place in Being the baby on set, literally, aaron smolinski the world with the one, true love of Smolinski found himself the center of attention between takes. “It was a his life, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), and his most trusted friends and allies, Jimmy Olsen (Marc magical time for a three-year-old,” he recalls. “I McClure) and Perry White (Jackie Cooper), and faces off got lots of attention and I got to do fun things. [Plus, I with his greatest enemy, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). got] all the candy and food I wanted. It was wonderRight now, we’re here to talk about Act Two of ful. Everyone on set was fantastic. To this day, I am still Superman, which concerns young Kal-El’s arrival on Earth in contact with Richard Donner. He is such a kind, warm and the teenaged Clark Kent deciding the path he will man. It wasn’t work to me. It was fun. I loved it.” follow—and this part of the legend is set in Smallville. Part of Aaron’s wonderful memories include his time In many comic books, Smallville was located in Kansas. with the acting legends that played his adopted parents For Superman: The Movie, the countryside around Calgary in the movie. “I remember how sweet Phyllis was,” in Alberta, Canada, filled in for Superman’s hometown says Smolinski. “[She was] very nurturing. I felt a real and afforded director Richard Donner the idealistic small connection to her. And Glenn Ford was nice, but very town that looks like it was taken right off the comic-book professional.” Compared to some other performers in page. The very first scene set in Smallville is when Kal-El’s the movie, Smolinski’s work on Superman: The Movie ship crashes and the child is discovered by Jonathan was relatively short. “[I was there for] eight days of (Glenn Ford) and Martha (Phyllis Thaxter) Kent. filming. This time included a series of additional shots

10 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

by D

an Johnson

and footage that were to be included in a montage, similar to what Donner did in The Omen, but these never were used in the film.” After the Kents find young Kal-El, and decide to raise him as their own son, the action in Smallville jumps ahead about 15 years. The next time we see the Last Son of Krypton, he is now a teenager, named Clark Kent by his adopted parents, and he is played by actor Jeff East. East came to join the cast of Superman: The Movie after Richard Donner and the film’s producer, Ilya Salkind, went looking for crew members to fill their roster behind the camera. “Donner and Salkind had seen me in The Hazing,” recalls East to BACK ISSUE. “Carole Littleton was editing that film in post during the winter of 1977. They were looking at her editing reel. After Donner saw the film, they called Lynn Stalmaster, the casting director, to have me come in for a meeting to offer me the role of Young Clark Kent.” The casting process for East moved very quickly as director and producer both knew East was the right actor to bring teenaged Clark to life, even though the actor himself didn’t know initially that was the role he was up for. “I was not told what I was [being] considered for,” says East about the casting process. “They just had a photo of Chris Reeve next to mine on the table.”

Country Boy (top) Jeff East in the title role of the 1974 movie musical Huckleberry Finn, a follow-up to the previous year’s musical production of Tom Sawyer. (bottom) East as a fleet-footed Young Clark in Superman’s memorable train-racing scene. As East told BI editor Michael Eury at the Superman Celebration in June 2018, at first he was hesitant to don the character’s wig and especially, a prosthetic nose, laughing, “ ‘I’ve got to wear a fake nose?’ They said, ‘Welcome to the movie business!’ ” Huckleberry Finn © United Artists. Superman: The Movie © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

Thanks, Mom! Finneran’s mother snapped all four of these behind-thescenes photos at Smallville High: (top left) Bob Penn taking a publicity photo of Ed and Tim reading a Superman comic (Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-31, to be exact). (top right) The football team extras, with Tim and Ed (left/right) in the front. Note Diane Sherry (Lana Lang) leaning on Tim, and one of the cheerleaders leaning on Ed. (bottom) The prizewinners, in gray, hustling around the bench during their big scene. © Warner Bros./DC Comics.

PREMIERE

Superman had several premiere events in different cities—apparently US President Jimmy Carter went to the one in Washington, D.C. (with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder), but I got to go with my uncle to the one in Boston. It didn’t happen until December 13, 1978. The pre-premiere party was at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel’s Georgian Room, with the actual film screen nearby at the Sack Cinema 57. The entire event was a benefit for Special Olympics and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, so there were a lot of Massachusetts notables in attendance. I got to shake the hand of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy as he walked through the crowd to the stage to give a speech. In addition to the article in the Calgary paper that really happened by chance, there was an article about me winning the contest in the local Springfield Morning Union of August 5th, and a mention in the Boston Globe on August 10th.

AFTERWORD

You can see some of the info about the contest in the aforementioned publication All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-62, Superman: The Movie. I’m also a fan of science fiction as well as comics. Years later, while I was at a World Science Fiction Convention with Janet, my significant other, she found a British version of that magazine in the dealers’ room, and spying my picture in it, nonchalantly bought it for just a few dollars—and came up to me saying, “Look what I found!” I was able to meet Sarah Douglas, who played Ursa in the movie (although I never met her during filming), along with Barry Morse,

at a convention for Space: 1999 fans, SpaceCon V in Springfield. Massachusetts, in 1982. Much later, at the 2004 SuperMegaFest media-oriented con in Massachusetts, they featured “Two Lois Lanes,” with both Noel Neill and Erica Durance, who played Lois on the TV show Smallville. I was pleased to be able to attend and interact with Noel, who remembered me and the photo shoots that we did. I did get her to sign some copies of pictures of us together—and some fans, overhearing our conversation, asked me for my autograph! While not Superman-related, I did manage to meet several other luminaries, like Anthony Daniels (C3P0 of Star Wars), Verne Troyer (Mini-Me of Austin Powers), Joanna Cameron (Isis), and Adrienne Barbeau (Swamp Thing and tons of other things). Unfortunately, that was the last time I was to see Noel, as she passed away in 2016 at the age of 95. If you check out the IMDb entry for Superman: The Movie and look at the photos associated with it, I’ve uploaded a couple with me in them, including one of me and Kirk Alyn from that photoshoot in the park (I’m in the IMDb for this role, but you have to navigate to the movie, not my entry as an actor). Thanks for letting me reminisce about winning the contest. I hope I haven’t used up all my luck—I’ll still occasionally buy a lottery ticket, since even though the chances or winning are quite small, small is not zero—and someone has to win eventually! © 2018 Edward Finneran. Special thanks to Shaun Clancy.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

by P

hilip Schweier

Super Novels Movie images illustrated the covers of Elliot S! Maggin’s first two Superman novels, Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

In the days before home video, movie fans could revisit their favorite films thanks to adaptations in novel form. An entire generation of fans snatched up paperback copies of Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture from the shelves and spinner racks of bookstores coast to coast. Conspicuous in its absence was a mass-market paperback adaptation of Superman: The Movie. Instead, Warner Books (a corporate sibling of both DC Comics and the studio that released the film) published Last Son of Krypton, an original story by DC Comics writer Elliot S! Maggin.

FROM SUCH HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Maggin was born and reared in the NYC area, and like many kids at the time, read comic books until entering his teens. In an interview for The Amazing World of DC Comics #2 (Apr. 1974), Maggin described Superman as the prototype of the hero, the ideal person. “He and President Kennedy probably influenced me more than anyone I’ve ever known, except my father.” While attending Brandeis University in Boston in the early 1970s, he managed a tutoring program for kids, providing comic books to help them read. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow series caught his eye and prompted him to submit a Green Arrow story entitled “What Can One Man Do?”, which was published in Green Lantern #87 (Dec. 1971–Jan. 1972). This led to a lengthy career writing for virtually every major character in the DC Comics library, usually credited as “Elliot S! Maggin.”

Legend has it his habitual use of exclamation points in his comic-book scripts led to a typo in his byline, which caught the attention of DC editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz. Schwartz liked it so much he made it policy that Maggin’s middle initial always be punctuated with an exclamation mark instead of a period. Maggin was one of the primary writers for the Superman titles in the mid-1970s. He submitted a loose outline of Last Son of Krypton in 1974 to DC publisher Carmine Infantino as part of a Superman feature film proposal. It included a theory that the time for heroes was returning— from a sociological standpoint. “I guess I was right, huh?” Maggin says. However, Maggin wasn’t the only one who saw Superman’s big-screen potential. Independent producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind had begun development on what would become Superman: The Movie. To help give the project credibility as a film, they enlisted screenwriter Mario Puzo, a two-time Oscar® winner for his Godfather movies. Prior to penning his screenplay, Puzo paid a visit to the DC Comics offices for research. He met with publisher Carmine Infantino, editor Julius Schwartz, and writers E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, and Maggin. Having such a celebrity in their camp was pretty casual, according to Maggin. “No one seemed particularly cowed over it,” he says. “When I first found Puzo, he and Nelson Bridwell were sitting on the floor in the big library archive early one day, looking at old comic books.” Maggin says Puzo didn’t know much about the character to start with. “Mostly Cary and I sat with Mario in a conference room with the

Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

He helped put the Phantom Zone on the map as the mute and menacing Non, one of the three Kryptonian supervillains seen briefly in Superman: The Movie (1978) but extensively in its sequel, Superman II (1980). Yet Jack O’Halloran’s career spans far beyond his role as the bad guy we love to hate, stretching from a roughand-tumble upbringing to his victories in the ring as a heavyweight boxer (where he scored 17 knockouts!) to his cinematic tutelage by one of the greatest screen legends of the 20th Century to his more recent success as a novelist. In addition to the first two Superman movies, he has also appeared in the films Farewell, My Lovely (1975), King Kong (1976), March or Die (1977), The Baltimore Bullet (1980), Dragnet (1987), Hero and the Terror (1988), and The Flintstones (1994), among others. What follows is an edited transcription of a panel conducted on Sunday, October 22, 2017 at the Fayetteville (North Carolina) ComicCon. Special thanks must go to the convention’s organizer, Michael Chaudhuri, for arranging Jack O’Halloran’s appearance, and to Mr. O’Halloran himself for his kind cooperation. – Michael Eury

by M

ichael Eury

transcribed by Rose Rummel-Eury

MICHAEL EURY: Hello, folks, I’m Michael Eury, editor of BACK ISSUE Magazine. I went over and introduced myself to Jack a few minutes ago and found him to be one of the friendliest jack o’halloran celebrities I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Photo: Cornstalker / [to Jack] But, Jack, in my favorite Wikimedia Commons. movie, I heard you described by Marlon Brando as “A mindless aberration whose only means of expression are wanton violence and destruction.” [laughter]

The Zod Squad Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com), a villain-centric Superman II movie poster autographed by the late Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) and the subject of this interview, Jack O’Halloran (Non). © Warner Bros. Superman and related characters TM & © DC Comics.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

[to audience] Don’t listen to Brando—our guest is a pretty cool guy. Let’s have a big round of applause for Mr. Jack O’Halloran! [applause] Now, we’re going to talk Superman in a few minutes, but that’s only one small part of your career. It started with boxing as “Irish” Jack O’Halloran in the mid-1960s, is that right? JACK O’HALLORAN: Actually, it started with football. I played a little pro ball for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jets, and I got angry at some people so I went into boxing. I saw [Muhammad] Ali win the title and I thought, “I can beat that guy.” Some friends of mine said, “What a good idea.” So, next thing I know I was in a gym, training for a professional career in boxing. I figured it would be better than me fighting in the street all the time. It worked out pretty well. I boxed for about nine years, but they found that I had a disease called acromegaly, which is a tumor of the pituitary disease, and I shouldn’t have been boxing at all. [Editor’s note: According to Wikipedia, acromegaly is a disorder that results from excess growth hormone (GH) after the growth plates have closed. It is typically due to the pituitary gland producing too much GH.] But we just soldiered through a lot of things and it worked out. I enjoyed fighting with a lot of pretty good people. Muhammad [Ali, originally Cassius Clay] and I were signed [for a bout], I think four different times, and it unfortunately didn’t work out, so I went into the movie business. EURY: How did you transition from boxing to acting? O’HALLORAN: When I first started fighting, Steve McQueen was doing a picture called The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), in Boston. I was living in Boston, and we took care of him [bodyguarding] while he was there, and we became friends. He said, “You ought to come back with me to Hollywood and I’ll put you in the movie.” I said, “Eh, I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.” Then they did a picture called The Great White Hope (1970), with James Earl Jones, and they wanted me to play [a part] and brought me out to Hollywood. I had just knocked out the Number One heavyweight champion in the world and they said instead, “You want to go to Spain for six months?” I said, “You want me to give up boxing and go play in a movie?” “Yeah, man.” They thought the deal was all set for me. Some people in the East Coast wanted to see me get off the street and go to a foreign country. Some other people would like that as well. But I turned them down. They couldn’t believe it. I was leaving Fox, going down the steps, and James Earl Jones was coming up the steps, and said, “Jack O’Halloran, is it true that you just told Hollywood to take the biggest movie in Hollywood and ‘stick it’?” I said, “I don’t know, it depends on what you heard.” “Did you?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “I gotta shake your hand. I never met anyone who told Hollywood to take a leap.” [laughter] So, we became good friends. I continued with the boxing and in 1975, they made me quit because of the acromegaly. Then they offered me a picture called Farewell, My Lovely, with Robert Mitchum. I had an agent in San Diego when I was boxing because I was California heavyweight champion. I became one of ten fighters in the history of fighting that became a world-ranked fighter without boxing [as an] amateur. So, I had an agent and did a lot of commercials with Royal Crown Cola. She called me and said, “They want you to do this movie with Robert Mitchum, and I think you should do it.” I looked around and said, “Hmm,

maybe the time has come.” I met with the director, and he said, “You’re the guy.” They sent me to Hollywood and I met a man named Robert Mitchum, who was an incredible actor and incredible human being. He took me by the hand and guided me through a tour of Hollywood, and here I am. I owe it all to him. EURY: Did you undertake any acting lessons? O’HALLORAN: Robert Mitchum. EURY: That was it? O’HALLORAN: I’ll tell you a funny story. The very first day I was going to work, he arranged for us to drive down together. He had me laughing all the way to the set. We got out of the car and he said, “I’ll meet you there. Get the monkey suit on.” We were walking up the steps and he said, “Did you read the script?” I said, “Read the script?! I read your part, her part, this part, that part.” He said, “Throw it in the trash can. Don’t let me catch you doing like so many people in this town—acting. Just be yourself. Throw it in the trash. Just be yourself and you’ll be fine.” I thought, “What a concept.” He taught me eye levels and eye contact. We got on the set and did the first shot. We got done and they started moving cameras around. I looked at him and said, “What’s the deal?” He said, “You really don’t know? That’s it.” I said, “Wait, that’s all there is to this stuff? I’m a star!” [laughter] He laughed, and that became a tagline for the movie. That opened the door for a phenomenal career I’ve loved with a passion. He was an amazing man and became like a father and a mentor and led me down the street. I was halfway through the movie and I was coming out of the Samuel Goldwyn lot and someone grabbed me and said, “Is this your first picture?” I said yes. He said, “Let me tell you, son, you’re going to be a star.” I went back to Mitchum and said, “Maybe I should take some elocution lessons, go to UCLA and really get into this thing.” He looked at me, and laughed. “If you go to those classes, they’ll ruin you, or you’ll ruin them. Stick with me, kid, and you’ll be fine.” I said, “Okay, here we go.” Here I am. EURY: You couldn’t have had a better teacher. O’HALLORAN: No, the man was an amazing individual. One of the most well-read individuals I’d ever met. He was a trip.

Hard-Boiled Lobby card (courtesy of Heritage) from O’Halloran’s breakout role as Moose Malloy in the 1975 crime drama, Farewell, My Lovely, with his mentor Robert Mitchum as gumshoe Philip Marlowe. © 1975 Avco Embassy Pictures.

Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

“Guilty!” (top) In this lobby card from Superman: The Movie, Jor-El (Marlon Brando) sentences insurrectionists General Zod (Terence Stamp), Non (Jack O’Halloran), and Ursa (Sarah Douglas) to the Phantom Zone. (bottom) The escapees, from Superman II. © Warner Bros. Characters TM & © DC Comics.

EURY: I read that you turned down the part of Jaws, the James Bond villain, that Richard Kiel took. O’HALLORAN: I actually turned down six pictures that made his career. [James Bond movie producer Cubby] Broccoli came to see me to do this Bond movie because Farewell, My Lovely was an excellent film, and King Kong was a pretty good movie. They said, “We really, really want you.” My agent called me and said, “These guys are sitting here, waiting to see you.” I was around the corner, having lunch with Robert Mitchum—getting loaded. He said, “You want to do that picture?” I said, “No, I don’t like the script.” He said, “Then don’t. What are you worried about? Another margarita, please!” So, I went around the corner out of respect to see this guy who came all the way from London, and I said, “If you can work this out with my agent, fine.” But I was already doing a picture called March or Die, in Spain, with Gene Hackman and some people, so that got me out of it. After March or Die I went right to Superman. Superman was a better role.

EURY: How did you get the part of Non? O’HALLORAN: Gene Hackman and I were doing the picture March or Die, and we had a break in the picture, so they invited us up to London to talk to [Superman director] Richard Donner. Donner and I had a great discussion about the character Non, who was a scientist, a very smart guy that they lobotomized and he didn’t speak. He said, “How do you feel about doing a non-speaking role?” I said, “Let me tell you something. Jackie Gleason did a movie called Gigot (1962) and he was a friend of mine. He played a mute and he won an Oscar for it. I said if I ever got an opportunity to do a film that I could use facial and body expressions, I would do it.” Non was a perfect fit because Terence Stamp [was frightening] and Sarah Douglas was a man-eater. Someone had to relate to children, because there would be a lot of children in the audience. I did this brutish, huge character with childlike mannerisms, using big eyes and getting overjoyed and having this adulation for Zod. So, I did everything like a child yet with a brutish, male influence. It worked very well. The three villains were all different, and came across well. Thank God. EURY: Don’t you mean, “Thank Zod”? [laughter] Did you grow the beard specifically for this movie? O’HALLORAN: I had the beard and they kept wanting to add to it. Every time they do, they use a substance called acetone to remove it, and it was breaking off my real beard. So I said, “You know what, just take my real beard off and use the fake stuff.” EURY: What were the Phantom Zone villains’ costumes made out of? O’HALLORAN: They were made of a fine, sheer material, with a burgundy trim. Reflective material that worked. It was a creative idea. I thought they were great. EURY: Flimsy, pliable, or restrictive? O’HALLORAN: Not restrictive at all—light and moveable. It was like wearing a negligee, only thicker. I got that [description] from Sarah. I think Sarah would have rather had the negligee. EURY: When I see Non in the movie, I’m not thinking of a negligee. [laughter] In Superman II, you set a standard with that fight scene. What’s amazing is the three of you taking on Superman in Metropolis, and there was no CGI then— it was a whole different type of special effects. I guess there was at least one choreographer for the fight? O’HALLORAN: You have no idea. They did something— they broke technology rules and set some precedents. We had a huge 70-foot screen and they put pole arms through the screen, and at the end of the pole arms were body molds that we laid in. The molds allowed for motions so we could move up and around. It was called VistaVision. Here we are, up in the air on these pole arms, and there was a concrete floor 70 feet below us. Sarah almost had a heart attack. I made them put an air mattress underneath just in case and [a production] guy said, “Those poles are very strong; they’ll never break.” Well, I broke the leg [of the mold], and he said, “Oh, my heavens!” That was very naughty… I used to do things like that just to scare them. They actually shot us into the film. When you see us flying around buildings and underneath bridges, it was actually us doing that. There were no wires; there was no blue or green screen. We laid up in these molds… it was very tedious and took time. They shot VistaVision on VistaVision, which was a breakthrough in technology. The fight scene was brilliant. EURY: So why didn’t Richard Donner direct Superman II? Creative differences?

28 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

Make Way for Your Ruler Non barrels into the Daily Planet in this tense scene from Superman II, shown here on a 1980 lobby card courtesy of Heritage. © Warner Bros. Characters TM & © DC Comics.

O’HALLORAN: It wasn’t creative differences. They [the producers] didn’t want to pay him! It was so sad, because Donner lived, ate, and slept Superman, him and [screenwriter] Tom Mankiewicz. It’s sad because it would have been a whole different franchise, because Donner would have done III, IV, and V. They did the same thing with Brando. How do you cut Brando out of the movie? They’d already paid him, but didn’t want to pay him the points. Christopher [Reeve] should have never come back without bringing Donner back. He said, “Oh, they’ll do so many Supermans,” and they never did. The fourth one wasn’t even done by Warner Bros., it was done by Cannon. Christopher wrote the script and it was a terrible film. When you stop and think that Superman was the first American superhero, the original one, the way they did the film and characters, it was brilliant. Nowadays, it gets darker and darker and darker [in superhero movies]. So, we were talking six months ago, about the hologram technology, and we’re thinking about bringing Christopher and the three villains back. We have a storyline. We could come back at any age because of the hologram thing. Bringing us out of prison… Lex Luthor does some magic with the kryptonite that gets us our powers back… it would be a great idea. Non, of course, would talk by that time. While I was in jail, I learned a few skills, you know. [laughter] I had come up with a couple of storylines—if Superman kept his powers, why couldn’t we flip ours back again? Because of the atmosphere, we were of different molecular structures. Our powers would have been only taken away temporarily, I thought. We’re kicking it around—I think it’s brilliant. I hope we can pull it off. EURY: Wow! A CGI Superman sequel? A lot of us would love that. [audience applause] What kind of a person is Richard Donner? O’HALLORAN: He’s one of the nicest men in the world. Such a good guy. It’s just sad… he’s such a good director. Like night and day with the other guy [Superman II and III’s director Richard Lester]. We did both Superman movies together, and [Donner] really got into doing II, but he had to stop to deliver I. That’s why the Donner cut came out, because he had already shot 86% of the film.

From Gumshoe to Gum Cards But I was glad I was part of the two we did. It was an honor and a thrill. We had a lot of fun doing it. Great cast, brilliant crew. A lot of fun. EURY: I can only imagine if we could’ve had five Superman movies directed by Richard Donner. I doubt we’d have had Richard Pryor. O’HALLORAN: Likely no Pryor. I don’t think you would have seen a lot of junk. It would’ve been a much different franchise. EURY: For people who have only seen the theatrical version of Superman II, without seeing the deleted footage or the Donner cut, it may seem ambiguous as to what happens to you and the villains at the end of the Fortress fight scene. O’HALLORAN: Well, we fall down into an abyss, because we lost our powers in the transitional cubical. We shot a shot of them loading us into police vans and carrying us off, taking us to prison with Lex Luthor. There is footage of that. EURY: I’ve seen that footage… yes, the Phantom Zone villains were arrested, which would allow you to come back, as you said a moment ago. My fingers are crossed that this becomes a reality. Tell me… how was it, working with Christopher Reeve?

Among the Superman merchandise bearing O’Halloran’s likeness: Topps trading cards and stickers. This box for Superman II cards features on its top lid one of the images used for a movie poster, featuring Non and his fellow outlaws soaring toward the Man of Steel. Courtesy of Heritage. Superman and related characters TM & © DC Comics.

Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comics-based media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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100-PAGE SPECIAL featuring Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom! Buyer’s Guide, Comic Book Price Guide, DC’s Comicmobile, Super DC Con ’76, Comic Reader, FOOM, Amazing World of DC, Charlton Bullseye, Squa Tront, & more! ALAN LIGHT, BOB OVERSTREET, SCOTT EDELMAN, BOB GREENBERGER, JACK C. HARRIS, TONY ISABELLA, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, BOB LAYTON, PAUL LEVITZ, MICHAEL USLAN, and others!

ROCK ’N’ ROLL COMICS! Flash Gordon star SAM J. JONES interview, KISS in comics, Marvel’s ALICE COOPER, T. Rex’s MARC BOLAN interviews STAN LEE, PAUL McCARTNEY, Charlton’s Partridge Family, David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman comics, Marvel’s Steeltown Rockers, Monkees comics, & Comic-Con band Seduction of the Innocent. With AMY CHU, JACK KIRBY, BILL MUMY, ALAN WEISS, and others!

MERCS AND ANTIHEROES! Deadpool’s ROB LIEFELD and FABIAN NICIEZA interviewed! Histories of Cable, Taskmaster, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Vigilante, and Wild Dog, plus… Archie meets the Punisher?? Featuring TERRY BEATTY, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PAUL KUPPERBERG, BATTON LASH, JEPH LOEB, DAVID MICHELINIE, MARV WOLFMAN, KEITH POLLARD, and others! Deadpool vs. Cable cover by LIEFELD!

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

FOURTH WORLD AFTER KIRBY! Return(s) of the New Gods, Why Can’t Mister Miracle Escape Cancellation?, the Forever People, MIKE MIGNOLA’s unrealized New Gods animated movie, Fourth World in Hollywood, and an all-star lineup, including the work of JOHN BYRNE, PARIS CULLINS, J. M. DeMATTEIS, MARK EVANIER, MICHAEL GOLDEN, RICK HOBERG, WALTER SIMONSON, and more. STEVE RUDE cover!

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Mags of Steel by J o e

Stuber

Superman: The Movie was a popular subject on magazine covers in late 1978 and early 1979. (Join us in two months for BI #110, themed “Make Mine Marvel,” for a look back at Marvel’s Pizzazz Magazine.) Superman: The Movie © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics. Famous Monsters of Filmland TM & © Philip Kim. Fantastic Films © Blake Publications Corp. MAD TM & © EC Publications, Inc. Newsweek TM & © Newsweek LLC. People TM & © Time Inc. Pizzazz © Marvel. Playgirl TM & © Playgirl. Starlog © The Brooklyn Company.

SUPER PUBLISHING

You’ll believe a man can fly... ...and a kid can buy! It was a particularly frigid day in late December 1978. My mom and I, along with some family friends, were planning to head out into the western Pennsylvania winter weather to see Superman: The Movie… again. But this night would be extra special. One of our friends brought a gift for me. I didn’t think anything could top rushing out for another round of Christopher Reeve soaring across the big screen, but I would soon be proven wrong. Tearing off the wrapping paper, I beheld a 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" thing of beauty—the original movie soundtrack by John Williams! Even though our friend had kindly thought to remove the price tag, I could still see the impression left behind on the cover—$11.98. Double album coin. Growing up in a working-class family, you quickly get a sense of what things cost, so I truly appreciated her generosity and incredible thoughtfulness. I treasured this gift immensely and immediately jotted my name and address on the gatefold right below the stunning image of Reeve flying high as my hero. It would be quite some time before I learned about the term “mint condition.” I could not wait till after the movie to listen to the soundtrack. I had to hear a bit before we braved the cold for our trip to the theater. I removed the first record carefully, placed it on the turntable, and lowered the needle. With the vinyl disc spinning at 33 1/3 RPM and the sound of Williams’ Superman Theme thundering out—as much as it could—from our Zenith Circle of Sound OmniDirectional stereo speakers, I stared wide-eyed at the photomontage of movie images on the record sleeves. The destruction of Krypton. The journey to Earth. Super-rescues. The movie was coming to life in my living room! But I needed more. More images, more information, more… stuff! Thus began one kid’s quest to seek out and find all things… Super.

Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe. – Lex Luthor One thing made evident in the late ’70s following the explosion of Star Wars (with an earlier assist from Planet of the Apes) was that a movie franchise could make much more money in the realm of merchandising than it could at the box office. This concept was not lost on the marketing team at Warner Bros. Perhaps the biggest merchandising push for the Superman film was from the rights holders—Warner Bros. Prior to the soundtrack from Warner Bros. Records hitting store shelves, the book division (Warner Books) promised “the most ambitious movie/publishing tie-in of all time.” They did not disappoint. Ads touted a novelization of the film, “Making of” book, wall calendar, “telephone book” with room for 400 contacts (how many friends did Warner Bros. think I had?), packet of super-blueprints, portfolio of amazing art, and a kit of collectible diorama cut-outs. A few years earlier, Ballantine Books released of package of 12 Star Trek blueprints, and Warner Bros. hoped to cash in on the “burgeoning popblueprint market,” as an early ad stated. To this day, I’m not quite sure how prosperous that market was, but it did result in a cool collectible, Superman: The Movie Blueprints. Topping Ballantine with 15 layouts, the Superman set includes the entire floor plan of Lex Luthor’s lair, for the budding architect with space 200 feet below ground. What more could anyone ask? Superman Cut-Outs, designed by John Harrington and Aldo Coppelli, is a more hands-on activity packet. Featuring three “action sets” from the film—Krypton, Kansas, and Metropolis—kids and parents could recreate baby Kal-El’s starship, young Kal giving Pa Kent a hand fixing

Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

Super Soundtrack (right) The album cover for John Williams’ Superman: The Movie soundtrack two-album set, (middle) its interior image of a flying Man of Steel, and both sides of its picture-packed inner sleeve. Scans courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). Superman: The Movie © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

a flat, and Superman saving Lois Lane in the memorable helicopter rescue scene. Superman: The Movie Portfolio is a true prize. Inspired by scenes from the movie, artist Jim Dietz crafted 12 sensational paintings that capture the spirit and spectacle of the epic film. Standouts include “Lois Lane and Superman over Metropolis” (a perfect image of Reeve and Margot Kidder), “Superman Saves Airforce One,” and “Superman Deflecting Guided Missile.” While we didn’t get the promised novelization of the film, we did get an original Superman origin story from author Elliot S! Maggin—Last Son of Krypton (detailed elsewhere in this issue). And no super-book collection would be complete without the pride of the Warner Books Superman series, The Making of Superman: The Movie by author David M. Petrou. In my interview earlier this year on my podcast, Comic Book Central, Mr. Petrou (who was working for Random House Publishing in the mid-’70s) explained how a chance meeting on the tennis court with Superman producer Ilya Salkind set the stage for his chronicling the Man of Steel’s journey from comics to cinema. Petrou stated, “Everybody says, ‘Oh, it’s luck. You were in the right place.’ No, it’s more than that. You have to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right talent. And I filled all of those bills for Ilya.” He certainly did. The Making of Superman: The Movie is an outstanding fly-on-the-wall account of pre-production, casting, filming, and of course, the famous in-fighting during production. The paperback also features a 16-page insert of photos, including a hilarious (and highly personal) picture of Valerie Perrine mocking the numerous delays in filming. No other item in my collection has

Suitable for Framing (bottom left) A dozen dynamite prints of painter Jim Dietz’s recreations of movie scenes were featured in Warner Books’ Superman: The Movie Portfolio. This set in Mint condition commands at least $100, often more, in today’s collectors’ market. (bottom right) Writer Joe Stuber’s muchloved original copy of The Making of Superman: The Movie and his replacement copy. Inset is its author, David M. Petrou, who kindly contributed this photo for BI’s readers. Superman: The Movie © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

40 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

been subjected to more wear and tear than this book. As I started my conversation with Mr. Petrou, he asked if I had read the book. Smiling, I explained that I currently had two copies in front of me, one that I purchased a few years ago to replace my original, which was now in four pieces from reading and re-reading over 40 years! In addition to the releases from Warner Books, Superman was on full display on the magazine racks. And oh, were there magazines! Fantastic Films got the jump previewing the flick in June 1978, and Time (SPOILER ALERT!) reviewed the film November 27, 1978, more than two weeks before the premiere. By the first week of ’79, publishers were all in on the Superman craze. A cover story in Newsweek (January 1 – Superman to the Rescue!), People (January 8 – It’s Superman!), Starlog, and even Famous Monsters (issues #151 and 152) got in on the action! One of the coolest covers on the stands, however, was Pizzazz—a Marvel Comics publication. The cover shows Reeve in a famous Superman promo pose and a word balloon stating (with marvelous Marvel humor), “I consider it the greatest honor of my long career to be on the cover of a Marvel magazine.” A mind-blowing concept to fanboys and fangirls everywhere. MAD Magazine (issue #208) parodied the film with “Superduperman” (written by Larry Siegel, art by Mort Drucker), a throwback to the original MAD super-spoof from 1953. In the closing panels, Superduperman brings Lotus Lain back to life when a chorus of voices (Warner Bros. executives) tell him that without Lotus, there’s no Superduperman II! That’s just a small sampling of what I snagged off the racks in ’78–’79. In case you’re wondering—no, I did not pick up the January 1979 issue of Playgirl with Reeve as Superman on the cover. Hey, I did say publishers were all in on the Superman craze!

Collect ’em All An unopened pack of the first series of Superman: The Movie trading cards from Topps, and individual cards depicting some of the beloved film’s stars. Superman: The Movie © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

SUPER CARDS

What has chewing gum got to do with the secrets of the universe? – Eve Teschmacher I vividly recall my trips to the local pharmacy a block away from my house, as well as the market up the street from my grandparents’ house, to grab a few packs of Topps trading cards for 20 cents a pack. Opening the wax packaging (yes, I saved the wrappers), I shoved the included powdered pink stick of bubble gum in my gob, and flipped through the ten-pack of cards (and one sticker) to discover how much closer I got to my ultimate collecting goal. “Have it, have it, have it… need it—yes!” My friends and I traded the cards to complete our sets, devoured the movie facts on the card backs, and completed the puzzles. Topps released two series of Superman trading cards, 165 cards in all. Series One features 77 cards with a white border, six foil stickers, and six standard stickers. The puzzle pieces on the back reveal Reeve as the Man of Steel against the American flag background as seen on card #63. Series Two consists of 88 cards with a red border, ten foil stickers, and six standard stickers. The card backs highlight more movie facts and puzzle pieces. For this series, it’s Superman in flight as seen on card #65. A fascinating aspect of the trading cards is that, unbeknownst to us, deleted scenes from the film were revealed! Who is that guy on Krypton wearing a hood and standing in the hula hoops? I don’t remember Superman encased in ice! When was he surrounded by fire? It wasn’t until the extended version of the movie aired on ABC in February 1982 that I finally saw what I was missing! One other note about Topps and the Big Blue Boy Scout—in 1981, Topps released a series of 12 mini movie posters (one pinup and one stick of bubble gum to a pack) featuring silver screen classics such as Jaws, Grease, Star Wars, and Superman: The Movie. The Superman reproduction poster shows our hero zooming into the sky, leaving a red and blue blur trailing behind. Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

Hello, Columbus (top) Tomas de Torquemada (Marlon Brando) and explorer Columbus (Georges Corraface) from the 1992 Salkind production, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. Courtesy of IMDb.com. (bottom) How many of you were daydreaming that our hero was fighting Brainiac during this climactic scene in Superman III? (Ye ed was!) (middle) That same year, DC retooled Superman’s computer nemesis (in a redesign by Ed Hannigan), shown here in his second appearance, on Gil Kane’s cover to Action Comics #545. © 1992 Christopher Columbus Productions. Superman III © Warner Bros. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

Europe with Columbus, I was also doing a polish on the Superman script (Mark Jones had since moved on, taking a job as a show-runner for an animation series). The film was now titled Superman Reborn (predating the similarly titled Jonathan Lemkin script Warners commissioned years later). Over the years there have been conflicting reports as to whether Christopher Reeve was approached and/ or was considering playing Superman one more time. To this day I’m not sure how far negotiations may have gone. Certainly the allure of having both Reeve and Margot Kidder reprise their roles one last time for the cinematic resolution of the Superman-Lois romance would’ve been a huge plus. On the other hand, it was no secret at this point in his career that Reeve was reticent about putting on the cape again. He was still bitter about Superman IV, with its drastic budget cuts and other broken promises made by the Cannon group. If he was open to the idea of coming back, no doubt his salary demands for playing Superman a fifth time would’ve been quite steep. But regrettably, with or without Reeve our Superman Reborn was never going to happen. Principal photography on Columbus wrapped in the spring of 1992, and the original plan was to commence preproduction on Superman that summer. And yet by August, Superman Reborn had still not moved forward because ongoing negotiations between the Salkinds and Warners had bogged down. The writing on the wall became depressingly clear once it was determined the prospect of a new Superman film didn’t gel with Warners’ own plans: They wanted to launch a Lois & Clark TV series. This conflict led to complex re-negotiations between the studio and the Salkinds, which ultimately culminated with Warners reacquiring all the Superman rights for an undisclosed sum. Unfortunately, as almost always happens when a property changes hands or studios, all previous drafts go out the window and they start over again from scratch. This certainly proved to be the case with our script. The Lois & Clark run notwithstanding, the next Superman movie would be stuck in development hell for another 12 years, going through half a dozen scripts and almost as many writer-director teams before Warners would finally release Superman Returns. While the sudden demise of our Superman Reborn film was a disappointment that seemed unexpected at the time… in retrospect, not so much. When the Salkinds struck their deal with Warners in the early ’70s, films like The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Exorcist were the blockbuster hits. No studio had any reason to believe Superman (or any comic-book character) could realistically appeal to enough adults to become a profitable big-budget film property. But from the start, Ilya, to his enormous credit, always had faith in Superman’s untapped potential and universal appeal. When the first film defied all the naysayers to break box-office records around the world, he was proven right. And the success of the Superman films had undoubtedly paved the way for Warners to take another big gamble in 1989 with the Tim Burton-directed Batman. When that film proved to be a blockbuster as well, it was inevitable the studio’s philosophy would change. Rather than outsourcing to independent producers like the Salkinds, by the ’90s it made more business sense to reclaim Superman so they could maintain complete control of all the DC properties under their corporate tent. Up, up, and away… Writer CARY BATES’ numerous credits include (in comic books) Superman, Action Comics, The Flash, Legion of Super-Heroes, Captain Atom, Silverblade, and Video Jack, and (in cinema) TV’s Superboy and the 1992 film Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

by J o

For almost as long as there have been superhero comics, they’ve been influenced by outside media adaptations. Kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White all originated on the 1940s’ The Adventures of Superman radio show. Alfred Pennyworth’s appearance was remodeled to look like the actor from the 1943 Batman serial, and the 1966 television series inspired Alfred’s return to the comics. And one of the most popular Batman villains, Harley Quinn, made her first appearance in 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series. 1978’s Superman: The Movie was no different. Although initial screenwriter Mario Puzo’s contract prevented DC Comics from doing direct adaptations of Superman and Superman II, many elements of the movies still made their way into the comics, years and even decades later. This article will examine some of the most prominent examples, in the order they occurred in Superman: The Movie.

THE PLANET KRYPTON

h n Tr u m b u l l

One of Superman: The Movie’s biggest changes from the comic-book mythos came right after the opening credits: Superman’s home planet of Krypton. Gone was the futuristic Buck Rogers Krypton of the comics with its colorfully clad, head-banded populace. In its place was a majestic, but sterile, world carved from icy white crystal, where even the citizenry’s clothing emitted an unearthly white glow. This reimagining came directly from Tom Mankiewicz’s shooting script, describing Jor-El and Lara’s home city of Kryptonopolis as “a magical city, constructed of pure white crystalline matter that encloses and protects it from the blazing red sun.” From this, production designer John Barry and miniature model director/creator Derek Meddings gave Krypton a new, distinctive alien appearance, establishing Superman’s epic scope in its opening minutes.

The Adventures Continue A 1979 Superman: The Movie tribute by Jerry Ordway, who would, in the next decade, go on to become one of the premier Superman artists of all time. TM & © DC Comics.

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A Whole New World (top left) With his 1986 The Man of Steel reboot, writer/artist John Byrne reimagined Superman’s homeworld, also writing this 1988 miniseries providing Krypton’s backstory. Cover art by Walter Simonson. (top right and bottom) The John Tenniel card men and the Syd Mead tower were both influences on John Byrne’s version of Krypton. Scans courtesy of John Trumbull. World of Krypton TM & © DC Comics. Mead art © US Steel.

The new look proved instantly iconic, and the white crystalline Krypton of Superman: The Movie became the planet’s default appearance in live-action for the next 20 years. Marlon Brando’s white-garbed Jor-El inspired the looks of several actors, as detailed in Chris Franklin’s article following. Superman: The Movie’s version of Krypton proved so popular that John Byrne even considered using it when he was revamping Superman in the 1986 miniseries The Man of Steel. In an interview with Peter Sanderson in Amazing Heroes #96 (June 1, 1986), Byrne said, “I liked the cold, antiseptic Krypton of the movie. Dick [Giordano] said he loved the Krypton of the movie, but we couldn’t do it for copyright reasons. So Dick and Jenette [Kahn] said, ‘Redesign Krypton. That’s the first thing we’re going to see in the new series. The very first page should tell us that everything is different.’ So I sat down and over a process of four sketches designed Jor-El, and what Jor-El looked like told me what the rest of Krypton looked like.” Expanding on his process in a 2009 post on his forum ByrneRobotics.com, Byrne explained, “I knew the biggest problem I’d have redesigning Krypton was coming up with a look for the clothes and architecture that wouldn’t look dated ten, twenty, or fifty years later. So, after some

unsuccessful attempts to adapt [Joe] Shuster’s Buck Rogers approach—very cutting edge in 1934, but kept around far too long—I realized the answer lay in finding a look that was alien rather than ‘futuristic.’ I ended up taking my cue from the playing cards in [John] Tenniel’s original illustrations for Alice in Wonderland.” The sleek, mile-high towers that Byrne designed for Krypton were inspired by the work of futuristic film designer Syd Mead [Blade Runner, Tron]. In a 2000 interview with Michael Thomas on ComicBookResources.com, Byrne admitted that he tried to make his Krypton noticeably different from Superman: The Movie’s: “Oddly, the one thing in my version that most people seem to think was heavily inspired by the movie, my portrayal of Krypton, was not at all. I came from an entirely different direction, looking for that ‘look.’ I even went so far as to make ‘my’ Krypton a desert world, so as not to be ‘confused’ with the ice planet of the movie.” But while the two Kryptons were very different in look, the emotional harshness and antiseptic quality of Byrne’s version created a linkage between them in fans’ minds. Byrne’s Krypton remained the default in the comics for the next 17 years, when Superman’s origins were once again revised in the 12-issue series Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu. But in john byrne revamping the Last Son of Krypton, Corey Bond / Mark Waid says that the Krypton Wikimedia Commons. of Superman: The Movie did not influence them at all. “While I realize how visually striking the STM Krypton is, I always felt it was a missed opportunity,” Waid explains. “It seems to me that the tragedy of Superman’s loss is underscored if Krypton is a thriving planet full of life rather than a near-dead husk of a world.”

WHAT DOES THE “S” STAND FOR?

Director Richard Donner’s watchword for Superman: The Movie was verisimilitude. Even though the movie depicted fantastic events, everything was shown in as honest and truthful a manner as possible. As screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz explained in the behind the scenes features of Superman: The Movie, “When you can make an audience believe what’s happening on the screen, even though it’s totally extraordinary, that this is actually happening, that’s when you have verisimilitude.” This attitude of believability extended to all aspects of the production, even the Man of Steel’s chest emblem. The opening scenes of Superman: The Movie have Marlon Brando’s Jor-El wearing Superman’s “S” symbol on his chest, showing it to be a symbol of Kryptonian origin. In his DVD commentary with Richard Donner, Tom Mankiewicz explained, “One of the great riddles we tried to figure out was why Superman has an ‘S’ on his chest, because it obviously stands for ‘Superman,’ but he wasn’t called Superman ’til he got this [costume]. Why does he have an ‘S’ on his chest? So we decided to give everyone [on Krypton] a family crest with a different letter, which didn’t really exist in the comic books.” A similar idea is evident in the original script by Mario Puzo, which describes the Elders of Krypton as all having “the futuristic letter ‘S’ imprinted on their clothes, as does JOR-EL. There should also be a huge futuristic letter ‘S’ design on the wall of the Council Chamber.” (Intriguingly, Puzo also suggested that the same actor play both Jor-El and Superman, in order to 48 • BACK ISSUE • Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue

get the lead actor on-camera sooner. Obviously, the hiring of Marlon Brando as Jor-El changed those plans.) Superman: The Movie costume designer Yvonne Blake ran with the idea of Superman’s “S” being a Kryptonian symbol, and designed a series of glyphs for the other 11 members of the Kryptonian Council. Although never stated outright, it’s implied that the S-emblem that Jor-El wears is a family crest for the House of El. It just coincidentally looks like a stylized Earth “S.” This idea, however, was not incorporated into the comics for quite some time. Tying in with his de-emphasis of the planet Krypton, John Byrne’s Man of Steel miniseries had the S-emblem simply standing for “Superman,” with the symbol designed by Clark and Jonathan Kent after Lois Lane names the anonymous hero “Superman.” But with 2003’s Birthright, the “S” was officially tied into Krypton, with one crucial difference. Recognizing that Superman was the Last Son of Krypton rather than the Last Son of the House of El, Birthright writer Mark Waid reasoned that if the S-emblem came from Krypton, it should be a symbol of all of Krypton, rather than just one family. In issue #2 of Birthright, Clark learns about Krypton from a tablet stored in his rocket. Even though he can’t yet understand the Kryptonian language, he notices the “S” emblem recurring throughout all of the planet’s history. As he writes to his mother, “At first I thought it was a family crest of some sort—but if it was, it certainly came to mean more than that to these people. Wars were fought over it. Entire cities were built on it. Over the course of time, it became a… a promise. A sign of people fighting to make a better world. A symbol of hope.” This time, the S-emblem’s connection to Krypton took hold in the comics. It even found its way back to the silver screen in 2013’s Man of Steel, with Henry Cavill’s Superman explaining to Amy Adams’ Lois Lane that the symbol on his chest stands for “hope.” It was a moment that immensely pleased Mark Waid. “I was and am truly overjoyed every time I hear that reference made,” he says today. “Part of the thrill of working on a franchise character like Superman is the opportunity to give something back to the mythos that has legs and outlasts your story. I feel the same way every time I turn on the Flash TV show and hear someone using the words ‘Speed Force.’ ”

More Than a Logo (top) Superman: The Movie made Superman’s chest insignia a Kryptonian family crest. Shown here, courtesy of John Trumbull, are the film’s Kryptonian crests as designed by Yvonne Blake. (bottom) John Byrne evoked the Richard Donner-directed Superman “reveal” scene with this special-edition cover to 1986’s The Man of Steel (herewith Man of Steel) #1. © Warner Bros. The Man of Steel TM & © DC Comics.

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD

The opening scene of Superman: The Movie shows Marlon Brando’s Jor-El before the Kryptonian Council, prosecuting General Zod (Terence Stamp), Non (Jack O’Halloran), and Ursa (Sarah Douglas) for their planned insurrection of Krypton, with Jor-El’s arguments succinctly establishing each of their characters. The towering, mute Non is described as a “mindless aberration, whose only means of expression are wanton violence and destruction.” Zod’s second in command is Ursa, “whose perversions and unreasoning hatred of all mankind have threatened even the children of the planet Krypton.” And finally, General Zod, “once trusted by this Council, charged with maintaining the defense of the planet Krypton itself. Chief architect of this intended revolution, and author of this insidious plot to establish a new order amongst us, with himself as absolute ruler.” After the other Council members vote “Guilty” and fade away, the sinister Zod glares at his accuser, saying, “The vote must be unanimous, Jor-El. It has therefore now become your decision. You alone will condemn us if you wish, and you alone will be held responsible by me.” Without another word, Jor-El casts his vote for guilty and summons the Phantom Zone to the domed chamber. As Jor-El slowly walks away, General Zod’s rage builds, vowing vengeance against Jor-El and, someday, his heir. Although Non and Ursa were created for the movie, General Zod and the Phantom Zone both had their origins in the comics. First appearing in Adventure Comics #283 (Apr. 1961), Zod was the commander of Krypton’s military who attempted to take over the planet using a Bizarro-like army of imperfect clones. For his crimes, Zod was sentenced to 40 years in the Phantom Zone, an immaterial plane discovered by Jor-El, where criminals exist as disembodied wraiths, able to observe the outside world, but absolutely powerless to affect it. Ironically, the Phantom Zone ultimately saves its prisoners, as its dimension is unaffected by Krypton’s destruction. But whenever the criminals escape to Earth, they gain the exact same powers as Superman. Various Phantom Zoners had been established over the years, with Superman always pushed to his limit to stop their evil schemes before sending them back to their inter-dimensional prison. Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

Richard Donner’s motto for his production of Superman: The Movie was verisimilitude. The subject matter— the legend of Superman, as he considered it—was to be treated sincerely, and with deep respect and regard. But that didn’t mean that the film would be completely slavish to 40 years of comics storytelling. Donner and the other filmmakers would adapt the characters, the locales, and the trappings to suit their needs, the times, and to add their own stamp to that legend. These additions, these changes, have now endured as long as the comics they were inspired by. Forty years after Superman: The Movie was first projected in theaters, its unique influence continues to permeate, and sometimes even dominate, the ongoing legend of the Man of Steel, in both the comics, as discussed elsewhere in this issue, and in other media. From animation to further live-action adaptations on both large and small screens, the mark of Superman: The Movie has been readily apparent since shortly after it ended its theatrical run.

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“OTISBURG?”

Not surprisingly, the film’s influences are first felt in Superman’s other active media adaptation of the time. The animated Saturday morning adventures of the Super Friends began in 1973, and through many incarnations, voice actor Danny Dark’s Superman had been the big man at the Hall of Justice. In 1978, the Justice League met their match in the supervillainfilled Legion of Doom, in perhaps the most famous and beloved version of the show, The Challenge of the Super Friends. Although producers Hanna-Barbara had originally hoped to add Captain Marvel to the League, with his arch-foe Dr. Sivana as the evil Legion’s mastermind, it was Lex Luthor who became the uncontested leader of this anti-JLA. With Superman’s big-budget, big-screen debut fast approaching during production, there is little doubt the movie had an influence on Luthor’s addition and appointment as lead rogue. Challenge ran a full hour on ABC, with one half hour devoted to the League vs. Legion battles, and the other to tales of the core Super Friends from the previous seasons. Perhaps the impending release of Superman: The Movie influenced the episode “Terror from the Phantom Zone,” written by Jeffery Scott, where three Kryptonian villains escape their ethereal prison and invade Earth. The basic premise of this episode would be mirrored in Superman II, a good portion of which was filmed during the first movie’s production.

The Adventures Continue From its glassy logo to its use of the icons of New York City (doubling as Metropolis), it was clear that the Salkinds’ Supergirl was a continuation of the Superman movie franchise… although the Man of Steel’s appearance in the Girl of Steel’s film was relegated to a cameo as a wall poster. TM & © DC Comics.

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hris Franklin

The following year, Luthor (once again angrily voiced by Stan Jones) returned in The World’s Greatest Super Friends episode aptly titled “Lex Luthor Strikes Back,” also written by Scott. Lex is visited in prison (where we last saw him in Superman: The Movie) by Jimmy Olsen and a very Margot Kidder-like Lois Lane. Lex, who seems much more smug and Gene Hackman-like in this outing, has turned the tables on Lois (Wonder Woman voice actress Shannon Farnon). Jimmy is not who he appears to be, but Lex’s dim-witted stooge Orville Gum in disguise. Orville is the spitting image of Ned Beatty’s Otis, from his face to his pork-pie hat and loud, outdated suit. He and Lex plot their revenge against Superman and his teammates in a somewhat-familiar lair deep below the streets of Metropolis. When Luthor’s deal with evil sun aliens backfires, Superman is forced to fly around the globe at super-speed to repel his flaming foes, in a move similar to the climactic end of the film. While Lex still sports his comic-accurate Bronze Age purpleand-green jumpsuit and jet-boots, this episode could almost be seen as a completely kid-targeted sequel to Superman: The Movie.

“YOU’LL BE SAFE HERE, SON.”

Of course, the Salkind Superman films continued into the ’80s, without Richard Donner, but with another Richard (Lester, in this case) filming the remainder of 1980’s Superman II and its follow-up. Marc McClure’s Jimmy Olsen got more screen time in Superman III (1983), in one of that film’s best action sequences, but his role was even more important in the Salkind’s next super-production. The following year, Supergirl was brought to the big screen with the hopes of breathing new life into the franchise, a franchise that Christopher Reeve officially stated he was done with after his third outing in the red and blue. Unfortunately for fans wanting to see a House of El family reunion with Supergirl Helen Slater, Reeve stood steadfast on this statement during Supergirl’s production. The small visual cameo by the Man of Steel was provided by a poster of Reeve from the first film, displayed on the wall of Supergirl’s new roommate, Lucy Lane (Maureen Teefy). Yes, Lucy Lane, sister of Lois from the comics (apparently not the sister Lois mentions in the first film who has a family, mortgage, etc.), and on-again-off-again girlfriend to one Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy (played again by Marc McClure) bridges the continuity between the films, creating a shared cinematic comic universe 25 years before Tony Stark walked into that bar at the end of The Incredible Hulk (2008). Jimmy is in on the action when Supergirl battles a mystically controlled backhoe, and is also held captive by Faye Dunaway’s hammy sorceress Selena in the film’s climax. While Jimmy figured into Supergirl’s adventures on Earth, her Kryptonian heritage was a very important part of the movie’s wandering plot. But Argo City, the surviving colony of Krypton from which Kara Zor-El came, is nothing like the cold, crystalline world envisioned by John Barry in Donner’s film. Beyond the outer crystal-like structure of the city, the interior looks more like a hippie commune/shopping mall, with lots of earth tones and sweaters for clothing, instead of the 3M reflective outfits Jor-El and Lara sported. When Selena traps Supergirl in the Phantom Zone, she encases her in floating pane of glass like Zod and his minions. But that pane shatters on a desolate, barren world, which seems to be the actual Phantom Zone, contradicting what we had seen before. In 1985, Marc McClure continued to wave the Superman brand flag in a commercial promoting Kenner’s Super Powers Collection action-figure line (inset). In the Daily Planet offices (looking quite a bit different than the movie), Jimmy Olsen informs kids that they can send in proof-of- purchases from Super Powers figures in order to receive a free Clark Kent action figure. Jimmy notices that Clark’s “Power Action Feature” is the same as his pal Superman’s. Hmmm….

Shared Super-Universe (top) The Challenge of the Super Friends episode “Terror from the Phantom Zone” featured (inset) a trio of Phantom Zone escapees who were corralled by both Superboy and Superman. (middle) The inclusion of Superman supporting cast actor Marc McClure—shown here with Helen Slater as Linda Danvers and Maureen Teefy as Lucy Lane—connected 1984’s Supergirl with the Superman movies that preceded it… and Jimmy was even included in (bottom) Supergirl merchandising! TM & © DC Comics.

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