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Our Hero Page 17

by Tom De Haven


  24. Like nearly every other syndicated adventure strip, Superman had been steadily losing client newspapers since the early 1960s, its popularity undermined and dimmed by simply drawn gag-a-day features like Peanuts, B. C., Beetle Bailey, and Hi and Lois. It was finally discontinued in 1967, after a run of twenty-seven years.

  25. In addition to his work on the Mutual Radio Network’s Adventures of Superman, Lowther, who was born in 1913, produced, directed, and wrote for a number of other successful radio programs, including Dick Tracy, Roy Rogers, and Terry and the Pirates. Later, on television, he wrote, directed, and produced for the United States Steel Hour and for the long-running afternoon soap opera The Edge of Night. In 1963 he joined the faculty of the Famous Writers School, headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, where he lived for most of his adult life. He died in 1975.

  26. In that story from 1948, Mr. Kent is referred to as John, but in 1949 — in Action Comics number 49—he was called Silas. The name of Superman’s foster

  27. As played by John Schneider in Smallville, Jonathan Kent died of a heart attack in 2006 at the end of the fifth season.

  28. DC also officially ended the Weisinger-edited Silver Age Superman series, with a two-part story that ran in Superman number 423 and Action Comics number 583. Alan Moore, still riding the crest of his Watchmen triumph, killed off a large number of the famous cast of characters, but took what he was doing seriously, respectfully though not reverently, and turned in one of the handful of indisputably great Superman stories.

  Works Cited

  Adams, Lee. “Doing Good.” It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman. Original cast recording. Sony, 1992.

  Andrae, Thomas. “From Menace to Messiah: The History and Historicity of Superman.” American Media and Mass Culture: Left Perspectives, ed. Donald Lazere, 124-38. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

  Andrae, Thomas, Geoffry Blum, and Gary Coddington. “Of Supermen and Kids with Dreams: A Rare Interview with the Creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.” Nemo: The Classic Comics Library, no. 2 (1983): 6-19.

  Benton, Mike. The Comic Book in America: An Illustrated History. Dallas: Taylor, 1989.

  Brown, Nicky. Personal interview. November 17, 2008.

  Cabarga, Leslie. The Fleischer Story in the Golden Age of Animation. New York: Nostalgia, 1976.

  Cieply, Michael. “Ruling Gives Heirs a Share of Superman Copyright.” New York Times, March 29, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/media/29comics.html?_r=i&scp=i&sq=%22Share%20of%20Superman%20Copyright%22&st=cse.

  “Code of the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc.” Adopted October 26, 1954. Posted at Comicartville Library, http://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm.

  Crippen, Tom. “Big Red Feet, Mighty Chest.” Comics Journal, no. 289 (2008): 169-73.

  ——. “The Night Thoughts of Mort Weisinger.” Comics Journal, no. 287 (2008): 166-69.

  Daniels, Les. DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes. New York: Little, Brown, 1995.

  ——. Superman: The Complete History. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1998.

  Dietrich, Bryan. “The Fourth Man in the Fire.” Krypton Nights, 5. Lincoln: Zoo, 2002.

  Dooley, Dennis, and Gary Engle, eds. Superman at Fifty: The Persistence of a

  Legend. Cleveland: Octavia, 1987. Duin, Steve, and Mike Richardson. Comics Between the Panels. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse, 1998.

  Eco, Umberto. “The Myth of Superman.” In Heer and Worcester, Arguing Comics, 146-64.

  Feiffer, Jules. The Great Comic Book Heroes. New York: Bonanza, 1965.

  Fingeroth, Danny. Disguised as Clark Kent. New York: Continuum, 2007.

  Fleisher, Michael L. The Great Superman Book. New York: Warner, 1978.

  Gordon, Ian. Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890-1945. Washington, D.C.:

  Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. Goulart, Ron. Foreword to Superman Archives, vol. 2. New York: DC Comics, 1990.

  Grossman, Gary. Superman: Serial to Cereal. New York: Popular Library, 1976.

  Hajdu, David. Ten-Cent Plague. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

  Harvey, Robert C. The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996.

  Heer, Jeet, and Kent Worcester, eds. Arguing Comics: Library Masters on a Popular Medium. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004.

  Inge, M. Thomas. Comics as Culture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990.

  Jacobs, Will, and Gerard Jones. The Comic Book Heroes: From the Silver Age to the

  Present. New York: Crown, 1985. Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow. New York: Basic, 2004. Keefer, Truman Frederick. Philip Wylie. Boston: Twayne, 1977. Lowther, George. The Adventures of Superman. Bedford, Mass.: Applewood, 1995.

  Mamet, David. Some Freaks. New York: Penguin, 1989.

  McCabe, Joseph. “Speeding Bullets and Changing Lanes.” In Yeffeth, Man from Krypton, 161-74.

  McLuhan, Marshall. “From the Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man.”

  In Heer and Worcester, Arguing Comics, 102-6. Mietkiewicz, Henry. “When Superman Worked at the Star.” Toronto Star, April

  26, 1992. http://members.tripod.com/~davidschutz/superman3.html. Morris, Tom, and Matt Morris, eds. Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way. Chicago: Open Court, 2005. Morrow, Lance. “Society.” Time Annual 1992: The Year in Review, 134-35. New York: Time, 1993.

  Murray, Will. “Superman’s Editor, Mort Weisinger.” The Krypton Companion, ed. Michael Eury, 8-11. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows, 2006.

  Niven, Larry. “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.” In Yeffeth, Man from Krypton, 51-58.

  O’Neil, Dennis. “The Man of Steel and Me.” In Dooley and Engle, Superman at Fifty, 46-59.

  Rossen, Jake. Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2008.

  Schumer, Arlen. The Silver Age of Comic Book Art. Portland, Ore.: Collectors, 2003.

  Schwartz, Alvin. An Unlikely Prophet: Revelations on the Path Without Form. Denver: Divina, 1997.

  Schwartz, Julius. Man of Two Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction and Comics. New

  York: HarperEntertainment, 2000. Scivally, Bruce. Superman on Film, Television, Radio, and Broadway. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2008. Scott, A. O. “The Sun Rises, Again, in the West.” New York Times, June 11 2006.

  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04EED81431F932A25755C0A9609C8B63.

  Siegel, Jerry. “Superman’s Originator Puts ‘Curse’ on Superman Movie,” “The Victimization of Superman’s Originators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster …” Press release [October 1975]. Posted, with an introduction, as “Jerry Siegel’s 1975 Press Release” by Mike Catron at http://homepage.mac.com/mikecatron/.Pictures/SiegelPR1975wm.pdf.

  Steranko, James. The Steranko History of Comics. Reading, Pa.: Supergraphics, 1970.

  Sulcas, Roslyn. “Reflections on Baryshnikov’s Latest (Not Last) Legs.” New

  York Times, June 22 2007. http://www.newyorktimes.com/2007/06/22/arts/ dance/22hell.html?_r=I&pagewanted=print. Swan, Curt. “Drawing Superman.” In Dooley and Engle, Superman at Fifty, 37-45.

  Tollin, Anthony. Smithsonian Historical Performances: Superman on the Radio. Schiller Park, Ill.: Radio Spirits/Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.

  Trexler, Jeff. “Russell Keaton, Superman’s Fifth Beatle.” Newsarama.com, August 20, 2008. http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/08/20/russell-keaton-supermans-fifth-beatle/.

  Vance, James. “A Job for Superman.” Superman: The Dailies, 1939-1940, vol. 1, ed. Peter Poplaski, Dave Shriner, and Christopher Couch, 6-11. Northampton, Mass.: Kitchen Sink, 1998.

  ——. “Superman Goes Hollywood.” Superman: The Dailies, 1941-1942, vol. 3, ed. Peter Poplaski, Dave Shriner, and Christopher Couch, 7-14. Northampton, Mass.: Kitchen Sink, 1998.

  Voger, Mark. Hero Gets Girl: The Life and Art of Kurt
Schaffenberger. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows, 2003.

  Waid, Mark. Introduction to Superman in the Sixties, 6-9. New York: DC Comics, 1999.

  ——. “The Real Truth About Superman: And the Rest of Us Too.” In Morris and Morris, Superheroes and Philosophy, 3-10.

  Walker, Brian. The Comics Before 1945. New York: Abrams, 2004.

  Weisinger, Mort. “I Flew with Superman. Parade, October 23, 1977, 10, 12. Posted by Mike Catron at http://homepage.mac.com/mikecatron/.Pictures/Parade%20Weisinger/Weisinger-Parade-Superman0I.jpg, http://homepage.mac.com/mikecatron/.Pictures/Parade%20Weisinger/Weisinger-Parade-Superman02.jpg.

  White, Ted. “The Spawn of M. C. Gaines.” All in Color for a Dime, ed. Dick

  Lupoff and Don Thompson, 17-39. New York: Ace, 1970. Wooley, Lynn. “’Twixt Joe and Kurt: The Art of Wayne Boring and Stan

  Kaye.” Comic Book Marketplace, September-October 1998, 26-29. Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in

  America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Wylie, Philip. Gladiator. New York: Shakespeare, 1930. Yeffeth, Glenn, ed. The Man from Krypton. Dallas: Benbella, 2006. Yoe, Craig. Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster.

  New York: Abrams Comic Arts, 2009. Zeno, Eddy. Curt Swan: A Life in Comics. Lebanon, N.J.: Vanguard, 2002.

  Index

  Academy of Comic Book Arts

  Action Comics: Superman’s first appearance in; sales of; covers of; and Wheeler-Nicholson; and Liebowitz; and Supermen of America fan club; popularity of; and Superman narratives; Lex Luthor character in; and Swan; Supergirl in; and Showcase Presents Superman; and Weisinger; and Siegel

  Adams, Lee

  Adams, Neal

  Adult comic book readers

  Adventure Comics

  Adventure pulps

  The Adventures of Superman (children’s novel)

  The Adventures of Superman (comic books)

  The Adventures of Superman (radio show): and Collyer; and Maxwell; and Superman’s signature boilerplate; television scripts based on; and liberalism; serial broadcast of; writers of; and Superman’s flying

  The Adventures of Superman (television show): and MaxwellThe Adventures of Superman (cont.); scripts based on radio show; Lois Lane character in; premiere of; and Superman narratives; Perry White character in; ending of; writers for

  Affleck, Ben

  Alexander, Joan

  All-Star Superman (comic books)

  Alyn, Kirk

  American democracy, Superman synonymous with

  American exceptionalism

  Andrae, Thomas: on Shuster; on superman theme in science fiction; on Siegel; on Superman as law-abiding; on Superman as show-off Andrews, Harry Animation of Superman: and

  Warner Brothers cartoon series, and Fleischer brothers; Paramount Pictures rights to; and The New Adventures of Superman cartoonArchie Comics Arnaz, Desi Atlas, Charles The Atom Atom

  Atom Man vs. Superman

  Baby boomers Back in Circulation (film)

  Ball, Lucille

  Barks, Carl

  Baryshnikov, Mikhail

  Batman: as cultural touchstone; popularity of; and secret identity; and Detective Comics; and Wertham; and World’s Finest; and DC Comics; O’Neil on; and Robinson; and Superman; and Finger

  Batman (comic books)

  Batman Begins (film)

  Batman television series

  Beatty, Ned

  Beck, C. C.

  Beck, Jackson

  Bennett, Spencer Gordon

  Benton, Robert

  Bernbaum, Paul

  Bernstein, Robert

  Binder, Otto

  Bizarro World stories

  Bloch, Robert

  Blondell, Joan

  Blum, Geoffry

  Boltinoff, Murray

  Boring, Wayne Bracket, Leigh Bradbury, Ray

  Brainiac (character)

  Branch Davidians

  Brando, Marlon

  Brown, Nicky

  Brynner, Yul

  Buck Rogers (funny papers)

  Burroughs, Edgar Rice

  Burton, Tim

  Byrne, John

  Cabarga, Leslie

  Cage, Nicolas

  Cain, Dean,

  Cameron, Don

  Campbell, John W.

  Capra, Frank

  Captain Marvel

  Captain Marvel comic books

  Carlin, Mike

  Carr, Tommy

  Cartooning

  Cassidy, Jack

  Cassidy, Paul

  Catron, Mike

  Christian symbolism

  Citron, Sam

  Clinton, Bill

  Coates, Phyllis

  Coddington, Gary

  Colbert, Claudette

  Cold War

  Cole, Nat King

  Coleman, Jerry

  Collyer, Bud

  Columbia Pictures

  Comic books: and superheroes; history of; aesthetics of; Congressional investigation of; and science fiction; newspaper comic strips compared to; and Wheeler-Nicholson; sales of; and servicemen; romance comic books; true-crime and horror comic books; war comic books; juvenile delinquency linked with; Silver Age of; reading of; in popular culture; Golden Age of; and integrated continuity. See also names of specific comic books

  Comics Code of Authority

  Comic strips. See Newspaper comic strips

  Cooper, James Fenimore Coulter, Allen Crane, Roy

  Crippen, Tom Cronkite, Walter Curse of Superman, Curtiz, Michael

  Dadaism

  Daily Planet

  Daniels, Les Dark, Danny Dark Horse Comics Dark Knight Returns (Miller) Davis, Bette

  The Day the Earth Stood Still (film), DC Comics: and It’s Superman; and Death of Superman; superhero comics of; and Superman novel; and Superman ideal; and The Adventures of Superman television show; and Swan; Siegel’s return to; and Superman copyright; anthologies of; and Superman origin story; and Batman; cultural norms of; and Superman narratives. See also National Comics

  Death of Superman

  De Beck, Billy

  Detective Comics Dietrich, Bryan D. Dobrotka, Ed Donenfeld, Harry

  Donner, Richard

  Dorfman, Leo Double Indemnity (film) Douglas, Sarah Ducovny, Allen, Duin, Steve

  East, Jeff

  Eastern Color Printing Company Eco, Umberto, Eisner, Will

  Ellison, Ralph

  Ellsworth, Whitney

  Emmett, Jay Enright, Ray

  Famous Funnies, Series 1 Fantastic Four Farrell, Glenda Feiffer, Jules, Fetish magazines, Fielding, Richard (Robert Joffee

  Maxwell) Filmation Studios, Fine, Herbert S. (Jerry Siegel), Fine, Lou

  Finger, Bill Fingeroth, Danny, Flash Flash Flash Gordon Flash Gordon serial, Fleischer, Dave, 1 Fleischer, Max, Fleisher, Michael Ford, John Foreman, Richard Fortress of Solitude, Foster, Harold Fraser, George MacDonald Front Page Woman (film) Funnyman (comic strip), Funny papers. See Newspaper comic strips

  Gable, Clark

  Gaines, M. C. (Max)

  Gangster melodramas

  Gibbons, Dave

  Goldberg, Rube

  Gordon, Ian

  Goulart, Ron

  Gould, Chester

  Green Lantern

  Green Lantern

  Green Lantern/Green Arrow

  Grimes, Jack

  Grossman, Gary

  Hackman, Gene

  Hajdu, David

  Hamilton, Edmund

  Hamilton, John

  Hammett, Dashiell

  Hanna-Barbera

  Harding, Warren G.

  Harvey, R. C.

  Hatcher, Teri,

  Hawkman Hawks

  Howard Hecker’s Oats

  Hero pulps

  His Girl Friday (film)

  Hogarth, Burne

  Holiday, Bob,

  Hollywoodland (film)

  Howard, Trevor

  Humanism

  Human Torch


  Image Comics Incredible Hulk

  Infantino, Carmine Inge, M. Thomas Invaders from Mars (film) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (film) It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman (Broadway musical)

  It’s Superman! (De Haven)

  Jacobs, Will Jewish symbolism Jews

  Jimmy Olsen (comic books)

  Jones, Gerard: on Wheeler-Nicholson; on Wertham; on Weisinger; on Donenfeld; on Comics Code of Authority; on Kovacs; on Siegel; on Reeve

  Jor-El (Superman’s father)

  Justice

  Justice League of America

  Kal-El (Superman as infant and toddler) Kandor stories Kane, Bob

  Kara Zor-El (Superman’s teenaged cousin), Katzman, Sam Kaye, Stan Keaton, Russell, Keefer, Truman Frederick, Kellogg Company

  Kent, Clark (character): marriage to Lois Lane; and dual identity of Superman; naming of; relationship with Lois Lane; Lois Lane’s suspicions of Superman identity; based on Harold Lloyd; rejection from military service; Reeves’s portrayal of; Swan’s drawings of; and The New Adventures of Superman cartoon; adoptive parents ofn; occupation of; wardrobe of; in Superman: The Movie; midwestern youth of; and Byrne; Reeve’s portrayal of

  Kidder, Margot

  Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (film)

  King Comics

  Kirby, Jack

  Knight, Ted

  Korean War

  Kovacs, Joanne

  Kriegstein, Bernard

  Krypto (Superboy’s dog)

  Krypton: and Superman narratives; pathos of subtext; and family and kinship themes; Brainiac’s preservation of Kandor; Phantom Zone

  Krypton Nights (Dietrich)

  Kurtzman, Harvey

  La Guardia, Fiorello

  Lane, Lois (character): in Death of Superman; marriage to Clark Kent; and Siegel relationship with Clark Kent; as reporter; sarcasm of; in jeopardy; relationship with Superman; and Superman’s secret identity; Boring’s portrayal of; in The Adventures of Superman television show; Weisinger’s changes to; and The New Adventures of Superman cartoon; and Superman: The Movie; and Byrne; in Superman: Birthright

 

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