Our Hero
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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.
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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