Superman Archives, Vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel

And as the character skyrocketed in popularity, small changes moved through the strip, bringing what could be called a proto-Superman more into the version so many of us know today. When, by luck and by chance they were rescued from the slush pile, history was changed. Siegel the writer and Shuster the artist created and recreated their Superman many times over the years, hoping to eventually make it into a newspaper strip, which at the time was considered the prized destination for all truly great comic strips. Starting with The Superman Chronicles Volume One, than moving onto Superman Archives Volume One and Two, followed with Superman: The Dailies 1939-1942 and Superman: The Sunday Classics 1939-1943, I consumed the lion share of those early years. A journey to the beginning of it all, just to get a feel for the unknown decades to come. With the celebrations and festivities filling the Geek world this year for the 75th birthday of Superman, I decided some time ago to finally read my accumulation of Golden Age volumes featuring the Man Of Steel. In 1938, the first adventure of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation Superman saw print.Īnd made us all believe a man could leap tall buildings in a single bound. Though clunky by today's standards, these stories retain a crude power, and it's enlightening to see comic book history in the making. There's some repetition of story elements and themes, as well a surprising disregard for human life on Superman’s part-not that this was unusual in the early days of comics.

We do get the very first Superman story (reprinted from Action Comics) as well as the first two appearances of the original redheaded Luthor. Most of the stories here are fairly forgettable, notable more for their historic significance than their actual content. The truth is that Joe Shuster wasn't fast enough to produce the volume of artwork that Superman’s runaway success was causing DC to demand from the duo, so he and Siegel quickly set up their own studio to keep up. I did notice how the one story made extensive use of Benday tones. Jim Steranko, in his afterword, talks more knowledgeably about variations in art from story to story than I ever could. It's hardly surprising that story tropes were borrowed from comic strips and pulp magazines since that's all that was really known at the time. Even the idea of comic books that weren't simply reprints of newspaper strips was new at the time. While the story and art may seem crude by today's standards, these people were literally inventing superhero comics from the ground up.

Superman Archives, Vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel