Superman Artist of the 1950S and 1960S— Wayne Boring
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S $49.99 (Different in Canada) UPERMAN IN THIS VOLUME: More than 700 daily strips featuring artwork by the predominant Superman artist of the 1950s and 1960s— Wayne Boring. The twenty-two stories were scripted by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, adapting then-current—and now classic—comic book tales by Robert Bernstein, Otto Binder, Leo Dorfman, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, and himself. The covers are specially created by Pete Poplaski to evoke the look and artistic style of the times. Volume Two is an homage to Wayne Boring, and to Ira Schnapp, whose distinctive lettering defined DC’s style of the era. The Man of Steel’s newspaper adventures ran for EDITED AND DESIGNED BY more than twenty-five years, from 1939 until 1966, EISNER AWARD-WINNER DEAN MULLANEY yet only the first three years have ever been reprinted. INTRODUCTION BY SIDNEY FRIEDFERTIG THE The vast majority of the strips remain among the rarest of all collectibles. “When Superman comic book editor Mort Weisinger brought Jerry Siegel back to DC SILVER Superman • • • • • it meant coming full circle for Superman’s co-creator—from assembling his original strips AGE In a partnership between The Library of into a comic book story to transforming Superman comics into newspaper strips. The work American Comics and DC Comics, this second Superman was created in 1938 by two ambitious he produced upon his return was among the finest of his career. DAILIES volume of “The Silver Age” strips helps remedy Cleveland youngsters, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. “The re-publication of these strips spans a chasm in Siegel’s canon and is a welcome that gap in the Superman mythos as part of a Their defender of the oppressed became an enduring addition to a complete library of his work.” comprehensive archival program to bring back into smash sensation in comics, radio, animation, television, —from the Introduction by Sidney Friedfertig print every one of the Superman newspaper strips. and motion pictures. He remains the little guy's White The complete comics are being published in three Knight, battling terrestrial and extra-terrestrial menaces sub-sets, starting with The Silver Age (1960s), then while standing for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. The Atomic Age (1950s), and finally, The Golden Age (1940s). The black-and-white dailies and color Sundays contained distinct storylines and will be released in separate, concurrent, series. LibraryofAmericanComics.com • $49.99 SUPERMAN ® The Silver Age Dailies Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster SUPERMAN ® The Silver Age Dailies VOLUME TWO – 1961-1963 IDW PUBLISHING San Diego SUPERMAN: THE SILVER AGE DAILIES OTHER BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY OF VOLUME TWO: 1961 –1963 AMERICAN COMICS SCRIPTS BY JERRY SIEGEL BASED ON THE ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK STORIES BY ROBERT BERNSTEIN, OTTO BINDER, LEO DORFMAN, BILL FINGER, EDMOND HAMILTON, AND JERRY SIEGEL ARTWORK BY WAYNE BORING • LETTERING BY IRA SCHNAPP Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family. THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN COMICS EDITED AND DESIGNED BY Dean Mullaney • ART DIRECTOR Lorraine Turner ASSOCIATE EDITOR Bruce Canwell • INTRODUCTION Sidney Friedfertig COVERS Pete Poplaski • MARKETING DIRECTOR Beau Smith STRIP RESTORATION BY Dale Crain and Dean Mullaney IDW Publishing, a Division of Idea and Design Works, LLC 5080 Santa Fe Street, San Diego, CA 92109 www.idwpublishing.com • LibraryofAmericanComics.com Ted Adams, Chief Executive Officer/Publisher • Greg Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer/President Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist • Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer • Alan Payne, VP of Sales Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing • Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services ISBN: 978-1-61377-923-1 • First Printing, March, 2014 Distributed by Diamond Book Distributors 1-410-560-7100 Special thanks to Sid Friedfertig, who eagerly loaned his collection of clipped strips that is the primary source for this volume. He would like to dedicate this book… “This book is lovingly dedicated to my son David, who was favored with a wise head, a generous heart, and a kind nature; he is my strength, my conscience, my future.” We are also indebted to the following for their help, advice, and research: Giampiero Giovani for providing access to his months of syndicate proofs, Mark Waid, Mike Tiefenbacher, John Wells, Jared Bond, Martin O’Hearn, Jeffrey Lindenblatt, Eddy Zeno, Harry Matetsky, Hannah Friedfertig, Ricardo Nandin, Zygy Susser, Sara Schulman, Al Plastino, Heritage Auctions, Greg Goldstein, Scott Dunbier, Justin Eisinger, and Alonzo Simon. LibraryofAmericanComics.com © 2014 DC Comics. All rights reserved. SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics. The Library of American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American C omics LLC. All rights reserved. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the comic strips in this publication may be reprinted without the permission of DC Comics, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information and retrieval system, without permission in writing from DC Comics, Inc. Printed in Korea. Introduction by SIDNEY FRIEDFERTIG When Superman comic book editor Mort Weisinger brought Jerry Siegel back to DC in 1959 to script the Superman daily newspaper strip, it’s doubtful that even a man with Weisinger’s imagination could have envisioned the explosion of creativity over which he was about to preside. Reflecting on his career, the editor rightfully boasted that “my greatest contribution to Superman was to give him a ‘mythology.’” As the 1950s turned into the 1960s, the Superman mythos—with contributions by Weisinger, Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Otto Binder, Bill Finger, and others—expanded to include new concepts, such as Supergirl, Red Kryptonite, the Bottle City of Kandor, The Legion of Superheroes, Bizarro, Brainiac, the Phantom Zone, and Metallo, to name but a few. Despite Weisinger’s often cantankerous relationship with Siegel, he nonetheless recognized that Superman’s co-creator could supply what he—and DC—needed. “[Jerry] Siegel was the best emotional writer of them all,” Weisinger recalled shortly after his retirement. The classic “Superman’s Return to Krypton” (reprinted in Volume One of this series) remains one of the most touching stories of the era. The re-publication of these strips spans a chasm in Siegel’s canon and is a welcome addition to a complete library of his work. Siegel takes existing comic book stories that often use amnesia, impersonations, mistaken identities, and lookalikes to maintain coherence in sometimes convoluted plot twists—and makes them work more expansively in the format of a daily newspaper strip. He displays a deft sense of storytelling. Every strip episode is longer by panel count than its corresponding comic book version and Siegel steadily uses the additional length to add characterization and a deeper sense of story. In “The Man with the Zero Eyes,” for example, down-on-his-luck storekeeper Tom Dugan is a more sympathetic, thereby deserving, figure than in the 1957 comic book tale. In some stories, such as Siegel’s own “The Invisible Lois Lane,” he presents a straightforward adaptation in which the percentage of invisible-Lois panels is nearly identical between comic and strip. In other episodes, it’s fascinating to see how he makes changes. ABOVE: Cover to Superman #161 drawn by Curt Swan and George Klein Scripter Leo Dorfman’s “The Man Who Hunted Superboy” becomes “The Man Who Hunted featuring the comic book version of Superman” in the strip. Guest appearances by other costumed characters in the comic book stories are “Superman Goes to War.” written out of the strip. In the comic book version of “Superman Goes To War” by Edmond Hamilton, Clark Kent receives a battlefield transfusion from Supergirl; in the strip Superman finds his own solution. 5 The comic book edition of Hamilton’s “The Feud Between Superman and November 1960, whereupon Boring returned and remained the strip’s penciler Clark Kent” features Supergirl, Krypto, and the Bottle City of Kandor, all of until its demise in 1966. which disappear in Siegel’s newspaper remodeling. Adapting his own story, Boring’s depiction of Superman in the ’50s became the model for all “The Sweetheart Superman Forgot,” Siegel disposes of Aquaman’s timely artists who drew Superman afterward. Al Plastino remembered being told to rescue seen in the comic book; in the strip Kent saves himself from drowning. adapt his style to Boring’s. The Boring Superman has been called noble; it’s “The Sweetheart Superman Forgot” is one of several Red Kryptonite stories no coincidence that as a youngster the artist studied with J. Allen St. John, in this volume and it features the first appearance of star-crossed heroine Sally artist of the early “noble savage” Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Selwyn, who falls in love with an amnesiac, powerless Kent. The story was so The strips in this volume, reprinting the years 1961-1963, are Boring’s popular with fans that Siegel wrote a sequel, “The Man Who Stole Superman’s re-imaginings of stories penciled in the comics by Al Plastino, Curt Swan, Secret Life,” which appeared in both Superman #169 and as Episode #146 of George Papp, and Kurt Schaffenberger. As noted in Volume One of this series, the newspaper strip (to be reprinted in the next volume of this series). the comic book and newspaper strip versions were often drawn simultaneously, Siegel was a lifelong reader of adventure comic strips (he had, after all, neither artist being aware of how the other approached the script. Three initially pitched “Superman” to newspaper syndicates), and knew how to work episodes are stories Boring drew in both the newspapers and the comics.