Amazing World Of Superman!

It's Superman's birthday. And the Dojo wraps up a week-long celebration of the Man of Steel with a look a real bit of offbeat memorabilia, a tome titled Amazing World of Superman. Originally published in 1973 to celebrate Superman Day in the little city of Metropolis, Illinois, this oversized tabloid-size tome is a wonderful collection of all sorts of Superman stories, images, and whatnots. 

The volume opens with "Superman in Superman Land", a story by writer Bill Finger and artists Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye. Originally appearing in Action Comics #210 from 1955 this yarn imagines a theme park dedicated to the "Man of the Tomorrow". We get lots of offbeat glimpses of this imaginary park before we are introduced to a mysterious character who turns out to be Lex Luthor (no surprise). He's concocted a scheme to incapacitate the "Man of Steel" with the ubiquitous Kryptonite and trap him inside a mock-up of Krypton, one meant to be exploded. It will surprise no one that the scheme fails. 

This if followed by a "How to Draw Superman" page by Curt Swan as well as page introducing us to the extended Superman family. Then there is a wonderful ten-page article detailing how comic books are conceived and manufactured. It's a nifty item because it's loaded with photos of the staff of DC at the time. 

Then we are treated to a brand new (then) "The Origin of Superman" written by E. Nelson Bridwell, and drawn by Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. This is a delightful fifteen-page black and white presentation which hits all the highlights right through Clark leaving his foster parents in Smallville and taking up his career in Metropolis. There is a particularly touching scene with Clark and his dying foster father. 

Then a special detached fold-out poster showcases a "Map of Krypton" in amazing colorful detail. This map was rendered by E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Sal Amendola. Then we get a page showing how Superman made it big in syndicated comic strips. 

"Metropolis, Illinois - Story of an American City" presents copious features and images from the celebration for the inaugural "Superman Day". We get a lot of backstory about how this event came to be with photos of a guy named Charles Chandler dressed as Superman making appearances in sundry places like the TV show To Tell the Truth. 

"The Superman Legend - Rogues' Gallery" has more art by Murphy Anderson and writing by Bridwell as we meet some of the best villains such as the aforementioned Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Parasite, Toyman, and others such as the Phantom Zone villains. "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress" takes us inside the Fortress of Solitude as drawn by "Swanderson". 

(Al Hirschfield)

"It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" is all about the Broadway show which debuted in 1966. We get some nifty photos from that singular show. "Superman Salutes Nasa" is about Superman's connection to the OAO -2 (Orbital Astronomical Observatory). "Important Dates in Superman's Life" is a one-page item which hits the highlights from Superman's publishing history in comics, novels and appearances in other media. Sadly, and frankly strangely, I found no references to either the utterly wonderful Fleischer cartoons of the 40's nor to the pretty darn good Filmation cartoons of the 60's here or any other place it the book. 

We get two pages from "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy" which was marred when it first appeared by the tragic assassination of the thirty-fifth president of the United States. The story was published at the request of both President Johnson and the Kennedy clan. 

"The Superman Legend" returns with a look at Superboy's hideout beneath the Kent home and info on his costume written by Bridwell with art by Bob Brown, Wally Wood and Mike Exposito. (This was presented in black and white.)

The book closes with a photo album of sorts which features George Reeves, Kirk Allyn, and others from Superman's film and TV adventures. The final image is a full-page poster shot of Superman by Curt Swan and George Klein (in black and white).

This wonderful time capsule was reprinted by DC in a hand hardcover format in 2021. At a mere twenty bucks it was a bargain then and now. Happy Birthday to the Man of Steel. Now it's time to enjoy some of that vintage George Reeves taking on those little creepy Mole Men on my TV. 

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The Death Of Superman!

Superheroes dies so commonly in modern comics that the shtick has lost its potency. Everyone dies, only to be be reborn, revived, or revised, or all three. When Bucky Barnes returned at the Winter Soldier, the notion that a comic book character could die for all time died with his revival. One of the most famous superhero sagas ever was the death of Superman from the 90's. So a humble one-issue story by Jerry Seigel, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye titled "The Death of Superman!" has little power today. But in the Silver Age maybe it might still carry some weight, although as an "Imaginary Novel" its impact is limited of course.

Not this death -- an earlier one.

The story begins with the reformation of Lex Luthor who appears to change his ways when thanks to a novel meteor mineral finds a cure for cancer. His cure finds him a release from prison and his continued need for help from the attempts on his life by his former criminal allies makes Superman believer he's truly a new man. Not so much it turns out as all of it was merely one more Luthor scheme to make Superman drop his guard and before you know it Lex exposes the Man of Steel to lethal amounts of Kryptonite which end his life. All this before the eyes of his friends Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. Superman's funeral is a lavish affair and is attended by all manner of men, aliens, and even a few Legionnaires from the future. Even Krypto sheds a tear. But one person who attends is Superman's secret weapon, Supergirl. She takes it upon herself to bring Luthor to justice and he is duly caught and tried for his crimes. The story ends with Supergirl taking up the mantle of hero joined by Krypto.

I liked this one a lot, but mostly because it vindicated Superman's scheme to hold Supergirl back as a secret reserve. She proved to be the unknowable element which Luthor could not account for and proved herself to be a worthy successor to her cousin. Seeing Supergirl as Earth's one and only Kryptonian defender (aside from the dog of course) at the story's end was a mighty satisfying sight, even if it was only for this one-shot imaginary tale.  That's the kind of emotional punch these kinds of offbeat yarns were created for.

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Giant Turtle Man Returns!

Showcase Presents Superman Family Volume 4 was on the stands this past week. DC's Showcase packages are wonderfully cheap time machines to an era when comics were not taken particularly seriously, even by the mostly men who manufactured them. But there was an effervescent sense of fun which did seem to permeate some of the comics of the day, Jimmy Olsen no less among them. "Superman's Pal" might be one of the greatest creations in all of comics, a red-haired ball of enthusiasm who races into trouble and in the pages of his own comic often assumed many roles, some chosen some not.

The role of "Giant Turtle Man" was not one Jimmy chose, but it did give us this iconic cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye. The enormous bright green scaly and rather destructive Jimmy is delightful as are his Fin Fang Foom-approved giant purple shorts. It's too bad the cover design of the reprint pretty much cuts off the little tug boat chugging along at Giant Turtle Man's knees, it adds a special something to the image.

The cover was famously inspired by (swiped from) this ancient Thrilling Wonder Stories pulp magazine from 1940. I actually own a copy of this pulp, finding it in some dusty bookstore somewhere ages ago and rescuing it because of its connection to the utterly fabulous Jimmy cover.

Giant Turtle Man went on to have one more appearance, as part of a gang of Jimmy's altered identities who confront him on "The World of Doomed Olsens!". But then no more.

Unless you count the reprints of those two Giant Turtle Man stories, which is where I first encountered this most memorable of Jimmy Olsen variations.

Giant Turtle Man makes a showing in the recent Countdown series, but seems not to made too good of an impression. I didn't follow this series, but reports are not great.

Nonetheless we still have the original Giant Turtle Man stories, and those they can never take away.

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Superman Family Ties!

Seems like members of the Superman Family are often finding themselves all tied up. Whether it's like Jimmy Olsen, brought under control and lashed to his office charir by a legion of tiny Supermen.

Or perhaps a lovely sun-bathing Lois Lane likewise hogtied by a nefarious micro-Justice League.

The Man of Steel himself runs across tiny green alien opponents from the depths of space who want to tie him down. 

Supergirl herself gets tied up in her daily work too from time to time.

And here's Lois again along with some of her girlfriends, all of them bound and in one case gagged.

Speaking of Lois, she can on occasion be the cause of Superman finding himself hung out to dry.

But the Superman doesn't really need all that much help finding folks who want to lasso him for no good reason at all.

Sometimes he can be strung up and humiliated.

In preparation for a worse fate to come.

But through it all, until fairly recent times, there was one tie that Superman refused to bind, though many a DC comic over the decades made it seem that he and Lois had indeed tied that very special knot.

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