superman created by jerry siegel and joe shuster

Jerry Siegel, for instance, was enthralled by the science fiction pulp magazines that first appeared in the 1920s and was determined to become a writer within the genre himself. Unlike the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece and Rome, the superhero didn’t spring from a “shared collective consciousness” as espoused by mythologist Joseph Campbell but was instead a “conglomeration of various pieces of the cultural atmosphere.” While the tale is indeed tragic, Brad Ricca spends a considerable amount of time in Super Boys exploring the high school years of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and how the culture of the 1930s had a direct impact on the creation of Superman. Names would be forever attached to the Man of Steel.

Shuster were officially recognized for their feat and guaranteed that their It wasn’t until the lateġ970s and the pending release of the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie that Jerry Siegel and Joe In relative obscurity and on the edge of poverty. Within its pages, from how Siegel and Shuster were paid a mere $130 for theirĬreation, were shut out from receiving any additional royalties and then laterįired from publishing company DC Comics before spending the rest of their lives Another Cleveland native, Brad Ricca, thus decided to set the record straight with his thoroughly researched Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, originally published in 2013. There are as many myths surrounding the creation of Superman as there are superhero origin stories. Joe Shuster, a pair of twentysomethings from Cleveland, Ohio, who unknowinglyĬhanged the world with nothing more than their imagination. Just one person who brought the character to life but two – Jerry Siegel and We also often forget that somebody had to invent that first superhero and imbue within him the characteristics that have served as the blueprint for every superhero that has arrived on the scene since then.

The first superhero was Superman, for instance, and his appearance in Action Comics #1 occurred in June 1938, less than a century ago.

We have become so saturated by superheroes, however, that sometimes we forget that they have not always existed. We may not worship them in the same way as ourĪncestors, but they entertain and inspire us just like The Iliad and The Odysseyĭid for those born and raised millenniums ago. Mythology, the twenty-first century equivalent of the gods and goddesses fromĪncient Greece and Rome. Line the shelves at the local comic book store, dominate the movie box officeĪnd have made their way onto the small screen.

Superman created by jerry siegel and joe shuster