Another big find surfaces in Siegel / Superman copyright docs

[markseifert]

Siegel and KEATON's 1934 Superman strip -- art and -script. (pdf)

[G.A.tor]

[thedude]

very cool reading, thanks for posting. (thumbs u

[Jayman]

Sam and Molly Kent?

Interesting read with a Futute Earth replacing Krypton and Time travel instead of Space travel.

[mmastran]

I'm reading Gerald Jones "Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gansters and the birth of the comic book" and in it the author talks about Siegel and mentions that he grew up on Kimberley Ave in Cleveland and how he spent days/nights in his attic bedroom writing stories about Superman. There was also a few paragraphs mentioning that Siegel tried to find another artist to draw Superman

 

Out of curiosity, I went to maps.google.com and punched in that address at the top of the document and lo and behold, there are actually pictures of the current street view. It looks fairly run down now but I can't help but wonder what the inside of that house looks like now and what stories it could tell.

 

[Gary Dunaier-migration]

You'd never in a million years think this stuff was still around!

 

Although we should be grateful this exists in any form, I wonder if it's possible for someone to somehow "clean up" the strips and make them more legible.

[Theagenes]

Wow - that is very cool! There was a discussion about this version of Superman with Keaton art in BZ's thread not too long ago. Keaton was a ghost artist on the Buck Rogers strip.

 

 

[BangZoom]

 

I posted this info a few months ago but it's relevant to the current discussion.

 

The neighborhood where Jerry Siegel lived when he created Superman probably hasn't

changed much since he lived there 70 years ago.

 

Take a look at his house.

 

Google Maps

 

Enter: 10668 kimberly ave, cleveland, oh in the Search Maps function.

 

Click on "Street View."

 

 

 

Jerry's home address was actually 10622 Kimberly Ave, but the wrong house is shown if you enter the correct address.

[BangZoom]

 

For those who missed it when I posted it earlier.

 

In a 1940 science fiction fanzine, Julius Schwartz shared with the readers some of his private correspondence.

 

Note the 1933 letter from Siegel to Schwartz.

 

 

 

[dem1138]

What a phenomenal read! This original version of Superman sets a much darker tone than what appeared in 1938. I wish we could have seen what his costume was going to look like! Interestingly, the boots are already there, and young Clark has a circle on his chest. However, all of the elements are already there -- fighting for justice, super strenght, etc. Interesting that in this version, Clark travels back in time. I wonder what that note said that the Kents found in his ship?!?

[BangZoom]

Siegel and KEATON's 1934 Superman strip

 

Thanks for the link.

 

Last month BR mentioned that the strips may have survived and that Kitchen Sink supposedly has a whole book ready of Keaton/Siegel collaborations.

 

I emailed the publisher but I never received a response when I asked them about that possibility.

[buttock]

Wow. Just Wow. That's awesome.

[VintageComics]

WOW is right. That is just an incredible find!

 

[HOTFLIPS]

That is pretty amazing stuff.

[Miraclo]

Big thanks for posting this. What an amazing find

[conditionfreak]

I posted this info a few months ago but it's relevant to the current discussion.

 

The neighborhood where Jerry Siegel lived when he created Superman probably hasn't

changed much since he lived there 70 years ago.

 

Take a look at his house.

 

Google Maps

 

Enter: 10668 kimberly ave, cleveland, oh in the Search Maps function.

 

Click on "Street View."

 

 

 

Jerry's home address was actually 10622 Kimberly Ave, but the wrong house is shown if you enter the correct address.

 

Know what pizzes me off. I worked as a cop in this area and never knew that this was "the house". I can tellyou this. The neighborhood is very run down now and is considered not a good place to live. Houses go for about 30 grand or maybe a little more or a lot less.

 

Darn, I wish I knew this then. I could have talked the current residents into letting me take some pics and maybe, just maybe, "look" around in the nooks and crannies of the attic and such. I might have found a crumbled piece of paper that was history.

 

[Sardo Numspar]

This is really awesome - thank you for posting!!!

[Aman619]

that is very cool!

 

was this entered as evidence by the Siegels? Any ideas on what purpose it was meant to serve in the case? Did DC ever see these pages, or just the later version by Shuster? And if not, would this have any bearing on the recent decision that marks only Action 1 and only its content to be in contention now?

 

 

[the blob]

those houses don't look so run down. actually, they look a lot like the houses in my neighborhood and they'd be pushing $1 million here, $1.1-$1.4 with some good interior renovations.

[markseifert]

was this entered as evidence by the Siegels? Any ideas on what purpose it was meant to serve in the case? Did DC ever see these pages, or just the later version by Shuster? And if not, would this have any bearing on the recent decision that marks only Action 1 and only its content to be in contention now?

 

Here's a bit of additional background on this document.

 

The author of that Newsarama post runs the site where the material is hosted. He also posted some Siegel/DC correspondence that has come to light as part of the copyright situation also -- and which stirred up some controversy around the net a couple weeks ago.

 

Absolutely must-read stuff if you haven't seen it. Here's a couple brief excerpts of Trexler's commentary on the docs, but you should really go read his whole post as well.

 

Even apart from the gender issues there's a lot of amazing stuff here--the recurring savage criticism of Joe Shuster's art; an early critique of Wayne Boring as an artist unsuitable for Superman...

 

Yet it is the sex stuff that really stands out, providing a rare insiders' perspective on the comics writing culture of the past. One of the true highlights of the newly released correspondence is the black-and-white sketch of Lois Lane included in this post. The artist was Siegel's and Shuster's editor, Whitney Ellsworth, who was attempting to get the duo to make Lois Lane less curvaceous.

 

These docs are an amazing insider look at a key time and place in the industry.