Tales of Syzpense #75

Happy Superman Day!

Happy Superman Day!

Today is the annual celebration of Superman Day, and it’s as good a reason as any to share this — I attended my first convention as a kid, basically just tagging along with my older brother, who even in his pre-teens was a big comic collector, and his interest soon became my interest and passion.

But at the time, I had no idea that the older gent who was scribbling a note for me on my con program was, as he signed, “the artist/creator of Superman.” Just look at that printing, and that signature. A work of art with just text alone.

Of course, dumb little kid that I was, I spent the latter part of the afternoon scribbling glasses, beards, and buck teeth on all the actors’ photos. When I found this program in a box years later, and realized then the importance of the person who signed it for me, I did my best to erase the scribblings and preserve it properly. Doctor McCoy’s face might now be a little worse for wear but otherwise, it’s still pretty clean. I’m not really an autograph guy but this one is about as special as it gets.

Anyway, Happy Superman Day to all who celebrate.

Ironically, I was never really a Superman reader as a kid. That was the one title my dad liked, and so that immediately marked is as something too musty for me. Then again, this book was one of those treasured books from childhood, one I read and re-read constantly. (So it was great when I connected with editor Linda Sunshine on the deluxe reissue of Marvel’s Origins of Marvel Comics book, since she worked on this Superman book prior to joining Simon & Schuster).

So between this massive tome and the few Superman prose novels that were released around the time of the first Christopher Reeve film, maybe I was a Superman reader, albeit not of the monthly comics. Not until the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era, anyway, at which time I was all in on the Superman relaunch, Action Comics, Superman: The Man of Steel, Web of Superman, and so on.

So, thanks to those two Cleveland-based teenagers, Joe Shuster and his partner Jerry Siegel, for bringing Superman into the world, and to Joe for welcoming me to the world of comics way back when, too.