Superman: The Golden Age Sundays 1943–1946 (Superman Golden Age Sundays)

On Sunday, October the seventeenth, 1943 Colonel Flip Corkin was talking to Terry, a piece of writing so powerful that it was read into the Congressional Record in its entirety and is now immortalized as the 'Pilot's Creed'.Superman? He was playing Cupid to Mary Starr and Bob Martin, an episode ending with the less than immortal line: "If you think Superman isn't capable of striking a woman -- you'd better come along!"On Sunday, December the tenth, 1944 Val, "the light of madness" in his eyes, was drawing back the draperies in Aleta's throneroom, preparatory to carrying her away from her suitors.Superman? He was carrying Tony the barber ("I'da lika very moch to worka for the boys --") and Mamie the manicurist across the Pacific to 'G.I.s who want nothing more exciting than ***a good haircut***!'[And Mamie destroys a 'Nipponese fighter' by tossing a brick which, "just fer luck I brought along in my tray". Madness? Prince Valiant didn't know the half of it!]I would love to tell you what Alex Raymond, the third of the great trinity of Foster-Raymond-Caniff was doing with 'Flash Gordon' but I can't. (More on that later.)The point is that 'Superman' wasn't in the same ballpark as the other great strips in the Golden Age of the newspaper adventure comic strips. I wouldn't put it in my personal pantheon of 'Top Ten' strips'; frankly, it would struggle to crack even the 'Top Twenty'.But all that said I like this book quite a bit. Those other strips present heroic ideals -- what we would like to have been -- where this one is a mirror to society as it actually was. So, taken on its own terms -- a historical artefact, no more but no less -- this is like stepping into a time-machine.There is a casual racism and sexism that jars on a 21st century sensibility but is perfectly true to its time. The racism ends with the war, with a particularly cruel sequence that runs for three weeks in September 1945.The sexism, however, runs unabated. Superman is as good as his word -- and does put Lily Field across his knee to give her a spanking. And on April 14, 1946 he encourages Evad to give Arda, queen of Suprania, precisely the same treatment.Even Lois Lane is not quite the daredevil reporter but merely the 'heartthrob editor' of the 'Daily Planet'.But there is also the unprecedented social unity of the early years of the war, when people stand together to beat the foes that even Superman cannot touch, beating Gremlins with ration books and war bonds.On a more serious note, Superman teaches Sally Wilshire -- and the reading public at large -- the value of "the war's most unglamorous job", of the infantryman. The episode of Judy King talks of inter-service cooperation.And there are stray bits that remind us just how far removed from the world of the 1940s;" "'Djever see a Jeep?" a G.I. asks his dancing companion, to which she responds, "What's a Jeep -- a lady Jap?"This particular story ends with the most touching sequence of the book, when the commanding officer of the camp orders a captain to "let the sun set five minutes late tonight" for "when the bugler sounds Retreat it means the end of the ball for all our He-Cinderellas".Any volume issued under the Library of American Comics imprint is bound to have better than average production values, and this book does not disappoint. That said, I wish the digital retouching had been done with a stronger hand -- some of the panels display the dreaded publishing gremlins. (Take a look at the last panel of 11-18-1945 panel, where the reds of 'The Origin of Superman' are all over the place.)Speaking of colors, it is weird to see how casually DC Comics treated the now-famous telescoping Superman logo. On 12-5-1943 (Page 39), for instance, the familiar red and blue were dropped for a logo dressed in shades of green.Speaking of colors, take a look at the dust-jacket. When you spread it out, the inner left panel, the width of the cover, and the inner right panel offer the Superman trinity of red-white-blue. (A tip of the hat to Art Director Lorraine Turner and Editor Dean Mullaney for this tribute.)So, wny four stars rather than a full panoply of five?First, I really do think that the strip restoration could have cleaned up some of the murkier panels.Second, more irritatingly, this book does not reprint the earliest strips. The Superman Sundays began on 11-05-1939 but this book's first strip is dated 5-9-1943. (And *that* is why I can't compare it to any contemporary 'Flash Gordon' strip.)Dean Mullaney points out in a brief introductory note that the first 183 strips have already been published by Kitchen Sink and DC Comics. This is true but the same logic was not followed for the likes of 'Steve Canyon' and 'Li'l Abner', which too were originally Kitchen Sink publications. Of course, that first volume of Superman Sundays can be picked up easily enough but it is still irritating. (To me, anyhow, because I don't want to wait for seven or eight more volumes before the first strips are reprinted.)Recommended -- and waiting for the next volume to be announced.

I've seen just about every incarnation of Superman from the Golden Age up to Zack Snyder's Man of Steel but this has to be one of the strangest and quite frankly hardest to get through. The stories take place right in the midst of World War II and tackles the question of what Superman was doing during the war. The comic books simply avoided the topic almost entirely with Superman only occasionally fighting saboteurs and in one story fighting several countries that were surrogates for Japan and Germany. About the only real fighting Superman does are on the covers. The Sunday comics, by contrast, decided to take the issue head on which was likely a tragic mistake.Apparently an actual soldier in 1943 wrote a letter to Superman asking for help in getting time to see his family and girlfriend. So a grown man in the military was asking a fictional character for help but apparently the writers were tickled by this idea and wrote a story of Superman helping him out. Superman then requests more letters from G.I.'s and helping out real life soldiers becomes a running storyline. These problems that Superman addresses are things like checking to see if a soldier's girlfriend stateside is being faithful, getting soldiers a haircut and manicure, picking up some candy bars for a depressed private or helping a drunk soldier drive home. After six straight weeks of comics trying to help a women decide which branch of the military to join because she's dating a different man in each, Superman speaks a bit of unintentional humor that probably reflects the thoughts of the readers saying, "Judy, I'm getting a little sick of you" The Silver Age Superman was intentionally silly but the stories here cross the threshold into immature with talking birds, gremlins and a literal race against a baby toting stork.I assume National Publication's thinking was that this was their part in helping the war effort but this is the worst kind of ham handed propaganda. I understand that in 1943/44 emotions were running high but seeing Superman involved in such blatantly racist efforts to dehumanize the Japanese is not fun to read. Mark Waid who wrote the introduction even calls out the ugliness. If these were great or even good stories that were simply a product of their times I could forgive but they really aren't great. The stories make the enemies so miserably inept that it diminishes the sacrifices of the men and women of the military. On two different occasions U.S. soldiers are able to win fights outnumbered 150 to 1 with such ease that Superman doesn't even bother to assist, sitting back enjoying it all. In one 6 week story a desk soldier wants to fight on the front line calling it a "vacation". Superman drops the unarmed moron into the thick of enemy territory where he turns out to be inexplicably successful at killing the enemy and says to Superman, "I'm going to ENJOY this combat business...It's FUN and that's what I'm HERE for" This had to have been offensive to actual infantrymen who would have probably wanted nothing more than to be off the front lines. The whole thing makes Superman look bad because instead of actively using his super powers to defeat the enemy he's involved in nonsense like delivering cakes, silk pajamas and often times women to soldiers in combat areas. In one story Superman helps a military landing by wiping out all dangerous indigenous life on and around the island to help clear a path rather than just take out the enemy himself. The point is that Superman helps without taking an active role in fighting the enemy (generally) but the results are worse than if he'd simply done the work himself. The stories get a bit ugly when people perceived as not fully helping in the war effort are labelled as saboteurs,I've seen debates over whether it's better to clean up comic images or keep them pure to their original look. I prefer the cleaned up images since the original muddy appearance was due to printing limitations not a desire on the part of the creators. IDW decided to go with the original appearance which disappointed me somewhat. The pages are not sized to a newspaper page but I wouldn't want the book that enormous so I don't really have an issue with it. However with less than 170 pages of actual comics the price is a little steep. I applaud IDW for bringing this material back but they can only work with what they've got and these just are not great stories. I hate to steer people away from this collection because I greatly admire efforts to preserve lesser known comics. I have bought IDW collections in the past, have more on the way and have enjoyed the heck out of them even other Superman newspaper comics but I'd be lying as a reviewer if I said this collection was good.Let me close by ranting a bit on Amazon's shipping. I'm not deducting a star since it's not IDW's fault but the book was shipped in a cube shaped box and sat in it diagonally. There was one small plastic cushion that served no purpose so naturally the book came damaged with a torn dust cover and all the corners dented. I've had a lot of problems with collectible books coming damaged but this one takes the cake and the packaging was just laughable. I'm sending this one back because the damage is way beyond acceptable.

This well produced and most welcome volume of the Man of Steel's Sunday pages starts with strip number 184 as the previous strips were reprinted in a volume published by Kitchen Sink Press some years ago. The familiar Superman cast is present with the notable exception of Kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen and actually, Clark Kent who very much takes a back seat in most of these strips. Jimmy of course had pretty much disappeared from the comic books at this time and was only revived as a cast regular in the early 1950s. Another interesting feature is that Superman has his own office at the Daily Planet which he uses as a base to answer his post bag. Many of the war-time strips read as if they are public service announcements with Superman exhorting readers to buy war bonds, join the armed services, write letters to the troops and generally support the war effort. One sequence that is especially interesting concerns Superman's efforts to help a soldier who returns from the war suffering from shell-shock.The post war strips return to more traditional Superman stories including an origin sequence that is much expanded on the origin stories presented in Action Comics #1 and Superman # 1. An interesting point to note is that it is revealed that the planet Krypton exploded because it had a core comprised of uranium. This particular strip was published just a few weeks after the news broke that the United States had dropped atom bombs on Japan and as such, uranium was very much in the news. Following on from the origin sequence we are treated to a re-working of a story that was previously presented in Superman #1 whereby the Man of Tomorrow intervenes when a man is wrongly convicted of the murder of Jack Kennedy! Interestingly, the names of the protagonists in this story are all changed from those used in the original.I agree with other reviewers who note that the Superman strip is not in the class of the contemporary comic strip greats like Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, Flash Gordon, Buz Sawyer, Captain Easy, Dick Tracy and especially the wonderful Prince Valiant. Also, the reproduction here is fine without being top quality and in fact, I prefer this volume to the earlier Kitchen Sink release. Nevertheless this is a fine collection that reveals an important part of Superman's history and I would recommend it all students of comic strips, Superman and American social history.One final point to note is the casual racism and sexism that infect this strip throughout. The modern reader will find it disconcerting to see women being spanked as punishment for various misdemeanours and the depiction of the Japanese in particular now seems embarrassing.

I chose this rating because this is the first time these strips have been printed,and the strips are the type of Superman Comic Strips that I read as a boy,without monsters,aliens and Superman trips to other Planets.The book was far my Grandson who is a collector,but at 81 years of age,Superman will always be my favourite comic charachter

Perfect. Thank you.

I have always been a fan of the classic Superman, back before every superhero had to be part of a "shared universe". These are simple stories, but work quite well in the format. I tend to read my comic strip books as if they were coming out serially. So for example, I might limit myself to two "weeks" worth of strips in a sitting, to experience them in a similar way as a reader of the times, utilizing the original newspaper medium.

Questo eccezionale tomo della IDW (su licenza DC comics) presenta, per la prima volta in volume le tavole domenicali di Superman a partire dal 9 maggio 1943 fino al 4 agosto 1946, quando il personaggio era ancora sotto il controllo dei suoi creatori, Jerry Siegel e Joe Shuster, anche se i disegni sono opera di Jack Burnley (all'inizio) e, soprattutto, del grande Wayne Boring, che diverrà in seguito il disegnatore principe delle storie dell'uomo d'acciaio.Il volume copre il periodo clou della seconda guerra mondiale, dove il nostro eroe si limita a proteggere il suolo degli Stati Uniti da incursioni aeree da parte del Giappone, facendo a pezzi interi squadroni di aerei Giapponesi e distruggendo U-Bot tedeschi che minacciano navi alleati. Superman, in questo periodo non si fa alcuno scrupolo, se si tratta di uccidere qualcuno per il bene della sua patria adottiva lo fa tranquillamente, spesso con il sorriso sulle labbra. Il che mi porta ad alcune considerazioni. C'è stata quasi una sollevazione popolare quando nel film L'Uomo D'acciaio Superman spezza il collo ad uno dei suoi arci-nemici, il generale Zod, per salvare parecchie vite umane: "Superman non uccide!" Beh, cari signori, leggetevi questo volume e capirete due cose: primo non avete memoria storica, secondo questo è Superman così com'è stato concepito dai suoi creatori.Consigliatissimo e massimo dei voti!