![]() Though clunky by today's standards, these stories retain a crude power, and it's enlightening to see comic book history in the making. There's some repetition of story elements and themes, as well a surprising disregard for human life on Superman’s part-not that this was unusual in the early days of comics. We do get the very first Superman story (reprinted from Action Comics) as well as the first two appearances of the original redheaded Luthor. Most of the stories here are fairly forgettable, notable more for their historic significance than their actual content. ![]() The truth is that Joe Shuster wasn't fast enough to produce the volume of artwork that Superman’s runaway success was causing DC to demand from the duo, so he and Siegel quickly set up their own studio to keep up. I did notice how the one story made extensive use of Benday tones. Jim Steranko, in his afterword, talks more knowledgeably about variations in art from story to story than I ever could. ![]() It's hardly surprising that story tropes were borrowed from comic strips and pulp magazines since that's all that was really known at the time. ![]() Even the idea of comic books that weren't simply reprints of newspaper strips was new at the time. While the story and art may seem crude by today's standards, these people were literally inventing superhero comics from the ground up. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |