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Superman : Golden Age Sunday Pages #1
Superman: The Golden Age Sunday Pages 1943-1946
Edited and designed by Dean Mullaney with an Introduction by Mark Waid, the first book in IDW's The Library of American Comics' Superman Sundays series collects 170 sequential Sunday pages that have never been reprinted. These classic comics, beginning May 9, 1943 and continuing through August 4, 1946, fill another major gap in the Superman mythos. In a partnership between IDW's The Library of American Comics and DC Entertainment, this volume begins a comprehensive archival program to bring back into print every one of the Superman Sunday newspaper strips. The complete comics will be published in three sub-sets, The Golden Age (1940s), The Atomic Age (1950s), and The Silver Age (1960s). The color Sundays and black-and-white dailies contained distinct storylines and will be released in separate, concurrent, series.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published December 17, 2013
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33 people want to read
About the author
Wayne Boring
183 books4 followersWayne Boring was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonym Jack Harmon.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 22, 2020
The ‘Superman Sunday’ pages were written and drawn during World War II and that’s important to remember. One of the most perceptive comments about that war I ever read was made by Len Deighton, the British thriller writer, who also dabbled in history. He pointed out that during the war we didn’t know we were going to win. Certainly, from a British point of view, it looked as if we were certain to lose at one point, about to be over-run by a truly evil regime. When you realise that, it gives the whole thing a very different perspective from the heroic nostalgia of retrospection. At the time, people were terrified.
Maybe not so much in the United States, where Superman hangs his cape, but even Americans were under threat and their especially perceived menace, as this book demonstrates, from the Japanese. There is a lot of nasty stuff in here about the ‘Japs’ and much of the content, both words and pictures, is overtly racist. This has to be put in context but there’s a warning about it in the introduction by Mark Waid to ‘readers of Asian descent and/or nervous dispositions and/or a speck of human decency’. There is irony in two Jewish comic creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, producing such stuff at the time of the Third Reich. Just goes to show we all have our blind spots, especially when in danger.
The approach to Hitler and his henchmen, on the other hand, is almost jovial. In one set of strips, Superman goes to meet the leaders of the Third Reich – ‘the nasty nabobs of Nazism’ – whereupon those ‘supermen’ of the master race dress up in Superman costumes and assure him they all belong on the same side! Cartoons of Goering, Goebbels, Himmler and Hitler in super-hero costume are quite amusing sixty years on. Poking fun at the big bad menace is also a way of bringing it down to size.
But, you may ask, why didn’t Superman just go out there and thrash the enemy himself? This issue obviously had to be sidestepped. Clark Kent avoided the draft by a genuine error. He was reading an eye chart but was so keyed up with anticipation to enlist that he inadvertently used his x-ray vision and read the chart in the next room! He failed the test. Superman, meanwhile, generally opined that American men and women could easily win the war without his help. It would have been ‘presumptuous’ for him to intervene. Of course, he does intervene all over the place. That’s what the strips are about
Clark Kent does a column following the exploits of Dave Cooper, a model Army Air Corps Cadet. Nazi spies led by ‘Eyeglasses’ are out for a propaganda coup by discrediting Dave. Happily, Superman is always on hand to save the young chap. Eyeglasses vows that Superman’s interference ‘shall not deter me from my avowed determination to link misfortune and dishonour to the name of David Cooper’. He has a pretty nifty vocabulary for a newspaper cartoon villain.
Too many of the stories are about ‘Superman’s service for servicemen’ whereby, in response to sack loads of mail, our hero does favours for the fighting forces. One chap is worried that some bloke is after his girl back home. A girl has a similar problem when a ‘mutual friend’ tells her that her man prefers someone else. The ‘friend’ is Lily Field. ‘She toils not, neither does she spin.’ Clever scripting again. Superman spanks her! He couldn’t have done that under the Comics Code Authority. What with Wonder Woman tying everyone up and him spanking, super-heroes were a pretty frisky bunch back in the 1940s. On the more positive side for feminists, there is loads of praise for women’s contribution to the war both in the services and back home.
There’s quite a lot of front line action. A desk-bound officer in Washington DC requests that Superman take him to Asia for a weekend so he can get involved for real. Several ‘Japs’ are duly bashed about. However, this portrayal of the fighting as a bit of a lark where the enemy was far inferior to the mighty American male and easily dispatched might not have been so pleasing to those actually on the front line, where things were pretty damn tough. I suppose they took it as a joke.
When the war is finally over, there’s a reprisal of Superman’s origin. The story is familiar but I noted that Ma and Pa Kent are quite elderly and not so glamorous as in later incarnations, especially on television. Pa is a bald, bespectacled little man who wears a derby hat. There’s a gangster yarn in which Clark Kent gets his job on the Daily Planet, then an adventure on the planet Suprania in which another lady gets spanked! Not by Superman this time but he is encouraging the fellow who does it. After the beating. Queen Arda says that the spanker is ‘strong and masterful’ and she may marry him. Ah, the good old days. Next is a story set in a circus but the war is the main thing here.
It’s worth mentioning that the scripting is often witty and the art is quite charming in its own cartoonish way. Each strip takes one page and there are usually about eleven panels, all rectangular. Within these limitations, the lads do a good job of storytelling. Which lads, though? As with many early comic strips, it is difficult to know who actually did the work. The credits on this edition say ‘Scripts by Jerry Siegel and DC Comics’ and ‘Artwork by Wayne Boring and Jack Burnley’. The introduction to this magnificent volume mentions ‘Siegel, Shuster and their assistants’ struggling to meet the demand for strips. I will leave the question of who did what to those many pundits on the net. Whoever did it, they are well-served by this large, beautiful bound volume in glorious colour. No squinting at tiny lettering or little pictures with this production.
The book would probably not be on the average fan’s must-have list. It is what it is: dated one-page comic strips written for a particular moment in history. I found it interesting and not nearly as awful to read as I thought it might be at first glance. Superman aficionados should snap it up and collecting these historical items into this well-produced volume is good work by the publisher.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
Maybe not so much in the United States, where Superman hangs his cape, but even Americans were under threat and their especially perceived menace, as this book demonstrates, from the Japanese. There is a lot of nasty stuff in here about the ‘Japs’ and much of the content, both words and pictures, is overtly racist. This has to be put in context but there’s a warning about it in the introduction by Mark Waid to ‘readers of Asian descent and/or nervous dispositions and/or a speck of human decency’. There is irony in two Jewish comic creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, producing such stuff at the time of the Third Reich. Just goes to show we all have our blind spots, especially when in danger.
The approach to Hitler and his henchmen, on the other hand, is almost jovial. In one set of strips, Superman goes to meet the leaders of the Third Reich – ‘the nasty nabobs of Nazism’ – whereupon those ‘supermen’ of the master race dress up in Superman costumes and assure him they all belong on the same side! Cartoons of Goering, Goebbels, Himmler and Hitler in super-hero costume are quite amusing sixty years on. Poking fun at the big bad menace is also a way of bringing it down to size.
But, you may ask, why didn’t Superman just go out there and thrash the enemy himself? This issue obviously had to be sidestepped. Clark Kent avoided the draft by a genuine error. He was reading an eye chart but was so keyed up with anticipation to enlist that he inadvertently used his x-ray vision and read the chart in the next room! He failed the test. Superman, meanwhile, generally opined that American men and women could easily win the war without his help. It would have been ‘presumptuous’ for him to intervene. Of course, he does intervene all over the place. That’s what the strips are about
Clark Kent does a column following the exploits of Dave Cooper, a model Army Air Corps Cadet. Nazi spies led by ‘Eyeglasses’ are out for a propaganda coup by discrediting Dave. Happily, Superman is always on hand to save the young chap. Eyeglasses vows that Superman’s interference ‘shall not deter me from my avowed determination to link misfortune and dishonour to the name of David Cooper’. He has a pretty nifty vocabulary for a newspaper cartoon villain.
Too many of the stories are about ‘Superman’s service for servicemen’ whereby, in response to sack loads of mail, our hero does favours for the fighting forces. One chap is worried that some bloke is after his girl back home. A girl has a similar problem when a ‘mutual friend’ tells her that her man prefers someone else. The ‘friend’ is Lily Field. ‘She toils not, neither does she spin.’ Clever scripting again. Superman spanks her! He couldn’t have done that under the Comics Code Authority. What with Wonder Woman tying everyone up and him spanking, super-heroes were a pretty frisky bunch back in the 1940s. On the more positive side for feminists, there is loads of praise for women’s contribution to the war both in the services and back home.
There’s quite a lot of front line action. A desk-bound officer in Washington DC requests that Superman take him to Asia for a weekend so he can get involved for real. Several ‘Japs’ are duly bashed about. However, this portrayal of the fighting as a bit of a lark where the enemy was far inferior to the mighty American male and easily dispatched might not have been so pleasing to those actually on the front line, where things were pretty damn tough. I suppose they took it as a joke.
When the war is finally over, there’s a reprisal of Superman’s origin. The story is familiar but I noted that Ma and Pa Kent are quite elderly and not so glamorous as in later incarnations, especially on television. Pa is a bald, bespectacled little man who wears a derby hat. There’s a gangster yarn in which Clark Kent gets his job on the Daily Planet, then an adventure on the planet Suprania in which another lady gets spanked! Not by Superman this time but he is encouraging the fellow who does it. After the beating. Queen Arda says that the spanker is ‘strong and masterful’ and she may marry him. Ah, the good old days. Next is a story set in a circus but the war is the main thing here.
It’s worth mentioning that the scripting is often witty and the art is quite charming in its own cartoonish way. Each strip takes one page and there are usually about eleven panels, all rectangular. Within these limitations, the lads do a good job of storytelling. Which lads, though? As with many early comic strips, it is difficult to know who actually did the work. The credits on this edition say ‘Scripts by Jerry Siegel and DC Comics’ and ‘Artwork by Wayne Boring and Jack Burnley’. The introduction to this magnificent volume mentions ‘Siegel, Shuster and their assistants’ struggling to meet the demand for strips. I will leave the question of who did what to those many pundits on the net. Whoever did it, they are well-served by this large, beautiful bound volume in glorious colour. No squinting at tiny lettering or little pictures with this production.
The book would probably not be on the average fan’s must-have list. It is what it is: dated one-page comic strips written for a particular moment in history. I found it interesting and not nearly as awful to read as I thought it might be at first glance. Superman aficionados should snap it up and collecting these historical items into this well-produced volume is good work by the publisher.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
January 9, 2017
Superman's "Service for Servicemen" is the dominating theme of the book, as we find Superman doing various favors for U.S. servicemen and women in World War II - bringing a soldier home to see family during a short leave or home for the birth of a child (there's always some complication - nothing's ever that simple in Superman's life) or outlandishly goofy stuff like a woman who has four boyfriends, one in each branch of the service, and each one will cut her entirely out of his life if she doesn't join the women's auxiliary version of their service. Oy. The artwork and reproduction are very nice. The stories have some charm and verve, so long as you can look past the egregious sexism and racism of the era.
December 31, 2024
I’ve had this for a long time and decided to read it before I changed my mind. Most of the stories are ok. They did full color reprints from Sunday’s z
January 21, 2015
This book collects the Sunday Newspaper strips for Superman from May 1943-June 1946, which includes the most critical periods of the War. Superman couldn't just fly over to Europe or Japan and resolve the War as the character would be capable. Rather, in this book Superman does his "service for Soldiers" as he takes mail from soldiers, sailors, their friends, and sweethearts.
This period of time the comics felt a lot more like traditional funnies stories with a lot more humor, particularly as Superman is forced to resolve several wartime romance issues and he also takes up an office at the Daily Planet.
The book does a great job explaining the many roles people took on to help the war effort. It also has some moving moments, most notably when Superman helps the family of a veteran with Combat Fatigue understand him and support him. It's the most heartfelt moment in a book full of them, as these strips are patriotic and take us back in time. Superman doesn't fight the Nazis or Axis but tries to give a little comfort and happiness to those who did.
The War comics do feature a few stories of some very unpleasant caricatures of the Japanese in particular. As Mark Waid says in the introduction, the writers realized they'd gone too far soon after the War ended and you can see that here in a few strips.
After the war, the strip reran Superman's origin stories as if an attempt to reset and levelset the character as they transitioned back into more typical Superman stories beginning with one series on a rocketship to outer space and the other with Superman helping a sad clown in the circus win the heart of a girl by completing fetes of daring do.
Overall, the book is a lot of fun with nice art, some heartfelt stories and some good laughs along the way. Can't wait for Volume 2.
This period of time the comics felt a lot more like traditional funnies stories with a lot more humor, particularly as Superman is forced to resolve several wartime romance issues and he also takes up an office at the Daily Planet.
The book does a great job explaining the many roles people took on to help the war effort. It also has some moving moments, most notably when Superman helps the family of a veteran with Combat Fatigue understand him and support him. It's the most heartfelt moment in a book full of them, as these strips are patriotic and take us back in time. Superman doesn't fight the Nazis or Axis but tries to give a little comfort and happiness to those who did.
The War comics do feature a few stories of some very unpleasant caricatures of the Japanese in particular. As Mark Waid says in the introduction, the writers realized they'd gone too far soon after the War ended and you can see that here in a few strips.
After the war, the strip reran Superman's origin stories as if an attempt to reset and levelset the character as they transitioned back into more typical Superman stories beginning with one series on a rocketship to outer space and the other with Superman helping a sad clown in the circus win the heart of a girl by completing fetes of daring do.
Overall, the book is a lot of fun with nice art, some heartfelt stories and some good laughs along the way. Can't wait for Volume 2.
July 7, 2015
So very pleased with this book. It's better than the Superman comic strip material that has been available. I will most probably buy all of these.
I suggest if you like this sort of thing pick it up and make up your own mind. I bet you will make shelf space for it and all the future volumes.
I suggest if you like this sort of thing pick it up and make up your own mind. I bet you will make shelf space for it and all the future volumes.
March 10, 2014
Mostly Ward propaganda, but enjoyable! Wayne Boring is about my favorite Superman artist, so this book is double pleasure.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews