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Superman : Atomic Age Sunday Pages #2
Superman: The Atomic Age Sunday Pages, Volume 2
More than 170 never-before-reprinted Superman Sundays from the 1950s. This second book (of three) features every Superman weekly strip from March 22, 1953 through June 24, 1956. In these tales, Superman encounters two escaped criminals from Krypton; challenges Lois to discover his secret identity in three different periods in history; battles the mysterious Prankster; meets the legendary Hercules; mixes it up with the Phantom Thief, a crook whom radiation turns invisible; encounters a flying horse named Comet (no, not the one belonging to Supergirl!); and is super-confused when he suffers from super-amnesia!
Superman was created in 1938 by two ambitious Cleveland youngsters, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. Their defender of the oppressed became an enduring smash sensation in comics, radio, animation, television, and motion pictures. He remains the little guy's White Knight, battling terrestrial and extra-terrestrial menaces and standing for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Superman was created in 1938 by two ambitious Cleveland youngsters, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. Their defender of the oppressed became an enduring smash sensation in comics, radio, animation, television, and motion pictures. He remains the little guy's White Knight, battling terrestrial and extra-terrestrial menaces and standing for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2016
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Alvin Schwartz
68 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Alvin^^Schwartz
Born in NYC in 1916, Alvin Schwartz wrote his first comics for Fairy Tale Parade in 1939, and wrote extensively for Shelley Mayer, then an editor at Max Gaines’ All-American Publications (later purchased by National/DC in 1944). He had also done a short stint at Fawcett on Captain Marvel. Schwartz wrote his first Batman story in 1942, and his first Batman newspaper strip in Aug 1944 (an assignment he continued on until 1958) and his first Superman newspaper strip in Oct 1944. He had a long association with Superman as the writer of both the Man of Steel’s newspaper strip and many of his comic book appearances, and one of his many enduring contributions to the Superman mythology was the creation of Bizarro, a character who became a part of popular culture, quite apart from comics. While writing most of DC’s newspaper strips between 1944 and 1952, he also went on to do stories for many of their comics magazines, working on characters such as Aquaman, Vigilante, Slam Bradley, Date With Judy, Buzzy, House of Mystery, Tomahawk, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Newsboy Legion and numerous others.
After his 1958 departure from comics, Schwartz took on a whole new role in the corporate world, using the knowledge of plotting gained in comics to open new directions in market research, developing the now well-known techniques of psycho-graphics, typological identification and others, until as Research Director for the famed think tank of Dr Ernst Dichter, The Institute for Motivational Research, he provided structural and marketing advice to some of America’s largest corporations ranging from General Motors to General Foods. He was subsequently appointed to an advisory committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
Schwartz also authored three novels for Arco Press, one of which, Sword of Desire, a detective story, won praise for its successful takeoff on Reichian orgone therapy, a popular psychotherapeutic technique during the 40s and 50s. His Beat generation novel, The Blowtop was published by Dial in 1948. Under the title Le Cinglé, it became a best seller in France. He also wrote and lectured on superheroes at various universities and received a prestigious Canada Council Grant for a study on the religious symbolism in popular culture, using Superman as a springboard.
Also in Canada, he wrote feature films and did numerous docu-dramas for The National Film Board for nearly 20 years and did a number of economic and social studies for the Canadian government.
His last two books, written in his eighties, were: An Unlikely Prophet: Revelations on the Path Without Form (published in 1997) — a memoir dealing with some very off-the-wall experiences generated by his years doing Superman which led him to a unique understanding of Superman’s significance as well as some life-enriching possibilities available to every one of us, and the sequel A Gathering of Selves: The Spiritual Journey of the Legendary Writer of Superman and Batman (published in 2006).
Schwartz received the first Bill Finger Award for his contributions to comics via writing in 2006. The Finger Award was created by the legendary creator Jerry Robinson to honour his friend Bill Finger (the uncredited co-creator of Batman) and is given to comic book writers as part of the Will Eisner Comic Book Industry Awards in July of each year.
Alvin^^Schwartz
Born in NYC in 1916, Alvin Schwartz wrote his first comics for Fairy Tale Parade in 1939, and wrote extensively for Shelley Mayer, then an editor at Max Gaines’ All-American Publications (later purchased by National/DC in 1944). He had also done a short stint at Fawcett on Captain Marvel. Schwartz wrote his first Batman story in 1942, and his first Batman newspaper strip in Aug 1944 (an assignment he continued on until 1958) and his first Superman newspaper strip in Oct 1944. He had a long association with Superman as the writer of both the Man of Steel’s newspaper strip and many of his comic book appearances, and one of his many enduring contributions to the Superman mythology was the creation of Bizarro, a character who became a part of popular culture, quite apart from comics. While writing most of DC’s newspaper strips between 1944 and 1952, he also went on to do stories for many of their comics magazines, working on characters such as Aquaman, Vigilante, Slam Bradley, Date With Judy, Buzzy, House of Mystery, Tomahawk, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Newsboy Legion and numerous others.
After his 1958 departure from comics, Schwartz took on a whole new role in the corporate world, using the knowledge of plotting gained in comics to open new directions in market research, developing the now well-known techniques of psycho-graphics, typological identification and others, until as Research Director for the famed think tank of Dr Ernst Dichter, The Institute for Motivational Research, he provided structural and marketing advice to some of America’s largest corporations ranging from General Motors to General Foods. He was subsequently appointed to an advisory committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
Schwartz also authored three novels for Arco Press, one of which, Sword of Desire, a detective story, won praise for its successful takeoff on Reichian orgone therapy, a popular psychotherapeutic technique during the 40s and 50s. His Beat generation novel, The Blowtop was published by Dial in 1948. Under the title Le Cinglé, it became a best seller in France. He also wrote and lectured on superheroes at various universities and received a prestigious Canada Council Grant for a study on the religious symbolism in popular culture, using Superman as a springboard.
Also in Canada, he wrote feature films and did numerous docu-dramas for The National Film Board for nearly 20 years and did a number of economic and social studies for the Canadian government.
His last two books, written in his eighties, were: An Unlikely Prophet: Revelations on the Path Without Form (published in 1997) — a memoir dealing with some very off-the-wall experiences generated by his years doing Superman which led him to a unique understanding of Superman’s significance as well as some life-enriching possibilities available to every one of us, and the sequel A Gathering of Selves: The Spiritual Journey of the Legendary Writer of Superman and Batman (published in 2006).
Schwartz received the first Bill Finger Award for his contributions to comics via writing in 2006. The Finger Award was created by the legendary creator Jerry Robinson to honour his friend Bill Finger (the uncredited co-creator of Batman) and is given to comic book writers as part of the Will Eisner Comic Book Industry Awards in July of each year.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2019
I can't say these strips age particularly well, but there's a certain charm to them. It's definitely a book for Superman fans, old comic strip fans, and comic history fans more so than casual readers, but it's enjoyable if you fit into any of those three categories. Wayne Boring a treasure among Superman artists.
August 2, 2017
This book collects the Superman Sunday newspaper strips from March 22, 1953 to June 21, 1956.
This book collects 17 stories and all of them are at least okay. Probably the weakest one involved Clark Kent having to deal with an actress needing publicity. There's also a story in which Lois almost catches Superman in his secret identity and they go on a time travel. adventure where Superman will establish secret identity in each stop and if Lois can figure out even one, Superman will reveal his twentieth century identity. It has some fun moments, but the overall moral that Lois is too dumb to figure out Superman's identity under any circumstances.
Probably the most interesting stories are one in which two other survivors of Krypton arrive on Earth and plan to use their powers to take over, as well as the final battle between Superman and the Prankster for a good long while. Superman also meets up with Hercules. Superman encounters a crook who gets intangibility powers. It has some interesting moments and presents some challenges to the man of steel. Another one of my favorites has a Superman helping a female lawyer who has been forced to serve as a process server by her chauvanistic uncle as a process server in order to get hired by his firm.
There are also some very uniquely 1950s stories. For example, Superman appears on a take off on, "This is Your Life," and Lois got a 1950s quiz show revolving Superman's identity. These stories are a little weaker than the book's strongest tales but still an interesting time capsule.
Overall, this is an enjoyable addition to the American Comics library collection and a worthwhile read.
This book collects 17 stories and all of them are at least okay. Probably the weakest one involved Clark Kent having to deal with an actress needing publicity. There's also a story in which Lois almost catches Superman in his secret identity and they go on a time travel. adventure where Superman will establish secret identity in each stop and if Lois can figure out even one, Superman will reveal his twentieth century identity. It has some fun moments, but the overall moral that Lois is too dumb to figure out Superman's identity under any circumstances.
Probably the most interesting stories are one in which two other survivors of Krypton arrive on Earth and plan to use their powers to take over, as well as the final battle between Superman and the Prankster for a good long while. Superman also meets up with Hercules. Superman encounters a crook who gets intangibility powers. It has some interesting moments and presents some challenges to the man of steel. Another one of my favorites has a Superman helping a female lawyer who has been forced to serve as a process server by her chauvanistic uncle as a process server in order to get hired by his firm.
There are also some very uniquely 1950s stories. For example, Superman appears on a take off on, "This is Your Life," and Lois got a 1950s quiz show revolving Superman's identity. These stories are a little weaker than the book's strongest tales but still an interesting time capsule.
Overall, this is an enjoyable addition to the American Comics library collection and a worthwhile read.
January 2, 2025
Reprints from the fifties.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews