The Greatest Comics - Action Comics #1 (original) (raw)

[](action1.jpg) June, 1938 Did you know... · Superman's secret identity, Clark Kent, was named after the 1930s screen stars Clark Gable and Kent Taylor -- although some think Clark "Doc" Savage and Kent "The Shadow" Allard were the name's actual roots. · Superman the newspaper comic strip debuted on January 16, 1939, and ran until 1966. · Shuster, a native of Toronto, based Metropolis and The Daily Star (later The Daily Planet) on Toronto and its hometown paper. · Although Superman's success caught many by surprise, it didn't surprise the two men who created him. "You'll note that in the very last panel we say, 'And so begins the startling adventures of the most sensational strip character of all time,'" Siegel said in 1976. "That may sound a little conceited, but actually that's the way we felt about the character."

FILM FANS ARE FREE TO ARGUE about which film is the greatest movie of all time, but there can be no such argument among comic collectors. For them, there are only two kinds of comics: Action Comics#1 and everything else. What's the difference? You wouldn't sell your mother for "everything else."To put it as simply as possible, this is the one comic book that made all the others possible. Before the introduction of Superman, comic books were either collections of already published newspaper comic strips or depositories of immediately unforgettable characters. Superman was the first true superstar of the comic page, and his phenomenal early success spurred thousands of imitators, all rushing to cash in on his popularity. Sure, heroes were nothing new in 1938 -- the Shadow, Flash Gordon and other heroic types had entertained readers for years in comic strips and movie serials. But how many of those guys could lift an entire car over their heads?!? In our jaded time, it's impossible for us to imagine the feelings kids must have felt when when they saw that first issue. Superman was the first true "superhero" of modern times. Myths of gods and men with near-impossible strength have thrilled humanity for thousands of years, but it was left to two young men named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to create a new mythological hero for the 20th century, a man "with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men."The irony behind Superman's place in our culture is that he almost never came to life. After several earlier versions of the character failed to fly, Siegel's final vision of the Man of Steel happened one night in 1934. Giving his character all the now-familiar details -- the alien origin, the superhuman powers, the secret identity -- he and Shuster wrote and drew several weeks' worth of comic strips in less than 24 hours. But publishers were less than enthusiastic about their creation. For four years, they tried selling Superman to the newspaper syndicates without success. Finally, in 1938, DC editor Vin Sullivan chose Superman from a pile of rejected strips sent to his office, later saying he did so simply because it "looked different" from the rest. This comic book has to be the first on any greatest-books list because Superman was the first true comic-book superstar. Before him, the heroes of the industry were mere mortals and funny animals; after him, the public's demand for more sent the publishers back to the drawing board to create entire universes of superpowered beings. The very fact we call them _super_heroes testifies to the place Superman that occupies in the pantheon of our modern-day heroes. For all his strength and powers, though, Superman's continued popularity also lies in the fact that he is a symbol of everything that's good about mankind. Compassionate but firm, godlike yet all-too-human, he reminds us that good will always triumph over evil and that each of us possesses all the superpowers we need to be heroes ourselves. Action Comic #1 was the beginning of a character -- and an entire industry -- that continues to thrill readers into the 21st century. For that reason alone, it deserves to be called the greatest comic book of this -- or any other -- century.