Superman Poster #12 American Eagle Superman #14 (1942) by Fred Ray DC Comics

Description

Superman is a superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is considered an American cultural icon. Superman was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, high school students living in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933; the character was sold to Detective Comics, Inc. (later DC Comics) in 1938. Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, television programs, films, newspaper strips, and video games. With the success of his adventures, Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic book. Superman’s appearance is distinctive and iconic. He usually wears a blue costume, red cape, and stylized red-and-yellow “S” shield on his chest. This shield is used in a myriad of media to symbolize the character. The origin story of Superman relates that he was born Kal-El on the planet Krypton, before being rocketed to Earth as an infant by his scientist father Jor-El, moments before Krypton’s destruction. Discovered and adopted by a Kansas farmer and his wife, the child is raised as Clark Kent and imbued with a strong moral compass. Very early he started to display superhuman abilities, which upon reaching maturity, he resolved to use for the benefit of humanity. Superman resides and operates in the fictional American city of Metropolis. As Clark Kent, he is a journalist for the Daily Planet, a Metropolis newspaper. Superman’s archenemy is supervillain Lex Luthor. Superman has fascinated scholars, with cultural theorists, commentators, and critics alike exploring the character’s impact and role in the United States and worldwide. The character’s ownership has often been the subject of dispute, with Siegel and Shuster twice suing for the return of legal ownership. Superman placed first on IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in May 2011. Considering that the height of the Golden Age took place simultaneously with America’s entrance into World War II, there are dozens of patriotic comic book covers from this era. While I have my favorites, there is only one cover that I always think of as the greatest of these patriotic masterpieces. Hands down, the cover to Superman #14 (January-February 1942) stands out above all of the rest of the patriotic covers of the time. With his creation of this cover, Fred Ray simply hit a home run in capturing the essence of the patriotic ferver of the United States in the early 1940?s. Ray created many of the Superman covers from this era, and went on the create a hit of his own with Tomahawk, who first debuted in Star Spangled Comics #69 (June 1947). Frederic E. Ray, Jr. (February 4, 1920 – January 23, 2001) was an American comic book artist and commercial illustrator best known as the primary Superman cover-artist of the 1940s, whose work helped shape the defining look of the iconic superhero character, and for his more than two decades as artist of the DC Comics feature “Tomahawk”. His cover of Superman #14 (Feb. 1942) is one of comics’ most famous. Ray debuted as the Superman cover artist with the one-shot promotional giveaway Superman’s Christmas Adventure (1940). Shortly afterward, he drew Superman alongside fellow superheroes Batman and Robin on the cover of the anthology World’s Best Comics #1 (undated; released early 1941), and almost simultaneously took over the cover-art duties for DC’s two Superman starring titles, beginning with Superman #9 (April 1941) and Action Comics #34 (March 1941). His redesign of the “S” symbol on Superman’s costume became one of the defining features of the character’s look during the 1930s to 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books.