The Comics Rack

Siegel, Shuster and a Boy of Steel

   For Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the early 1940s were not the best of times. Their creation, Superman, had proved to be one of the best selling characters of the growing comic industry and the merchandising of the character rivalled Disney's marketing of Mickey Mouse in the 30s. Yet, all the money generated by the character went to DC and Jerry and Joe received nothing outside of the salaries they received a writer and an artist. Civil discussions with the DC management had pretty much reached an end and legal recources had also reached an impasse. To make matters worse, Joe Shuster's eyesight began to degenerate around this time and it was obvious that his income from Superman would soon cease, simply because he would no longer be able to draw (eventually, Shuster's condition caused him to leave comics for good). Things looked rather bleak.
   What happened next may have been an act of creation born out of desperation. When Siegel and Shuster originally created Superman, he first appeared as an adult. There was no mention made of his childhood. A later addition by Siegel simply added that he had been adopted by the Kents, but showed nothing of his childhood. In other words, there was no Superbaby, no costume sewed by a loving adoptive parent, and, most importantly, no Superboy. According to accounts, Siegel and Shuster noticed this lack of a childhood for their creation and then, after some investigation, found that while DC owned the rights to Superman, they had no rights to Superboy, as he would be a separate and different creation.
   Once Siegel and Shuster discovered this loophole, accounts vary as how they proceeded. One account suggests that they did up some samples of a Superboy strip and began to shop it around to the other comic publishers. Another account suggests that they showed the samples to DC and said they were going to shop it around unless DC agreed to buy it and, one should add, pay them well. Either story has some validity and what makes this so remarkable is the possibility that another publisher, say Fawcett, could have published the stories of Superman's youth, while DC only had the adult character in their stable. Also, if DC could sue Fawcett for copyright infringement over Captain Marvel, imagine the litigation surrounding two companies haggling over the rights to a juvenile version of an established character. It does boggle the mind.
   Suffice to say, whichever account one accepts, DC eventually ended up with Superboy and he made his first appearance in More Fun Comics #101, Jan-Feb, 1945, in a story by Siegel and Shuster. Siegel and Shuster did receive compensation for the new character, but no residuals.
   A later lawsuit brought about by Siegel and Shuster gave them a large settlement from DC, but it also ended their association with the character and shortly after a judgement was rendered, their by-lines on any Superman appearance were removed (one example can be found in HUH #7). Superboy's adventures continued to appear from DC until his continuity was wiped out by the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-86.
NOTE: DC wasn't called DC when the events related here occured, but it just makes it a lot easier to call them that, since then everyone will know who I am talking about.
(For more discussion of this topic, see The Siegel Heirs and a Boy of Steel)