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Musings and Memories

The Siegel Heirs and a Boy of Steel

History has a way of changing on us. Sometimes, new information is unearthed that changes our perceptions of past events. At other times, the facts themselves are changed by statements made by the people who were actually involved in the historical events.
The history of comics is no exception to change and new facts have been unearthed (or, at least offered) concerning the creation of Superboy as a part of the Termination of Transfer of Copyright suit that the heirs of Jerry Siegel have filed against DC Comics and Time Warner. This new information pretty much invalidates the story I related to you a couple of months ago about the creation of Superboy (see Siegel, Shuster and a Boy of Steel ), but, in the interest of trying to get to set all the records straight, I'm presenting the (new) Siegel family view of how Superboy came to be that I've culled from a couple of different sources. Along the way, I'll be adding some annotations regarding these facts. And, by the way, I still stand behind my original creation story, as my source for it would have known the facts.

The Siegel's View

Jerry Siegel created Superboy on his own in 1938 as a character that was distinct from Superman. This original version of Superboy would have been about Superman's teen years and his powers would have slowly developed over time. Apparently, there was no costume involved and Superboy would have taken great pains to use his powers to help others while keeping his identity, and powers, a secret.
Having not seen the original Superboy proposal, it's hard to say whether this is what Jerry intended or not. I fail to see why he would have done something regarding Superman without Shuster, since Superman was "their" creation, but who knows.
Siegel submitted the full concept to DC in 1938. DC rejected the idea. Siegel tried again to submit the idea in 1941 and 1942 only to have DC reject the concept on both occasions.
Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 which was cover dated June, 1938. The 1938 date for the concept seems rather early to me to develop a new character based on a character who had, up to this point, been rejected by most everyone. That DC initially rejected the concept is not surprising, although it would have been evident by 1941 that Superman was the most popular character in comics and that a spin-off could only mean more sales. From the Siegel's point of view, it is the timeframe that is important here, as it is necessary to establish that Siegel was not an employee of DC when he first showed Superboy to DC: rather, he had a "first look" deal with them.
Superboy made his first appearance in More Fun Comics #101 that was published in 1944 while Siegel was in the military.
Can't argue with this one, as facts are facts. The story was written by Don Cameron and art is credited to Joe Shuster. The Superboy who appears in this first story is pretty much derivative of Superman from the cover to the super costume. Oddly enough, Superboy's home town is not called Smallville until Superboy #2 in 1949 (note this date for the next section).
Siegel sued DC in 1947 over the rights to Superboy (?) and won a settlement that established the Superboy was a distinct creation separate from Superman, Siegel owned him and that Siegel assigned the copyright to DC after the settlement.
This is a real sticky point. The new view from the Siegel camp is that the 1947 case was over Superboy, while most other sources include Superman in the suit. It was determined in this suit that Superman belonged to DC, but that Superboy did not. Now, if Siegel were the sole owner of the character, why did Siegel and Shuster both receive a joint settlement in this case (reportedly in the neighborhood of $100,000) for damages if Siegel were the only owner of the character. To further muddy the waters, I came across a passing reference that suggests that Siegel, or Siegel and Shuster, attempted to shop the Superboy character around after this settlement and it was after coming up empty at other comic publishers that the copyright was assigned to DC.
The Siegel heirs now claim that all appearances of Superboy are based on the original Jerry Siegel proposal, including the character portrayed in the TV show Smallville (which just happens to be produced by Time/Warner the owner of DC).
Well, maybe so and maybe no. Without the benefit of the original Siegel proposal, it is hard to judge exactly what is going on and who is right or wrong. Some of the facts would tend to support the Siegel heirs while others support the DC side of things. Considering that the current incarnation of Superboy is very far removed from Superman, this case would seem to be very much about damages from the past. Yet, there is the possibility that if the Siegel heirs are successful in their suit that they could tie up their portion of the copyright until Superman and Superboy enter the public domain sometime in the next 10-15 years.

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