Review of
Siegel and Shuster Dateline 1930’s,
Previously Unpublished Work From the Creators of Superman, Number 2,
Eclipse Comics
Five out of five stars
Other work by the creators of Superman
Jerry Siegel
and Joe Shuster are rightfully given credit for the creation of the iconic character
of Superman. He was created in 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, and
Siegel and Shuster were in many ways just trying to survive financially. Superman
was just one of many characters that they created in that time frame, yet the
others were generally put away and forgotten.
This comic consists of some of that work. Most of the
pages contain a series of stories about the two characters Snoopy and Smiley.
If you are experienced in the early work of Siegel and Shuster, you will
recognize the appearance of the Waif in story number 7. A main premise is that
when Smiley receives a blow to the head, he briefly becomes capable of
accurately predicting the future. Snoopy uses this to make a great deal of
money.
The remainder
of the content is a series of rough sketches of the characters of Kaye, Inko,
Bruce Verne, the Waif, Cornelius and Gloria Glamour. It is difficult to read
the dialog of these captions.
Creating Superman would have been enough creative
activity for several years. In this comic, you see some of the other products
of these two extremely creative minds. Although the other characters did not
become popular, they do show a high level of imagination and demonstrate
unrealized potential.
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