''Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman'' is a

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

written by Marc Tyler Nobleman and illustrated by Ross MacDonald. It is the first picture book biography of

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

creators

Jerry Siegel Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...

and

Joe Shuster Joseph Shuster (; July 10, 1914 – July 30, 1992), professionally known simply as Joe Shuster, was a Canadian-American comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with Jerry Siegel, in ''Action Comics'' #1 (c ...

, and is the first ever stand-alone biography of the pair.

Synopsis

Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster are meek, bespectacled teens in Depression-era

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

who seek escape in the worlds of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and pulp magazine adventure tales.Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
Amazon.com. Retrieved Oct. 20, 2022. "In a crowded high school hallway, Jerry wishes he could be with his 'friends,' and a turn of the page reveals

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

and

Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily US newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books ...

. Joe, 'lousy at sports and mousy around girls,' draws sci-fi heroes with a passion. In 1934, when both are 20, Jerry dreams up the Superman concept and Joe draws prototypes labeled 'S' for 'super.' And for 'Siegel' and 'Shuster.'" Review of ''Boys of Steel''
''Publishers Weekly'' (June 23, 2008). It is four more years before they convince a publisher to take a chance on their character in the new

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

format. "In June 1938, their creation launches in ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics ...

''. Nobleman details this achievement with a zest amplified by MacDonald's punchy illustrations, done in a classic litho palette of brassy gold, antique blue and fireplug red. MacDonald's Depression-era vignettes picture Siegel pondering his superhero's powers and the friends casting a single, caped shadow. A cautionary afterword chronicles their protracted financial struggles with

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

—when Siegel and Shuster sold their first Superman story, they also sold all rights to the character, for $130."

Background

Nobleman revealed to Newsarama's Zack Smith that he first heard the origin story in high school, around 1988, but it wasn't until college graduation that he decided to write it up as a

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

. However, warnings that the reclusive Siegel was unlikely to talk about Superman's beginnings discouraged Nobleman enough to give up the idea. He got into children's publishing, and a few years later decided to tell the story as a picture book.Smith, Zack. "'Boys of Steel': The History of Superman - For All Ages," ''Newsarama'' (Aug. 5, 2008)
Archived at the Wayback Machine
He set a timeframe of about ten years, closing his tale before the bitter legal battles that ultimately separated the idealistic young creators from their creation. The writer wanted ''Boys of Steel'' to end on a high note, emphasizing the friendship and initial triumph of two Depression-era underdogs who wouldn't stop believing in Superman. While conducting his research, the writer was not able to contact the Siegel or Shuster families. Between published interviews with the creators (from which he cribbed his dialogue) and archival information gathered in Cleveland, Nobleman easily was able to build the framework for his version of the story. The search for an illustrator didn't commence for at least six months after Nobleman sold ''Boys of Steel'' to

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in March '05. The publisher pitched MacDonald (''Another Perfect Day''), whose

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style already was familiar to Nobleman.

Praise

" is robust treatment does huster and Siegel’sstory justice." — ''Booklist'', June 1, 2008

Trivia

"I never say the word 'Superman,'" Nobleman pointed out. "I say the word 'Super,' but never 'Superman' in the story proper. It's a fun little trick about the power of observation and the power of picture books. I had an illustrator to show it, so I never had to say 'Superman' even once."

References

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External links