“This amazing stranger from the planet Krypton … ”
That’s how the Fleischer Studios introduced Superman as they brought him to motion picture screens for the first time in their series of animated shorts beginning in 1941, three years after his comic book debut in Action Comics # 1. Since that time Superman has never been out of print, featured in uncounted comic book series, graphic and prose novels, children’s books, and non-fiction examinations (Tom De Haven’s Our Hero: Superman on Earth stands tall in the latter category).
This amazing stranger has been a regular feature on TV and movie screens ever since the Fleischers and their talented creative teams launched the enduring cartoon series that has delighted the young and young-at-heart for more than eight decades. Now, with a new Superman feature film occupying worldwide movie screens and offering viewers a fresh serving of caped derring-do, it seemed appropriate in this space to tip our virtual Boston Red Sox caps in the direction of the Daily Planet and offer a brief look at Superman as he has appeared through the years in comics …
… In animation …
… And in the movies and on television …
… As well as to reflect on our own series of Superman newspaper comics collections: six collections of daily strips that spanned the years 1942 through ’49 and again from 1959 to 1966, plus seven full-color volumes of Sunday pages devoted to Clark Kent and his colorful alter ego (click each image below for an isolated view):
This Superman retrospective would not be complete without acknowledging the Superfan who was such a major contributor to it: the late Sidney Friedfertig.
Sid was not only a gentleman’s gentleman, he was a collector who had single-handedly preserved the only known copies of many Superman newspaper comics. Anyone who reads one of The Library of American Comics Superman volumes owes a debt of thanks to Sid for saving this aspect of the Kryptonian’s mythos, Here is a fine tribute, written shortly after Sid’s 2023 passing, which also includes an interview he granted that was originally released in 2019.
In a world too often marked by pettiness and cruelty, humanity across the globe needs to be reminded that our species also contains examples of moral and ethical rectitude, and that there are those among us who find their own ways to Do the Right Thing. Clark Kent is one of those examples — and in his own way, so was Sid Friedfertig.
