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Jerome " Jerry" 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 was the co-creator of Superman, in collaboration with his friend Joe Shuster, published by DC Comics. They also created Doctor Occult, who was later featured in The Books of Magic. Siegel and Shuster were inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. With Bernard Baily, Siegel also co-created the long-running DC character The Spectre. Siegel created ten of the earliest members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of DC's most popular team books, which is set in the 30th Century. Siegel also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter and Jerry Ess.
Siegel's family moved to the Jewish neighborhood of Glenville in 1928. He attended Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio. At about age 16, while at Glenville, he befriended Joe Shuster. Siegel described his friendship with the similarly shy and bespectacled Shuster: "When Joe and I first met, it was like the right chemicals coming together." They shared a love of science fiction, adventure fiction, and movies.
Siegel graduated from high school in June 1934.: "Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster finally graduated from Glenville High School in June 1934."
Siegel and Shuster had been developing the Superman story and character since 1933, hoping to sell it as a syndicated newspaper comic-strip. But after years of fruitless soliciting to the syndicates, Siegel and Shuster agreed to publish Superman in a comic book. In March 1938, they sold all rights to Superman to the comic-book publisher Detective Comics, Inc., another forerunner of DC, for $130 ($ when adjusted for inflation).
Siegel and Shuster later regretted their decision to sell Superman after he became an astonishing success. DC Comics now owned the character and reaped the royalties. Nevertheless, DC Comics retained Siegel and Shuster as the principal writer and artist for the Superman comics, and they were well-paid because they were popular with the readers. For instance, in 1942 they together earned $63,776.46 ().Exhibit Q (Docket 353-3) in Laura Siegel Larson v Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., DC Comics, Case no. 13-56243 (scans available from Dropbox and Scribd). Originally submitted as an exhibit in Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster vs. National Comics Publications Inc. et al. (New York Supreme Court 1947) Siegel bought a house in University Heights and a car.
Siegel was conscripted into the United States Army on June 28, 1943. His service number was 35067731. aad.archives.gov He was trained at Fort George G. Meade, where he was trained as an "Airplane Engine Mechanic, a Film Editor, Motion Picture Cutter, Public Relations Man or Playwright (Motion Picture Writer) or Reporter". He was posted in Honolulu, where he was assigned a writing job at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. He focused mainly on comedy columns. Siegel was discharged on January 21, 1946, at the rank of Technician 4th Grade. Jerome Siegel Military-Service Record
After the war, Siegel moved to New York. Between 1937 and 1947 (i.e., during the span of their contract), Siegel and Shuster had together earned more than $400,000 (roughly ) while working at DC Comics.: "By 1947, the creators had earned over $400,000 in total compensation from all sources for the strip, which would equal $5 million today when adjusted for inflation.": "In the ten years from 1938, when the first Action was published, to the filing of the suit in 1947, Jerry and Joe were paid ... a total of $401,194.85. That was a king's ransom—more than $5 million in today's terms"
After leaving DC Comics in late 1947, Siegel and Shuster created the comedic superhero Funnyman, which proved unsuccessful. This was their last collaboration. Siegel then took freelance writing jobs. Some of them include the newspaper strip Tallulah, Lars of Mars, and G.I. Joe. The publisher Ziff-Davis hired him as a comic-book editor in 1951, but its comics division closed after less than a year in business. Siegel never found steady work, and fell upon hard times. By 1959, he and his family were living in a one-bedroom apartment in Great Neck, Long Island, and struggling to pay their bills.
Siegel again fell into hard financial times after this second dismissal, as he was unable to find regular writing work. For a period of seven years, he worked as a typist in the mailroom for the Los Angeles Public Utilities Commission, later telling an employee newsletter "with all the troubles and prolonged litigation I have had over, I just wanted to hide out." In 1975, upon hearing that Warner Bros. was producing a Superman film, Siegel alerted the press to his condition. In response, Warner Bros, agreed to give Siegel and Shuster a lifetime stipend of $20,000 a year (later increased to $30,000) in exchange for not contesting ownership of the copyright to Superman.
Siegel also self-published a fanzine called Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization. In the third issue of this fanzine, he published a short story titled "The Reign of the Superman" under the pseudonym "Herbert S. Fine". The story is about a vagrant named Bill Dunn who gains vast psychic powers after taking an experimental drug. Dunn then calls himself "the Superman" and proceeds to use his powers maliciously.
In 1933, Siegel and Shuster began making amateur comic strips together. They self-published their work in a fanzine titled Popular Comics.
During his first tenure at DC Comics (1935–1943), Siegel created the following characters:
During his second tenure at DC Comics (1959–1966), Siegel created several characters relating to the Legion of Super-Heroes, including members Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Luornu Durgo, Invisible Kid, Matter-Eater Lad, Phantom Girl, and Reep Daggle; and enemies Cosmic King, Lightning Lord, and Saturn Queen, who are part of the Legion of Super-Villains.
During his second tenure as writer at DC Comics, Siegel did not receive any byline for his stories, which was the normal policy of DC Comics at the time.
In 1968, he worked for Western Publishing, for which he wrote (along with Carl Barks) stories in the Junior Woodchucks comic book.
He subsequently worked for the Italian comic Topolino published by Mondadori Editore (the Italian Disney comics licensee) from 1972 to 1979. "Siegel & Shuster" on Lambiek Comiclopedia He was listed in the mastheads of the period as a scriptwriter ("soggettista e sceneggiatore").
In the 1980s, he worked with Val Mayerik on the feature "The Starling", which appeared in the comic book Destroyer Duck. A projected series, The Starling, about a woman struggling to raise her half-alien, shapeshifting son after his deadbeat alien father abandoned them, went unfinished due to Siegel's death in 1996. Also in the 1980s, Siegel wrote for the comics publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim.
Siegel married Bella Lifshitz on June 10, 1939. She was a Jewish woman from his neighborhood of Glenville. With Bella, he had a son named Michael (January 27, 1944 – January 17, 2006). The couple divorced in 1948.
In November 1948, Siegel married Joanne Siegel. She and Siegel first met in January 1935, when she worked with his colleague Joe Shuster as the model for Lois Lane. They reacquainted at a costume ball in New York on April 1, 1948.According to , this was the Newspaper Comics Council Comic Strip Ball, held at the Plaza Hotel on April 1, 1948. On March 1, 1951, Joanne gave birth to their daughter, Laura. The couple settled on Long Island, before moving to California in 1968. Siegel and Joanne remained married until his death in 1996.
Return to DC and lawsuits (1959–1975)
Siegel returned to DC Comics in 1959 at the prompting of his second wife. Although he did write some Superman stories, he no longer had any creative control, but instead answered to the direction of the editor Mort Weissinger. During this time, he wrote extensively about the team the Legion of Super-Heroes, adding many enduring characters to its cast. Siegel's contributions during this time are difficult to determine because DC Comics did not generally give creator bylines. His last work for DC was the lead story in Adventure Comics #341 (February 1966). DC Comics ceased giving him work in 1966, when the company learned Siegel and Shuster were planning a second lawsuit to reclaim the copyright to Superman. He lost that lawsuit.
Amalgamated Press
After leaving DC Comics, Siegel wrote The Spider for the British comic Lion, published by Fleetway Publications."Web of Intrigue" by Karl Stock, in Judge Dredd Megazine #431, May 2021, pp. 42–44 His episodes were published from January 1966 to February 1969.
Writing career
School years
Siegel wrote for his school's weekly newspaper, The Glenville Torch. One of his known works for that newspaper was Goober the Mighty, a parody of Tarzan. Joseph Shuster provided illustrations for some of Siegel's Goober stories. This was their first known collaboration as writer and artist.
DC Comics
Siegel and Shuster began working for DC Comics (then known as National Allied Publications) in 1935. Siegel's writing career there was interrupted in June 1943 when he was conscripted into the Army, though he continued to receive credit for stories written by ghostwriters.Judge J. Addison Young, "Findings of Facts", April 12, 1948:
"92. From June 1, 1943 to March, 1947, DETECTIVE COMICS, INC. published in magazines, 120 releases of the comic strip SUPERMAN, for which plaintiff SIEGEL did not create the continuity.
93. DETECTIVE COMICS, INC. paid to plaintiff SIEGEL the sum of $200. per release for each of said 120 releases, which sum was accepted by plaintiff SIEGEL in full payment." After his discharge, he sued DC Comics for the rights to Superman and Superboy, and was consequently given no more freelance work from the publisher. In 1959, he returned to DC as a writer, and was dropped again in 1967 when he again attempted to take back the copyright to Superman.
Funnyman
Siegel and Shuster conceived Funnyman, a clownish superhero, while they were still working for DC Comics. They anticipated a decline in the popularity of conventional superheroes, and thought a comedy hybrid character would have sustainable appeal. Unlike other characters they created, Siegel and Shuster were determined to retain the copyright to Funnyman. This was unacceptable to DC Comics, so they instead made a deal with Magazine Enterprises, a comic-book publishing company owned by Vin Sullivan. The series Funnyman lasted six issues, and a subsequent newspaper strip also was unsuccessful. It was the last collaboration of Siegel and Shuster. By this time, Shuster's vision had deteriorated to the point he could not work.
Marvel Comics
Siegel first worked for Marvel in 1963, under the pseudonym "Joe Carter". With Stan Lee, he co-created the villain Plantman ( Strange Tales #113). He also scripted the "Human Torch" feature in Strange Tales #112–113 (Sept.–Oct. 1963), introducing the teenaged Torch's high school girlfriend, Doris Evans; and, under his own name, a backup feature starring the X-Men member Angel, which ran in Marvel Tales and Ka-Zar. According to then-Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee, Siegel "was down on his luck" and in ill health at the time, so he gave him a job at Marvel as a proofreader, during which time Siegel wrote the Angel story.
Archie Comics
Siegel worked for Archie Comics in 1966, on series including The Fly, The Mighty Crusaders, The Web, and Steel Sterling, all starring characters revived from the 1940s. Archie canceled its superhero line later that year, and Siegel was let go.
Fleetway Publications
Siegel became the main writer on The Spider a British comic book supervillain/superhero that appeared in anthology book Lion between 26 June 1965 and 26 April 1969 Judge Dredd Megazine #457, pp. 30–31 and was reprinted in Vulcan. Siegel took over the writing of the character with his third adventure, and would write the bulk of his adventures. His first work on the character was published in the 8 January 1966 issue, the start of the serial "The Spider v Doctor Mysterioso". (2005). 9781845760007, Titan Books. ISBN 9781845760007Dwyer, Theo. "The Spider Reprint Announced by 2000AD With Work From Jerry Siegel", Bleeding Cool (July 11, 2020). He also created and wrote Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid.
Military magazines
When Siegel served in the Army (1943–1946), he was posted in Honolulu, Hawaii and wrote for Stars and Stripes, Midpacifican, and Yank, the Army Weekly, all military publications written by soldiers. In Stars and Stripes, he had a small humor column titled "Take a Break wit T/5 Jerry Siegel". In Midpacifican, he wrote the comic strip Super Sam, in which an Army private gains superpowers after receiving a blood transfusion from Superman. This was not authorized by DC Comics.
Miscellaneous
In 1956, Siegel created two superheroes for Charlton Comics: Mr. Muscles and Nature Boy. The series Mr. Muscles ran two issues, and Nature Boy three.
Personal life
Siegel remained somewhat active in science fiction fandom after starting work for DC. He attended Chicon, the 1940 2nd World Science Fiction Convention, and appeared in the convention's masquerade ball as Clark Kent.Warner, Harry, Jr. All Our Yesterdays. Chicago: Advent:Publishers, 1969; p. 97
Death
Siegel died on January 28, 1996, of a heart attack. He had been suffering from cardiac disease for years, and had a bypass operation.
Awards and honors
See also
Notes
Works cited
External links
Categories: 1914 Births, 1996 Deaths, 20th-century American Writers, American People Of Lithuanian-jewish Descent, American People Of Russian-jewish Descent, Bill Finger Award Winners, Dc Comics People, Disney Comics Writers, Glenville High School Alumni, Golden Age Comics Creators, Hugo Award–winning Writers, Jewish American Comics Writers, Artists From Cleveland, Will Eisner Award Hall Of Fame Inductees, Marvel Comics People, People From University Heights, Ohio, United States Army Personnel Of World War Ii, Inkpot Award Winners, Burials At Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Jews From Ohio
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