| Joe Shuster | |
|---|---|
 Shuster in 1939 | |
| Born | Joseph Shuster (1914-07-10)July 10, 1914 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | July 30, 1992(1992-07-30) (aged 78) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Area | Penciller, Artist |
| Pseudonym | Reuths[1] |
Notable works | Superman,Action Comics #1 |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (1975)[2] Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, 1992 Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, 1993 Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame, 2005 |
| Relatives | Frank Shuster (cousin) |
| Signature | |
 | |
Joseph Shuster (/ˈʃuːstər/SHOO-stər; July 10, 1914 – July 30, 1992)[3][4][5] was a Canadian-Americancomic book artist best known for co-creating theDC Comics characterSuperman, withJerry Siegel, inAction Comics #1 (cover-dated June 1938).
Shuster was involved in a number of legal battles over ownership of the Superman character. His comic book career after Superman was relatively unsuccessful, and by the mid-1970s, Shuster had left the field completely due to partial blindness.
He and Siegel were inducted into both the comic book industry'sWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and theJack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2005, theCanadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association instituted theJoe Shuster Awards, named to honor the Canada-born artist.
Joseph Shuster was born inToronto, Ontario, to aJewish family.[6][7][8] His father, Julius Shuster (originallyShusterowich), an immigrant fromRotterdam, had a tailor shop in Toronto's garment district. His mother, Ida (Katharske), had come from Kiev,Russian Empire (nowKyiv, Ukraine).[9][10] His family, including his sister, Jean, lived on Bathurst, Oxford, and Borden Streets. In 1922 Julius Shuster was listed as living at 48 Major Street,[11] and in 1923 and 1924 at 101 Oxford Street.[12][13] Joe attended Ryerson and Lansdowne Public Schools (nowRyerson Community School and Lord Lansdowne Junior Public School with theToronto District School Board).[9] One of his cousins was comedianFrank Shuster of the Canadian comedy teamWayne and Shuster.[14][15] He also had a brother named Frank.[16]
As a youngster, Shuster worked as anewspaper boy for theToronto Daily Star.[9] The family barely made ends meet, and the budding young artist would scrounge for paper, which the family could not afford. He recalled in 1992,
I would go from store to store in Toronto and pick up whatever they threw out. One day, I was lucky enough to find a bunch of wallpaper rolls that were unused and left over from some job. The backs were blank, naturally. So it was a goldmine for me, and I went home with every roll I could carry. I kept using that wallpaper for a long time.[9]
Sometime in 1924,[9] when Shuster was 9[15] or 10,[17] his family moved toCleveland, Ohio.[15] There Shuster attendedGlenville High School and befriended his later collaborator, writerJerry Siegel, with whom he began publishing ascience fiction fanzine calledScience Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization. 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."[5]
The duo broke into comics at MajorMalcolm Wheeler-Nicholson'sNational Allied Publications, the futureDC Comics, working on the landmarkNew Fun—the first comic-book series to consist solely of original material rather than using any reprinted newspapercomic strips—debuting with themusketeerswashbuckler "Henri Duval" and theoccult detectiveDoctor Occult, both inNew Fun #6 (Oct. 1935).[18] In a 1992 interview, in which he used the fledgling publisher's future name, he said the two sample strips were not the ones eventually published:
One was drawn on brown wrapping paper and the other was drawn on the back of wallpaper from Toronto. And DC approved them, just like that! It's incredible! But DC did say, 'We like your ideas, we like your scripts and we like your drawings. But please, copy over the stories in pen and ink on good paper.' So I got my mother and father to lend me the money to go out and buy some decent paper, the first drawing paper I ever had, in order to submit these stories properly to DC Comics.[9]
Siegel and Shuster created a bald telepathicvillain, bent on dominating the world, as the title character in the short story "The Reign of the Superman", published in Siegel's 1932fanzineScience Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization #3.[19] The story was not successful, and the character was not used again.
The following year, Siegel re-used the nameThe Superman to develop a new character who became one of the most famous superheroes of all time. Shuster modelled the hero onDouglas Fairbanks Sr., and modelled his bespectacled alter ego,Clark Kent, on a combination ofHarold Lloyd[5][20] and Shuster himself, with the name "Clark Kent" derived from movie starsClark Gable andKent Taylor.[9]Lois Lane was modeled onJoanne Carter, a model hired by Shuster. (She later married co-creator Jerry Siegel in 1948.)[9] Siegel and Shuster's origins as children of Jewish immigrants are also thought to have influenced their work, although neither Siegel nor Shuster said so. Timothy Aaron Pevey argued that they crafted "an immigrant figure whose desire was to fit into American culture as an American", something which Pevey feels taps into an important aspect of American identity.[21]
Siegel and Shuster then began a four-year quest to find a publisher. Titling the characterThe Superman, Siegel and Shuster offered it to Consolidated Book Publishing, who had published a 48-pageblack-and-white comic book entitledDetective Dan: Secret Operative #48. Siegel and Shuster each compared this character toSlam Bradley, an adventurer the pair had created forDetective Comics #1 (March 1937).[22] Although the duo received an encouraging letter, Consolidated never again published comic books. Shuster was distraught over the rejection, and, by varying accounts, either burned every page of the story, with the cover surviving only because Siegel saved it from the fire,[23] or he tore the story to shreds, with only two cover sketches remaining.[24]
In 1938, the proposal was languishing among others atMore Fun Comics, published byNational Allied Publications, the primary precursor ofDC Comics. EditorVin Sullivan chose it as the cover feature for National'sAction Comics #1 (June 1938). The following year, Siegel & Shuster initiated thesyndicatedSuperman comic strip.[5]
WhenSuperman first appeared, Superman's alter egoClark Kent worked for theDaily Star newspaper, named by Shuster after theToronto Daily Star, his old employer in Toronto. When thecomic strip received international distribution, the company permanently changed the name to theDaily Planet.[25] Shuster said he modeled the cityscape of Superman's home city, Metropolis, on that of his old hometown.[15]
As part of the deal which saw Superman published inAction Comics, Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the character in return for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material.[26][27][28]
Due to financial difficulties, Wheeler-Nicholson had formed a corporation withHarry Donenfeld andJack Liebowitz called Detective Comics, Inc. It was under the DC label thatAction Comics #1 (cover-dated June 1938) was published. A series of mergers and name changes resulted in the publisher becoming National Periodical Publications, and then, in 1977, DC Comics (which had been its nickname since 1940).[29]
In 1946, near the end of their ten-year contract to produce Superman stories, Siegel and Shuster suedDetective Comics, Inc. to have their contract annulled and regain their rights to Superman. The following year, theNew York State Supreme Court ruled the publisher had validly purchased the rights to Superman when it bought the first Superman story, saying the duo had "transferred to Detective Comics, Inc., all of their rights in and to the comic strip Superman, including the title, names, characters and conception...."
A subsequentinterlocutory judgment found that rights toSuperboy, however, belonged to Siegel. Detective Comics Inc. subsequently paid Siegel and Shuster $94,000 for the rights to Superboy and the duo's written agreement acknowledging the rights to Superman belonged to the publisher.
Afterward, the company removed Shuster and Siegel's byline from Superman stories.[30][31]
In 1947, the team rejoined editor Sullivan, by then the founder and publisher of the comic-book companyMagazine Enterprises where they created the short-lived comical crime-fighterFunnyman. Shuster continued to draw comics after the failure ofFunnyman, although exactly what he drew is uncertain. Comic historian Ted White wrote that Shuster continued to draw horror stories into the 1950s.[32]
Shuster was also the anonymous illustrator forNights of Horror, an undergroundsadomasochisticfetish paperback book series. In 1954,Nights of Horror garnered controversy because of its involvement in the trial of theBrooklyn Thrill Killers, where it was alleged by psychiatric expert and anti-comics crusaderFredric Wertham that the gang's leader had read the books and that they were responsible for his crimes. TheNights of Horror series was seized and banned in theState of New York, and the case eventuallywent to the Supreme Court. However, the books' artist was never identified at the time.[33] In 2004,Gerard Jones revealed that Shuster had drawn the books.[34] The claim was backed in 2009 by comics historian Craig Yoe. This was based on character similarities, and comparison of the artistic style between the illustrations and those of the cast of the Superman comics.[35][36][37]
In 1964, when Shuster was living onLong Island with his elderly mother, he was reported to be earning his living as afreelance cartoonist; he was also "trying to paintpop art—serious comic strips—and hope[d] eventually to promote a one-man show in some chic Manhattan gallery".[38] At one point, his worsening eyesight prevented him from drawing, and he worked as adeliveryman in order to earn a living.[39][40]Jerry Robinson claimed Shuster had delivered a package to the DC building, embarrassing the employees. He was summoned to the CEO, given one hundred dollars, and told to buy a new coat and find another job.[41]
In 1967, when the Superman copyright came up for renewal, Siegel launched a second lawsuit, which also proved unsuccessful.[42]
In 1975, Siegel launched a publicity campaign, in which Shuster participated, protestingDC Comics' treatment of him and Shuster. TheAssociation of American Editorial Cartoonists' president,Jerry Robinson, was involved in the campaign along with comic-book artistNeal Adams. By 1976, Shuster was almost blind and living in a California nursing home.[43] Due to a great deal of negative publicity over their handling of the affair, and the upcomingSuperman movie, DC's parent companyWarner Communications reinstated the byline dropped more than thirty years earlier and granted the pair a lifetime pension of $20,000 a year, later increased to $30,000, plus health benefits.[17][44][45] The first issue with the restored credit wasSuperman #302 (Aug. 1976).[46]
Although Shuster was now supported by a lifetime stipend from DC Comics, he fell into debt—close to $20,000 by the time of his death. After he died, DC Comics agreed to pay off his unpaid debts in exchange for an agreement from his heirs to not challenge ownership over Superman.[47]
Shuster died on July 30, 1992, at his West Los Angeles home ofcongestive heart failure andhypertension. He was 78.[3][48]
$130.
For the first time since 1947, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's names were back inSuperman comics, and listed as the Man of Steel's co-creators.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Additional [ WebCitation archive], August 13, 2008.| Characters | |
|---|---|
| Locations | |
| History and themes | |
| Ongoing publications | |
| In other media | |
| Related | |
