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Superman: The Dailies #2
Superman: The Dailies : Strips 307-672, 1940-1941
The second collection of Superman's daily comic-strip adventures begins at the beginning of 1940 and features the Man of Tomorrow's battles against a kidnapping ring, a saboteur, and others, as well as a humorous meeting with the meekest man in the world.
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1999
About the author
Jerry Siegel
608 books76 followersJerome "Jerry" Siegel, who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S. Fine, was the American co-creator of Superman (along with Joe Shuster), the first of the great comic book superheroes and one of the most recognizable icons of the 20th century.
He 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.
He 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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 18, 2023
Finished reading "Superman: The Dailies, 1940-1941", the second of three softcover/paperback volumes reprinting the earliest "Superman" daily newspaper strips released by Kitchen Sink Press between July and September 2000. (It says "first printing: 1999" inside but the Grand Comics Database website says that this is in reference to the single volume hardcover version put out by Kitchen Sink the previous year.)
The title page gives this volume's title as "Superman: The Dailies: Volume II: Strips 307-672, 1940-1941". It has an introduction ("The Superman Bandwagon") by James Vance. In the way of creator credits, it has the obligatory "Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster" on the title page. On the back of the title page it has a credit reading, "This book would not have been possible without these professionals who were, in one way or another, originally involved with the Superman comic strip: Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Paul Cassidy, Wayne Boring, John Sikela, Jack Schiff, Whitney Ellsworth, and Harry Donenfeld and Vincent Sullivan."
It goes on to say, "The editors [Peter Poplaski, Dave Schreiner, and Christopher Couch] would like to thank the following individuals for lending rare source material, without which this collection would not have been possible: Mitch Itkowitz, Bill Blackbeard (Director) and the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, Rick Norwood, Jeffrey Lindenblatt."
This is another fun selection of some of the earliest Superman stories created. The Superman here is still very much in the mold of that of which you would find in the first year of the comic books. He also reminds me very much of the version of the Man of Steel in the syndicated radio show that began airing in 1940. A rougher around the edges version of Superman unafraid to toss crooks around, come crashing through walls, and use his super powers to coerce bad guys into confessing in one story while using them to assist down on their luck complete strangers in another.
The daily newspaper strips in this second volume tell the following stories (there are no Sunday Superman strips in this volume as the Sunday strips from this time period told an entirely separate storyline than the dailies): "Clark Kent--Spy" (strips 307-334, January 8-February 8, 1940), "Superman Goes to War" (strips 335 to 354, February 9-March 2, 1940), "Trouble in the Tenements" (strips 355 to 396, March 4-April 20, 1940), "The Big Boss" (strips 397 to 414, April 22-May 11, 1940), "'The Unknown' Strikes" (strips 415 to 462, May 13-July 6, 1940), "King of the Kidnapping Ring" (strips 463 to 510, July 8-August 31, 1940), "The Hooded Saboteur" (strips 511 to 540, September 2-October 5, 1940), "Pawns of the Master" (strips 541 to 588, October 7-November 30, 1940), and "The Meekest Man in the World" (strips 589 to 672, December 2, 1940-March 8, 1941).
I won't go into a whole lot of detail as to each individual story (I read this volume off and on over the course of a couple of years alongside the Kitchen Sink Sunday newspaper strips reprint collection and also the various DC Archives series reprinting Superman's comic book stories from the same time period in "Action Comics", "Superman", "New York World's Fair Comics", and "World's Best/Finest Comics"). However, I will say that we do get at least one appearance of Superman's arch villain, "Luthor", in this volume. And, among other interesting early attributes given to Superman in these first years, his occasionally used (but subsequently dropped and now almost completely forgotten) ability to "twist his flexible [facial] features" to disguise himself as someone else. (Which kind of makes you wonder why he didn't do this all the time while going about as Clark Kent, doesn't it?)
I do have to say that I enjoy the pacing of these early Superman newspaper strips over that of the comic books that were coming out at the same time. Each Superman comic book story in 1939 and early 1940s is always exactly 13 pages long. One Superman story in each issue of "Action Comics" (and, later, "World's Best/Finest Comics"). Four 13-page Superman stories in each issue of "Superman" (which initially was a quarterly shipping magazine but soon increased its frequency to bi-monthly). This fixed page count lends to a set pattern to most of the Superman stories of this era. And because there had to be lots of action, not very much in the way of interesting character moments. They are mostly, by necessity, plot driven.
The newspaper strips (both the dailies and Sundays, which, again, had completely different story continuities running simultaneously), thanks to their varying story lengths (and just the reality of the format, that the reader was getting them in extremely small segments, one strip per day or per week) have a much more leisurely pacing to them than the comic book stories and also allow the story to focus on one particular character over the course of several days or weeks.
For example, in "The Meekest Man in the World", we spend a lot of time right at the start of the story meeting this man, Eustace Watson, who is even meeker and more timid than Clark Kent(!) who has written a letter to Lois Lane (who writes the "love lorn" letters column of the newspaper) bemoaning his state in life. How his mild mannered nature is going to make him lose the girl he adores and also prevents him for being successful in life. Lois, as is the typical reaction of Lois during this time period, scoffs at how pathetic this man sounds.
Clark, however, takes an interest in Eustace and, as Superman, decides to help him turn his life around. So first we get to see Superman following Eustace around, observing his day. The way his landlady bosses him around. How he almost misses his street car because the driver intentionally leaves him behind How he always loses his seat on the street car to the same man every day. And then his similar situations he faces at work every day.
After we (and Superman) observe all of this, Superman then introduces himself to Eustace and convinces Eustace to allow him to take his place at work the following day. Of course, Superman then, disguised as Eustace, goes through each and every situation from the previous day, from the landlady to the street car to the elevator operator at work to his work rival for both a promotion and also for the affections of the boss's daughter (although she is always steadfast in who her affection is for, the man Superman is assisting).
Superman then, still disguised as Eustace, goes about securing four construction contracts as part of a contest to see which of the two men--Eustace or his rival--would get the promotion to manager. Of course, Superman cheats by using his super powers, but that's okay because the other guy has some goons try to rough Eustace (Superman) up and lock him up so that he can't finish the contest.
It's a fun story that of course strains belief (I especially liked the part where Superman--this time switched back to his actual Superman costume and appearance--forces himself onto a construction crew building a skyscraper so that he can speed up its construction to be finished in just one day, allowing "Eustace" to get another contract to win his contest.
I highly recommend the Superman daily strips books for anyone who likes Superman, likes 1940s era comic strips, and anyone who would like to learn more about what the character of Superman was like back in his earliest years. I gave "Superman: The Dailies, 1940-1941" four out of five stars on GoodReads. (One quibble I have with the presentation of the strips in this volume is that the individual strips are not dated, just the story sequences as given on the table of contents page. This volume came out over twenty years ago. I believe that most comic strip reprint collections these days do give the original date next to each and every daily (or weekly) strip.)
Where else can you find these strips besides the 1999 hardcover and 2000 softcover/trade paperbacks from Kitchen Sink Press? Well, they were released in another hardcover single volume collection, "Superman: The Dailies (1939-1942)", by Sterling Publishing in 2006.
IDW then published runs of "Golden Age", "Atomic Age", and "Silver Age" Superman newspaper strip reprint collection books beginning in 2013 in conjunction with the Library of American Comics, but they chose to begin their "Golden Age" dailies and Sundays collections after where the Kitchen Sink (and Sterling) volumes left off. Their intention was to later go back and reprint the 1939-1942 material again later on as the Sterling volume was still readily available at the time but never got around to doing so. (The Library of American Comics is now published by Clover Press, although a few existing comic strip reprint lines begun at IDW are still being published by IDW. They do not appear to still have the license to reprint the DC Comics characters, though, leaving their Superman "Golden Age" and "Atomic Age" comic strip reprint lines incomplete, the "Golden Age" missing the aforementioned 1939-1942 material, and only the Sunday strips from the 1950s "Atomic Age" being reprinted as they didn't have a full run of the 1950s daily strips to use as source material.)
The title page gives this volume's title as "Superman: The Dailies: Volume II: Strips 307-672, 1940-1941". It has an introduction ("The Superman Bandwagon") by James Vance. In the way of creator credits, it has the obligatory "Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster" on the title page. On the back of the title page it has a credit reading, "This book would not have been possible without these professionals who were, in one way or another, originally involved with the Superman comic strip: Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Paul Cassidy, Wayne Boring, John Sikela, Jack Schiff, Whitney Ellsworth, and Harry Donenfeld and Vincent Sullivan."
It goes on to say, "The editors [Peter Poplaski, Dave Schreiner, and Christopher Couch] would like to thank the following individuals for lending rare source material, without which this collection would not have been possible: Mitch Itkowitz, Bill Blackbeard (Director) and the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, Rick Norwood, Jeffrey Lindenblatt."
This is another fun selection of some of the earliest Superman stories created. The Superman here is still very much in the mold of that of which you would find in the first year of the comic books. He also reminds me very much of the version of the Man of Steel in the syndicated radio show that began airing in 1940. A rougher around the edges version of Superman unafraid to toss crooks around, come crashing through walls, and use his super powers to coerce bad guys into confessing in one story while using them to assist down on their luck complete strangers in another.
The daily newspaper strips in this second volume tell the following stories (there are no Sunday Superman strips in this volume as the Sunday strips from this time period told an entirely separate storyline than the dailies): "Clark Kent--Spy" (strips 307-334, January 8-February 8, 1940), "Superman Goes to War" (strips 335 to 354, February 9-March 2, 1940), "Trouble in the Tenements" (strips 355 to 396, March 4-April 20, 1940), "The Big Boss" (strips 397 to 414, April 22-May 11, 1940), "'The Unknown' Strikes" (strips 415 to 462, May 13-July 6, 1940), "King of the Kidnapping Ring" (strips 463 to 510, July 8-August 31, 1940), "The Hooded Saboteur" (strips 511 to 540, September 2-October 5, 1940), "Pawns of the Master" (strips 541 to 588, October 7-November 30, 1940), and "The Meekest Man in the World" (strips 589 to 672, December 2, 1940-March 8, 1941).
I won't go into a whole lot of detail as to each individual story (I read this volume off and on over the course of a couple of years alongside the Kitchen Sink Sunday newspaper strips reprint collection and also the various DC Archives series reprinting Superman's comic book stories from the same time period in "Action Comics", "Superman", "New York World's Fair Comics", and "World's Best/Finest Comics"). However, I will say that we do get at least one appearance of Superman's arch villain, "Luthor", in this volume. And, among other interesting early attributes given to Superman in these first years, his occasionally used (but subsequently dropped and now almost completely forgotten) ability to "twist his flexible [facial] features" to disguise himself as someone else. (Which kind of makes you wonder why he didn't do this all the time while going about as Clark Kent, doesn't it?)
I do have to say that I enjoy the pacing of these early Superman newspaper strips over that of the comic books that were coming out at the same time. Each Superman comic book story in 1939 and early 1940s is always exactly 13 pages long. One Superman story in each issue of "Action Comics" (and, later, "World's Best/Finest Comics"). Four 13-page Superman stories in each issue of "Superman" (which initially was a quarterly shipping magazine but soon increased its frequency to bi-monthly). This fixed page count lends to a set pattern to most of the Superman stories of this era. And because there had to be lots of action, not very much in the way of interesting character moments. They are mostly, by necessity, plot driven.
The newspaper strips (both the dailies and Sundays, which, again, had completely different story continuities running simultaneously), thanks to their varying story lengths (and just the reality of the format, that the reader was getting them in extremely small segments, one strip per day or per week) have a much more leisurely pacing to them than the comic book stories and also allow the story to focus on one particular character over the course of several days or weeks.
For example, in "The Meekest Man in the World", we spend a lot of time right at the start of the story meeting this man, Eustace Watson, who is even meeker and more timid than Clark Kent(!) who has written a letter to Lois Lane (who writes the "love lorn" letters column of the newspaper) bemoaning his state in life. How his mild mannered nature is going to make him lose the girl he adores and also prevents him for being successful in life. Lois, as is the typical reaction of Lois during this time period, scoffs at how pathetic this man sounds.
Clark, however, takes an interest in Eustace and, as Superman, decides to help him turn his life around. So first we get to see Superman following Eustace around, observing his day. The way his landlady bosses him around. How he almost misses his street car because the driver intentionally leaves him behind How he always loses his seat on the street car to the same man every day. And then his similar situations he faces at work every day.
After we (and Superman) observe all of this, Superman then introduces himself to Eustace and convinces Eustace to allow him to take his place at work the following day. Of course, Superman then, disguised as Eustace, goes through each and every situation from the previous day, from the landlady to the street car to the elevator operator at work to his work rival for both a promotion and also for the affections of the boss's daughter (although she is always steadfast in who her affection is for, the man Superman is assisting).
Superman then, still disguised as Eustace, goes about securing four construction contracts as part of a contest to see which of the two men--Eustace or his rival--would get the promotion to manager. Of course, Superman cheats by using his super powers, but that's okay because the other guy has some goons try to rough Eustace (Superman) up and lock him up so that he can't finish the contest.
It's a fun story that of course strains belief (I especially liked the part where Superman--this time switched back to his actual Superman costume and appearance--forces himself onto a construction crew building a skyscraper so that he can speed up its construction to be finished in just one day, allowing "Eustace" to get another contract to win his contest.
I highly recommend the Superman daily strips books for anyone who likes Superman, likes 1940s era comic strips, and anyone who would like to learn more about what the character of Superman was like back in his earliest years. I gave "Superman: The Dailies, 1940-1941" four out of five stars on GoodReads. (One quibble I have with the presentation of the strips in this volume is that the individual strips are not dated, just the story sequences as given on the table of contents page. This volume came out over twenty years ago. I believe that most comic strip reprint collections these days do give the original date next to each and every daily (or weekly) strip.)
Where else can you find these strips besides the 1999 hardcover and 2000 softcover/trade paperbacks from Kitchen Sink Press? Well, they were released in another hardcover single volume collection, "Superman: The Dailies (1939-1942)", by Sterling Publishing in 2006.
IDW then published runs of "Golden Age", "Atomic Age", and "Silver Age" Superman newspaper strip reprint collection books beginning in 2013 in conjunction with the Library of American Comics, but they chose to begin their "Golden Age" dailies and Sundays collections after where the Kitchen Sink (and Sterling) volumes left off. Their intention was to later go back and reprint the 1939-1942 material again later on as the Sterling volume was still readily available at the time but never got around to doing so. (The Library of American Comics is now published by Clover Press, although a few existing comic strip reprint lines begun at IDW are still being published by IDW. They do not appear to still have the license to reprint the DC Comics characters, though, leaving their Superman "Golden Age" and "Atomic Age" comic strip reprint lines incomplete, the "Golden Age" missing the aforementioned 1939-1942 material, and only the Sunday strips from the 1950s "Atomic Age" being reprinted as they didn't have a full run of the 1950s daily strips to use as source material.)
June 23, 2021
A fascinating look at Superman during a time of war. I thought the Lenin caricature was hilarious.
December 7, 2012
The second volume of the Dailies covers Superman's adventures from 1940-41. The work is definitely a step up. While. Superman covers some of the same ground in this volume, the quality of writing is much better and much more complex. While we don't get modern supervillains, we get better villains including the appearance of a bald Lex Luthor.
Superman also begins to dip his tow into the waters of the then-growing international crisis and the war in Europe when one power commits sabotage against the United States and tries to frame the other. Siegel gives the nations fictional names, but as one of them is obviously German, it was a pretty slim artifice with Bltizen (obviously Germany) being the aggressor country and Rutland being the one attacked. The story still takes a pacifist turn as it ends with a Hitler lookalike (dictator of Blitzen) and a General from Rutland duking it out. The thought seems to be that if the leaders had to fight the wars themselves rather than sending other people's children off to war they might be less eager to do so. It's fantasy with a point.
Superman takes on Tenements and organized crime. The stories begin to soar as he takes on some much more interesting if not super-powered villains in the story, "The Unknown Strikes" which features a great concept where the city is being blackmailed into allowing bank robberies with a threat of a major explosion hanging over their head. The next three serials are as action packed and suspenseful, posing a challenge for the man of steel to unravel the mystery and avoid catastrophe. These are more exciting than most the radio serials than were running at the time.
The book closes very strong with the story line, "The Meekest Man in the World." A man named Eustance sends an advice to lovelorn letter declaring that his shyness is ruining his life and subjecting him to ridicule and that he's in love with his boss' daughter but "unable to assert myself" and has gone to dozens of psychiatrists with getting. Lois laughs at the letter, declares it pathetic. However, in his thought bubble, Superman thinks, "This fellow and his problem may seem petty, but to him it's the greatest crisis in the World! Big problem interest me and it looks as if Eustance and Superman are going to get together."
And so Superman first observes Eustance and sees that not only is he timid but everyone from his landlady to his co-workers are pushing him around. Eustance has a chance to turn his life around and get the girl he loves, if and only if he can sell four prospects on doing business with his boss' firm. So Superman steps to lend a hand by disguising himself as Eustance.
The story line is wonderful.It was originally told over a 3 month period from December 1940 to March 1941. At times, it's a laugh riot as Superman turns the tables on Eustance's tormentors and uses his superpowers to solve problems that are keeping potential clients from signing Eustance's company. There's also plenty of action as Eustance's rival is willing to call in thugs to make sure he gets the promotion. It's also quite poignant and displays the big heart of Superman who declares, "I like to help people. When I see someone in a tough spot I feel an irresistible urge to play guardian angel." No Brainiac, no Luthor, no Toy Man, no major supervillain, but this is one of my favorite superman stories and makes the whole book well worth reading.
Superman also begins to dip his tow into the waters of the then-growing international crisis and the war in Europe when one power commits sabotage against the United States and tries to frame the other. Siegel gives the nations fictional names, but as one of them is obviously German, it was a pretty slim artifice with Bltizen (obviously Germany) being the aggressor country and Rutland being the one attacked. The story still takes a pacifist turn as it ends with a Hitler lookalike (dictator of Blitzen) and a General from Rutland duking it out. The thought seems to be that if the leaders had to fight the wars themselves rather than sending other people's children off to war they might be less eager to do so. It's fantasy with a point.
Superman takes on Tenements and organized crime. The stories begin to soar as he takes on some much more interesting if not super-powered villains in the story, "The Unknown Strikes" which features a great concept where the city is being blackmailed into allowing bank robberies with a threat of a major explosion hanging over their head. The next three serials are as action packed and suspenseful, posing a challenge for the man of steel to unravel the mystery and avoid catastrophe. These are more exciting than most the radio serials than were running at the time.
The book closes very strong with the story line, "The Meekest Man in the World." A man named Eustance sends an advice to lovelorn letter declaring that his shyness is ruining his life and subjecting him to ridicule and that he's in love with his boss' daughter but "unable to assert myself" and has gone to dozens of psychiatrists with getting. Lois laughs at the letter, declares it pathetic. However, in his thought bubble, Superman thinks, "This fellow and his problem may seem petty, but to him it's the greatest crisis in the World! Big problem interest me and it looks as if Eustance and Superman are going to get together."
And so Superman first observes Eustance and sees that not only is he timid but everyone from his landlady to his co-workers are pushing him around. Eustance has a chance to turn his life around and get the girl he loves, if and only if he can sell four prospects on doing business with his boss' firm. So Superman steps to lend a hand by disguising himself as Eustance.
The story line is wonderful.It was originally told over a 3 month period from December 1940 to March 1941. At times, it's a laugh riot as Superman turns the tables on Eustance's tormentors and uses his superpowers to solve problems that are keeping potential clients from signing Eustance's company. There's also plenty of action as Eustance's rival is willing to call in thugs to make sure he gets the promotion. It's also quite poignant and displays the big heart of Superman who declares, "I like to help people. When I see someone in a tough spot I feel an irresistible urge to play guardian angel." No Brainiac, no Luthor, no Toy Man, no major supervillain, but this is one of my favorite superman stories and makes the whole book well worth reading.
October 9, 2012
This collection of Superman Dailies is as inspiring and greatly needed as when each first appeared in the newspaper half a century ago. What a delightful read! I love the old Superman!
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