Siegel and Shuster ultimately agreed, and their sample strips were quickly cut and pasted into a comic book story that ended up being the cover feature in the first issue of Action Comics.Īction Comics became a sensation, and it was quickly evident that it was Superman that was the driving force of the series (there amusingly was a reader survey in one of the early issues asking readers who they liked best in the comic, as National was likely unsure itself who was the reason the book was selling so well). National felt that it had found that special something when editorial convinced Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to abandon their attempts to get Superman made into a newspaper strip and instead sell Superman to National so that it could be the lead feature in this new magazine. There was just something missing, though, something that would make it stand out. There was a big drive behind this new comic, so all the various freelancers were trying out to get into this comic book. In 1938, National Allied Publications had three ongoing series, a humor comic ( More Fun Comics), an adventure comic ( Adventure Comics) and a crime comic ( Detective Comics) and wanted to do another new adventure series.

This time around, we're headed to December 1947 for the debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's followup to Superman, Funnyman #1. In every Look Back, we examine a comic book issue from 10/25/50/75 years ago (plus a wild card every month with a fifth week in it).

Superman jerry siegel and joe shuster