Opening
Mister Bad Guy
Mr Mercury to friends
- Location
- Bay Area
On the third Monday of May, nothing happened. In honor of nothing happening, I shall do something I've been meaning to do for a while.
So, Silver Age Superman. We all know it. We've all seen the wacky covers and the insane plot twists and the bizarrely out-of-sorts storytelling. We all know Superman's a huge, inexplicable asshole to his friends and family and also a universe-cracking deity that nothing can really feasibly challenge. We know that Kryptonite can be found in cereal boxes, that every plot involves at least three inexplicable duplicates and one case of hypnotism. What an absurd relic. Who'd bother with them?
Plenty of people, turns out. At one point, these comics were the most popular comics in the world.
According to the helpful folks at Comichron, at least one of the Superman books averaged in the top five bestselling books throughout all the 1960s - the only exception being 1963, and that's only because DC's sales data for that year is missing. In 1962, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969, fully seven of the top ten bestsellers were books featuring Superman. In the year of 1962, more than forty million single issues starring him were sold.
Now, it's very easy to dismiss this; they were cheap, they were aimed at kids, they had infinite inertia, they were lowest-common-denominator garbage and they could have had Superman doing his taxes and it would have broken 100k, especially in an industry far healthier than the iron-lunged quadriplegic of modern comics. Irrelevant, of course. Let us point and laugh.
Poppycock. These were the most prosperous comics of one of the most prosperous periods in comic history. If the above numbers are anything to go by, their popularity actually rose over the 60s. Anything to achieve such media penetration, even if it is garbage, must have its hooks on something interesting. And these books were not merely bought and tossed aside, if the highly active letters page is anything to go by, but read cover-to-cover and critiqued and loved, just like any other.
Furthermore, this was not an era like what had come before. This was the Silver Age.
When comics historians speak of the Silver Age, they tend to talk about Barry Allen's 1956 first appearance as the harbinger of it - and quite justly, as his debut cascaded into the debuts of a number of other characters. But Barry was not a top-selling character - top twenty, yes, top ten, never. Superman merely kept going, having been published in the 30s and trucking along without so much as a renumbering. (This has made figuring out which Superman stories are Earth-2 and which ones aren't a bit of a headache.) That was on the page, anyway. Behind the scenes, comics historians have traced the beginning of Superman's Silver Age reawakening to Mort Weisinger, who took over as editor of his books in 1957 and began taking an active role in 1958.
As it turns out, there was an active difference between what came before and what came after. It didn't just keep pumping out the same stuff. It evolved, and grew. And this evolution would be probably the most pivotal part of Superman's mythology since it was decided he could fly. These stories do carry a legitimate cultural cache, and that warrants a look.
And even if you disagree with that sentiment, please consider that this thread will feature context to every single Superdickery moment you were too afraid to ask about.
Will this be blind?
Sorta. I've only read a handful of Silver Age Superman stories, from best-of collections or random dives in the quarter bin, but I'm pretty knowledgeable about the character in general. This is the deepest I've ever gone in, though.
What parts are you going to read?
I will be starting this adventure with the thing that comes up whenever one googles "beginning of Silver Age Superman." I'm going to stick to the Superman or Superman-involved stories in Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Superman, and Superboy, maybe occasionally detouring into World's Finest, Lois Lane, or Jimmy Olsen whenever an important issue hits. I will conclude the reading at a comic I've already decided on. I won't cover reprints unless it's something important.
How often will you be posting?
I'll try to get one issue every day, perhaps every two or three days if things get particularly hectic. The first actual reading will be showing up later today.
Wouldn't reading all of Silver Age Superman produce a King in Yellow-esque insanity?
I can handle stories meant for children. How about you?
So, Silver Age Superman. We all know it. We've all seen the wacky covers and the insane plot twists and the bizarrely out-of-sorts storytelling. We all know Superman's a huge, inexplicable asshole to his friends and family and also a universe-cracking deity that nothing can really feasibly challenge. We know that Kryptonite can be found in cereal boxes, that every plot involves at least three inexplicable duplicates and one case of hypnotism. What an absurd relic. Who'd bother with them?
Plenty of people, turns out. At one point, these comics were the most popular comics in the world.
According to the helpful folks at Comichron, at least one of the Superman books averaged in the top five bestselling books throughout all the 1960s - the only exception being 1963, and that's only because DC's sales data for that year is missing. In 1962, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969, fully seven of the top ten bestsellers were books featuring Superman. In the year of 1962, more than forty million single issues starring him were sold.
Now, it's very easy to dismiss this; they were cheap, they were aimed at kids, they had infinite inertia, they were lowest-common-denominator garbage and they could have had Superman doing his taxes and it would have broken 100k, especially in an industry far healthier than the iron-lunged quadriplegic of modern comics. Irrelevant, of course. Let us point and laugh.
Poppycock. These were the most prosperous comics of one of the most prosperous periods in comic history. If the above numbers are anything to go by, their popularity actually rose over the 60s. Anything to achieve such media penetration, even if it is garbage, must have its hooks on something interesting. And these books were not merely bought and tossed aside, if the highly active letters page is anything to go by, but read cover-to-cover and critiqued and loved, just like any other.
Furthermore, this was not an era like what had come before. This was the Silver Age.
When comics historians speak of the Silver Age, they tend to talk about Barry Allen's 1956 first appearance as the harbinger of it - and quite justly, as his debut cascaded into the debuts of a number of other characters. But Barry was not a top-selling character - top twenty, yes, top ten, never. Superman merely kept going, having been published in the 30s and trucking along without so much as a renumbering. (This has made figuring out which Superman stories are Earth-2 and which ones aren't a bit of a headache.) That was on the page, anyway. Behind the scenes, comics historians have traced the beginning of Superman's Silver Age reawakening to Mort Weisinger, who took over as editor of his books in 1957 and began taking an active role in 1958.
As it turns out, there was an active difference between what came before and what came after. It didn't just keep pumping out the same stuff. It evolved, and grew. And this evolution would be probably the most pivotal part of Superman's mythology since it was decided he could fly. These stories do carry a legitimate cultural cache, and that warrants a look.
And even if you disagree with that sentiment, please consider that this thread will feature context to every single Superdickery moment you were too afraid to ask about.
Will this be blind?
Sorta. I've only read a handful of Silver Age Superman stories, from best-of collections or random dives in the quarter bin, but I'm pretty knowledgeable about the character in general. This is the deepest I've ever gone in, though.
What parts are you going to read?
I will be starting this adventure with the thing that comes up whenever one googles "beginning of Silver Age Superman." I'm going to stick to the Superman or Superman-involved stories in Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Superman, and Superboy, maybe occasionally detouring into World's Finest, Lois Lane, or Jimmy Olsen whenever an important issue hits. I will conclude the reading at a comic I've already decided on. I won't cover reprints unless it's something important.
How often will you be posting?
I'll try to get one issue every day, perhaps every two or three days if things get particularly hectic. The first actual reading will be showing up later today.
Wouldn't reading all of Silver Age Superman produce a King in Yellow-esque insanity?
I can handle stories meant for children. How about you?
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