Joe Shuster
Birth name	Joseph Shuster
Born	10 July 1914 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	July 30, 1992 (aged 78)
Nationality	Naturalized American (immigrated Canadian)
Area(s)	Penciller, Inker
Notable works	Superman

Joseph "Joe" Shuster (July 10, 1914 - July 30, 1992) was a Canadian-born comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1 (March 1938). July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English (de facto) Flower White Trillium Tree Eastern White Pine Bird Common Loon Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 106 24... July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_States. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Canada. ... July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Look up artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... This article is about the character. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Jerome (Jerry) Siegel (October 17, 1914 - January 28, 1996) was the co-creator of Superman, the first of the great comic book heroes and one of the most recognizable fictional characters from the 20th century. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ...

Biography

Early life and career

Joseph Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Jewish immigrants. His father Julius, an immigrant from Rotterdam, South Holland, the Netherlands, and his mother Ida, who had come from Kiev in Ukraine, were barely able to make ends meet. As a youngster, Shuster worked as a newspaper boy for the Toronto Star and, as a hobby, he liked to sketch. He had one sister, Jean Peavy.^{[citation needed]} Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength Image:Toronto, Ontario Location. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... Rotterdam Location Coat of arms The coat of arms reads Sterker door Strijd, i. ... South Holland (Dutch Zuid-Holland) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country on the North Sea coast. ... Location Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted. ... A paperboy is the general name for a person (traditionally a preteen delivery boy) employed by a newspaper, a news agent or even an official postal service to deliver papers to subscribers as assigned by streets and routes, often on a bicycle. ... The Toronto Star is Canadas highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within Ontario. ...

Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the debut of Superman. Cover art by Joe Shuster.

He was a cousin of one of Canada's most popular comedians, Frank Shuster. When Shuster was 10, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, eventually becoming naturalized U.S. citizens.^{[citation needed]} In Cleveland, Shuster attended Glenville High School and befriended his later collaborator, writer Jerry Siegel, with whom he began publishing a science fiction fanzine. The duo broke into comics at Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications, the future DC Comics, working on the landmark More Fun Comics — the first comic-book series to consist solely of original material rather than using any reprinted newspaper comic strips — debuting with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" and the supernatural crime-fighter strip "Dr. Occult", both in More Fun #6 (Oct. 1935). Cover of Action Comics #1. ... Cover of Action Comics #1. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... Wayne and Shuster was a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. ... Cleveland redirects here. ... Naturalization is the act whereby a person voluntarily and actively acquires a nationality which is not his or her nationality at birth. ... Public high school in the Glenville neighborhood of eastern Cleveland, Ohio, near E. 105 Street and E. St. ... Jerome (Jerry) Siegel (October 17, 1914 - January 28, 1996) was the co-creator of Superman, the first of the great comic book heroes and one of the most recognizable fictional characters from the 20th century. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest. ... Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, a pulp magazine writer and entrepreneur, pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting of all-original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips. ... DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... More Fun Comics was a DC Comics title which began as New Fun Comics in February 1935 and changed to More Fun with its seventh issue. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... For other uses of this term, see Musketeer (disambiguation). ... Look up Supernatural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Doctor Occult is a fictional magic user in the DC Comics universe. ...

Creation of Superman

Siegel and Shuster used an early version of the character that would become Superman in short stories and in a 1933 comic-strip proposal. In 1938, after that proposal had languished among others at National, editor Vin Sullivan chose it as the cover feature for National's Action Comics #1 (June 1938). The following year, Siegel & Shuster initiated the syndicated Superman comic strip. Vincent Vin Sullivan (died on February 3, 1999) is an early comic book editor, artist, and publisher. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... Print Syndication is a form of syndication in which news articles, columns, or comic strips are made available to newspapers and magazines. ... The daily Superman newspaper comic strip began in January 6, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. ...

When Superman first appeared, Superman's alter ego Clark Kent worked for the Daily Star newspaper, named by Shuster after the Toronto Daily Star, his old employer in Toronto. According to an interview he gave a few months before his death, he modeled the cityscape of Superman's home city, Metropolis, on that of his old hometown.^[1] When the comic strip received international distribution, the company permanently changed the name to The Daily Planet. For other uses, see Clark Kent (disambiguation). ... The Toronto Star is Canadas highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within Ontario. ... The daily Superman newspaper comic strip began in January 6, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. ... The Daily Planet is a fictional broadsheet newspaper that appears in Superman stories published by DC Comics. ...

In the same interview, Shuster stated that he modeled the look of Clark Kent after both himself and movie star Harold Lloyd, and that of Superman after Douglas Fairbanks Sr. He modeled Lois Lane after Joanne Carter, the woman who would later marry Jerry Siegel. Harold Clayton Lloyd (April 20, 1893–March 8, 1971) was an American actor and filmmaker, most famous for his hugely successful and influential silent film comedies. ... Douglas Fairbanks (May 23, 1883–December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. ...

Legal issues

Shuster became famous as the co-creator of one of the most well-known and commercially successful fictional characters of the 20th century. National Allied Publications claimed copyright to his and Siegel's work, and when the company refused to compensate them to the degree they believed appropriate, Siegel and Shuster, in 1946, near the end of their 10-year contract to produce Superman stories, sued National over rights to the characters. Two years later, the New York State Supreme Court limited their settlement to US$60,000 each, finding that the artist and writer owned the copyright to Superboy — which they sold back to National for about $100,000.^{[citation needed]} — but that the rights to Superman had been validly purchased by the publisher when they bought the first Superman story. After the bitter legal wrangling, Shuster and Siegel's byline was dropped by DC comics. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

In 1947, the team rejoined editor Sullivan, by now the founder and publisher of the comic-book company Magazine Enterprises where they created the short-lived comical crime-fighter Funnyman. While Siegel continued to write comics for a variety of publishers, Shuster largely dropped out of sight. Magazine Enterprises was an American comic book company lasting from 1943 to 1958, which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and childrens comics, with virtually no superheroes. ... Funnyman #1 (Jan. ...

Later career

Shuster continued to draw comics after the failure of Funnyman, although exactly what he drew is uncertain. Ted White^[2] reports that he continued to draw lacklustre horror stories into the 1950s. In 1964, when Shuster was living on Long Island with his elderly mother, he was reported to be earning his living as a freelance cartoonist; he was also "trying to paint pop art - serious comic strips - and hope[d] eventually to promote a one-man show in some chic Manhattan gallery".^[3] By 1976 he was reported to be almost blind and living in a California nursing home.^[4]

In 1967, when the Superman copyright came up for renewal, Siegel launched a second lawsuit, which also proved unsuccessful.

In 1975, Siegel launched a publicity campaign, in which Shuster participated, protesting DC Comics' treatment of him and Shuster. In the face of a great deal of negative publicity over their handling of the affair (and due to the upcoming Superman movie), DC's parent company Warner Communications reinstated the byline dropped more than thirty years earlier and granted the pair a lifetime pension of $35,000 a year plus health benefits. Joe Shuster died in Los Angeles, California in 1992. DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... Superman, also known as Superman: The Movie (as it was called in pre-release advertising), is a superhero film, released by Warner Bros. ... Warner Communications, formerly Kinney National Company, was the parent company for Warner Bros. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Area    - City  498. ...

Awards

In 2005 Shuster was inducted into the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame for his contributions to comic books. The Joe Shuster Awards, started in 2005, were named in honor of the Canadian-born Shuster, and honor achievements in the field of comic book publishing by Canadian creators, publishers and retailers. Superman remains one of the most popular superheroes of all time. The Joe Shuster Awards are given for achievement in comic books by Canadians . ...

Quotes

Neal Adams on the late-1970s settlement from DC Comics for which he and other comics creators fought: "Others made millions while Superman's creators lived in near-poverty. Jerry was a clerk and Joe was a legally blind man who lived in his brother's apartment, slept on a cot, and worked as a messenger. I met and fought for their small remaining rights when they both turned only 60 years old. Not 'old' by any definition. The battle took months and the settlement was meager, but it let the men live the remaining years of their lives with dignity. You know what they cared about most? They cared about having their names, once again, associated with their character, Superman! Why? Because it was what they were as people. They were their work."^{[citation needed]} Neal Adams (born June 6, 1941, Governors Island, Manhattan, New York City) is an American comic book and commercial artist best known for his highly naturalistic style of illustration. ...

Footnotes

References

Comic Art & Graffix Gallery - Artist Biography

External links

• Essay on Joe Shuster at Flixens.com