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In the most recent Comic Book Legends Revealed, uncover how a difficulty of Superman was produced in secret, hidden from the collection’ personal editor!
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and fifty-third installment the place we look at three comic book legends and decide whether or not they’re true or false. As typical, there might be three posts, one for every of the three legends.
NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I’ll do a bonus version of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, proper? So go comply with my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!
COMIC LEGEND:
DC launched a difficulty of Superman in secret to shock the editor of the collection, Julius Schwartz, for his birthday.
STATUS:
True
Superman #410 (by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Al Williamson) got here out at a wierd time for DC, because it was the fiftieth anniversary of DC and Crisis on Infinite Earths was within the midst of constructing some main adjustments to the DC Universe, adjustments that may finally result in a reboot of the Superman titles, however in the meanwhile, issues saved pluggin together with longtime creators Cary Bates and Curt Swan nonetheless placing out tales, all edited by longtime Superman editor, Julius Schwartz, who had taken over modifying duties on the Superman titles from the even LONGER tenured editor, Mort Weisinger, after Weisinger retired.
In this concern, Superman averted a catastrophe in Hawaii, and headed dwelling and wrote the story up as Clark Kent…
However, the issue was that the incident did not really happen!! The complete entrance web page story was primarily a hoax!
Superman was known as to see Morgan Edge, who owned the Daily Planet, and he needed to determine whether or not to confess that he hallucinated a whole occasion, and thus let the world know that the Man of Steel was apparently dropping his thoughts, or throw Clark Kent beneath the bus, and he determined the latter was the extra judicous factor to do…
And because of this, Clark Kent was fired from the Daily Planet, and have become a nationwide shame…
Of course, the entire thing was orchestrated by Lex Luthor, who planted the hallucination in Superman’s thoughts, figuring out he would inform both Lois Lane or Clark Kent the story, and thus power one in every of his greatest associates to be disgraced and fired…
Things regarded bleak for the Man of Steel as the problem ended, feeling as if he had eternally tarnished his personal secret id…
Readers, I’m positive, could not wait to see the following concern. Only…the following concern WASN’t a continuation of the story! Instead, it was a SURPRISE concern that was finished secretly, hidden from the e book’s editor himself!
You see, the e book could be popping out round Julius Schwartz’s seventieth birthday, so Schwartz’s assistant editor, Bob Rozakis, together with higher-up DC editors, Paul Levitz and Dick Giordano, determined to secretly create a shock concern to have a good time Schwartz’s birthday.
The nice Todd Klein recalled how he ended up doing the manufacturing work on the problem:
The total concern was produced secretly. Julie was the Superman editor and was engaged on a completely totally different story that he thought was getting in concern 411.Meanwhile, author Elliot S! Maggin, cowl artists penciller Ross Andru (most likely) and inker Dick Giordano, and Curt Swan, who pencilled the inside story, had been crafting this story of an alternate universe the place Superman was actual, and so was Julie, although his life had taken a really totally different course. When the story was lettered by John Costanza and inked by Murphy Anderson, it got here to me. I used to be the Assistant Production Manager at DC then, nonetheless doing numerous hands-on stuff. I took the pages dwelling to do all of the wanted manufacturing work on the problem: corrections, artwork touch-ups, pasting in logos and so forth. I didn’t dare work on it within the workplace. Julie was a really concerned editor, and he may need popped by the manufacturing room to verify on his books at any time. When the duvet was prepared, I took that dwelling too, doing the duvet lettering (prime line above the emblem, phrase balloon and UPC field lettering for the direct sale version), pasted on the commerce gown (brand, value field, DC bullet) and every little thing was photostatted or xeroxed for the colorists, Anthony Tollin on the duvet and Gene D’Angelo on the inside pages. Finally everybody accepted the completed work, and it went off to the printer with Julie none the wiser, although there have been some shut calls I feel.
The concern concerned Earth-Prime, the Multiversal idea that prompt a “Real life” DC Earth the place DC and the writers there existed. Schwartz had beforehand been a giant a part of these tales. Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson produced the problem (together with letterer John Costanza and colorist Gene D’Angelo), which ended with the Earth-Prime Schwartz celebrating his seventieth within the comedian with different DC staffers…
Superman flies the dying Julius Schwartz of Earth-One to Earth-Prime, the place he merges with the Earth-Prime Schwartz. Superman then heads dwelling pausing to say hello to Curt Swan and Bates and Maggin (he had met the opposite two on different Earth-Prime misadventures)…
Schwartz recalled the incident in his auto-biography:
“So comes the day [of his 70th birthday], and all of a sudden publisher Jenette Kahn’s administrative assistant Carol Fein comes in and says we’re having a special meeting in the conference room. I probably fretted as I walked down the hall wondering what the latest crisis was—and walked into the conference room to discover champagne on ice and Jenette handing me the first copy of SUPERMAN #411, and I see that I am depicted on the cover.”The authentic artwork for the duvet was then signed by LOTS of individuals, and Schwartz saved having folks signal it over time…
Klein identifies a lot of the signatures at his weblog here. What a intelligent little stunt. The concern that Schwartz THOUGHT was Superman #411 ran the following concern, because the Luthor plotline continued.
CHECK OUT A TV LEGENDS REVEALED!
In the most recent TV Legends Revealed – Learn whether or not Norman Osborn was almost the Hobgoblin on Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
PART THREE SOON!
Check again quickly for half 3 of this installment’s legends!
Feel free to ship solutions for future comedian legends to me at both cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com
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