Customer Reviews

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Time was when a comic book wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in Hades of getting into a library's collection. And while some library systems have grown more open to the notion of comic book heroes leaping about their hallowed halls, there's still a great deal of resistance to the idea. Now Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross MacDonald have found another way to get a fella like Superman into a library, and it's definitely a slick idea. Until now the story of Superman's creators Jerry ...more Time was when a comic book wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in Hades of getting into a library's collection. And while some library systems have grown more open to the notion of comic book heroes leaping about their hallowed halls, there's still a great deal of resistance to the idea. Now Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross MacDonald have found another way to get a fella like Superman into a library, and it's definitely a slick idea. Until now the story of Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster has never been told in a format accessible to children. Now in Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, Nobleman and MacDonald pay homage to the fellas that brought to life "the greatest superhero of all time," in such a way that no library in the world could object to the book's style and panache. And though I've a quibble with it here and there, the next time you have a seven-year-old moaning about needing to read a biography make sure that this book is the ace up your sleeve.

Dateline: Cleveland, Ohio - The 1930s. Jerry Siegel had many interests but what he really liked to do was escape from the world around him. By reading the tales of Tarzan, Buck Rogers, and other fantastical heroes, Jerry could find high adventure and this was an interest he shared with Joe Shuster. Shy like Jerry, Joe loved to draw, and together the two came up with all kinds of interesting ideas. But it wasn't until a hot night in 1934 that Jerry found his inspiration. What if this hero looked like a normal dweeby guy (a guy like Joe and Jerry) but was really a superhero in disguise? That night Superman was born and in his own Action Comics he found his audience. An Afterword to the book discusses how Jerry and Joe sold their Superman rights for a pittance and fought over the years to get them back.

There were little details in Boys of Steel that did the old heart good to see. For example, it would have been the easiest thing in the world for Nobleman to say that Superman was meant to fly. Yet anyone who has ever read the earliest Superman comics will note that he didn't begin his existence flying. Rather he had, "a habit of leaping so high that it would look as though he were flying." Remember that line, "Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"? That's where that came from. The author walks the fine line between the original Superman and the one we all recognize today, and does so while still remaining factually accurate. No small task.

Anyone who has ever read Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay knows at least a little about the background of Siegel and Shuster. So it was that I started noticing what Nobleman wouldn't mention, as opposed to what he would. In the majority of the text, no mention is made of the fact that the two men were Jewish (though Nobleman takes pains to mention how similar they were) or that they were the children of immigrants. Superman's an immigrant too, but that doesn't come up in the story. Admittedly, that element is a side issue that would probably constitute a long biography in and of itself. And the ethnicity of our heroes is certainly brought up in the Afterword. But how many kids are going to read through that? Even so much as a sentence mentioning that they were Jewish would work to place them within the context of their times.

As it currently stands, Nobleman's focus is less on Superman's genesis as it related to his progenitors' birthright and more on how this creation was the right comic book hero for the right time. "The other heroes Jerry and Joe read about were regular humans in strange places. This hero would be a stranger in a regular place." An alien in a regular environment. And in a scant 40-page picture book Nobleman even manages to draw ties to Superman's rise alongside WWII. Here was America in a strange war and "People wanted a hero they knew would always come home. Jerry and Joe gave them that - the world's first superhero."

The amount of research necessary for a book of this scope would have to be hefty and I was pleased to see a small list of Selected Sources available on the publication page. Much of this research ends up in the Afterword, a three-page encapsulation of Shuster and Siegel's life after they sold away their creation's rights. It is fortuitous that this book will be released just as the March 26, 2008 posthumous lawsuit entitles Siegel's estate to share in Superman's United States copyright. I am reviewing Boys of Steel from an advanced readers copy, so I cannot speak to whether or not the final copy will contain this additional information. Yet even if it does not, Nobleman has covered his tracks fairly well with the note that "Negotiations are ongoing" (particularly since the suit is far from over and will undoubtedly be challenged).

As for the illustrations, I've been a Ross MacDonald fan for years. You simply cannot read his simpler picture book work (including as Achoo! Bang! Crash! The Noisy Alphabet and Bad Baby) without falling just a little bit in love with the man's comic-influenced style. Clearly MacDonald was a natural choice to illustrate Nobleman's biography. His love of the subject matter coupled with his ability to replicate Joe Shuster's original style is to his advantage. But MacDonald's choice to render Siegel and Shuster virtually identical is perhaps a counterintuitive move. I can understand why he would have gone in this direction. Siegel and Shuster were similar fellows, sure. And by making them virtually indistinguishable (Jerry's a little more plump than Joe and has lighter eyebrows) he pits them as two guys together against the world. And while it wouldn't have been my choice to deny Jerry and Joe their individuality, I can see why MacDonald chose to go the route that he had.

Certainly the design of the book itself is pretty keen. Comic book tropes pop up unexpectedly at the most interesting moments. Some descriptions appear in white bubbles around the pages. At another point Joe is seen tearing up his pages, action lines emanating off his body. The format doesn't actually break down into panels until Jerry has his 1934 Superman brainstorm. Then we get a quick fire rapid montage of thoughts, images, concepts, and ideas. It breaks down the elements of who Superman is and what he stands for and works brilliantly to tie in the elements of his existence to the boys' own lives. For the most part, MacDonald sticks to a palate of brown, blue, green, and yellow. Red appears only when it can heighten the scene and make a point; Once when Jerry has his brainstorm and once at the end when we see Superman at last in all his red-caped glory.

Comic book characters rendered in the style of their original creators are quite the rage in picture book publishing right now. With Ralph Cosentino's Batman doing Bob Kane proud on the one hand and MacDonald polishing his Shuster skills on the other, this is a good time to get kids into superheroes in all their myriad forms. And with a great real-life story to boot, this is one biography that's going to lure the kids like nothing else. I haven't read a bio this kid-friendly since Siena Siegel's To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel. Though I would have tweaked a detail here and there, Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross MacDonald do Superman's creators proud. More fun than any children's biography has any right to be.

I picked up this picture book for my two sons, ages 6 and 4, thinking I'd introduce them to the world of Superman. The book honors the creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, but the story is just too "fan-centric" for young kids who are experiencing Superman for the first time.

I want to be absolutely clear. This is a beautiful picture book, a work of love and a book that any die-hard Superman fan would be proud to own. However, it is not a book for young children, especially children under 6. I would consider introducing this book to older children attending grade school for their book report. Jerry and Joe's hardest years are summarized in the book's final three pages. Understandably, poverty, depression and lawsuits are harder to convey in picture book form.

I give a four-star rating for Superman fans but recommend parents of young children look elsewhere to find a Superman story for bedtime reading. I plan to dust this book off in a couple years and share it again with my sons.

Adult fans will want this book on their coffee table along with Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon.

Marc Tyler Nobleman has done a masterful job at telling the story of two underdogs who captured the spirit of their time and the imaginations of generations. While more of a Batman and Wonderwoman woman myself, I could not help but root for Jerry and Joe, the painfully shy but brilliant duo who would not give up on their dream creation. Superman was not just a story to them; he was an emblem of goodness and hope. I came away from this deceptively simple text with an appreciation of the ultimate superhero having been birthed during the Great Depression, when many were in need of saving and many more believed in the possibility of such salvation.

Illustrations by Ross MacDonald are understated yet fun, reflective of the time period and subject matter.

Younger children will follow the text, which is readable for slightly older children and entertaining for adults. As a bonus, a more detailed, young-adult level narrative of the struggle Jerry and Joe went through in fighting for the rights to their work can be found in the back of the book. In short, Boys of Steel is for everyone who loves comics, Superman or artistic triumph. Let Boys of Steel take you up, up and away!

Boys of Steel tells the story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the two painfully shy teenagers from Cleveland who created Superman. The two met in school and discovered a common interest in science fiction and fantastic tales. One wrote stories, the other drew. Together they created story after story that never sold. Eventually created Superman and, believe it or not, no one wanted Superman either for three years.

Nobleman tells about their eventual success and their ongoing struggles with DC Comics. He tells the story well but the real star is the art of Ross MacDonald. He has illustrated the entire story in the style of those early Superman comic books and the art just leaps off of the over-sized pages. My eleven year old daughter read it and enjoyed, but probably not as much as me. This one was a winner.

Marc Tyler Nobleman is coming to speak at our local Elementary School next month. My daughter was so excited when she found out, she came home and asked me to request the book from our local library.

This is a great story for so many reasons, including the message that even if you are young and poor and don't fit in you can still create something amazing if you work hard and persevere.

I knew nothing about Superman's origins before reading this. I love that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were young men living during the depression at the time they created Superman. I love the way Jerry and Joe's imaginations helped them cope with the difficulties they were dealing with in their lives and that they continued to try to get Superman published after repeated rejections.

Ross MacDonald's illustrations are the perfect complement to the story with their old time feel, I love the little details, like Joe's shadow in profile is Superman's profile too.

What was disappointing was the true story of what happened to Joe and Jerry after Superman. There is a three page description of the events in Superman's creators lives after Superman's rise to fame and it's rather disheartening. I won't read it to my six year old son, I'd rather he think about the positive messages from the picture book. I'm hoping my daughter will somehow miss the depressing reality in the last three pages. But I'm glad that I know more about the creators of Superman. Shame on DC Comics!

Amid the economic despair and political uncertainty of the Great Depression, two Jewish immigrants--16 year old Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster--drew from pop culture to create something visionary and for the time, completely original. Bound in the muscle defining outfit of a circus acrobat, the boys drew from the legendary strongmen they idolized--like Hercules and Samson--and created the original social crusader, Superman.

"Boys of Steel" does a fantastic job of describing America--a nation on the verge of war--and the original Superman mythos, as seen through the eyes of its two teenage creators. The title is written in the style of a children's book, but is appropriate for diehard comic book fans, as well. The book helps to bring into perspective the struggles of its creators behind the ginormous Superman character and does not sugarcoat the artistic and economic hardship the artists faced at the hands of DC Comics. Ironically, as DC transformed Superman into a symbol of the American social order, their practices against Siegel and Shuster where hardly ethical.

Jerry Siegel wasn't crazy about school. He would much rather be home with his imaginary friends, Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. His father was dead, everyone was looking for a job, the Great Depression was in full tilt, but even so his superheroes kept him going. Every night he would read these fantastic stories about them. He also would sit up in the attic in front of a window, one in which he could see his other young men his age playing, typing his "own adventure and science fiction stories."

He was shy and most likely no one even knew he existed, except for one other person. His name was Joe Shuster, a guy who looked and acted so much like him they "could've passed for brothers. The only difference was that Joe's passion was not writing, but drawing . . . all the time. These guys became fast friends and had a plan, one that once they got going, no one could tell them they were wasting their time. It was a "science fiction story in cartoons." At first they were heartbreakingly rejected by a publisher, but then Jerry's mind lit up like Broadway one night. He had an idea and this time Joe and Jerry would persevere until they were published. They would leap tall buildings in a single bound, or at least climb hundreds of stairs until someone wanted their Superman comic strip.

I loved this biography of two young men who, in spite of numerous rejections, persevered and went on to amazing heights. The writing captures the spirit of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and the art work brings them to life. This book will have wide appeal to young dreamers with big imaginations because like the authors, who once dreamed and acted out their superhero fantasies, know how to render a tale any reluctant reader will snap up!

Any Superman fan will be proud of this clever homage to the two creative guys who created the original Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman...arguably America's greatest pop culture icon. In its simplicity, this thin volume will appeal to the freshman comic fan but true historians and buffs will instantly recognize, appreciate and celebrate the honorific narrative of the Jerry & Joe's story and also of the beautiful illustrations that pay tribute to the original artwork found in the early Action Comics.

Kudos to the creative forces behind this powerful little memoir. Somewhere in the heavenly portion of the Phantom Zone, Siegel & Schuster are smiling.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are two teens in Depression-era Cleveland who are mild and meek, escaping into fictional worlds of adventure fantasy. The two made up their own stories - and thus Superman was born. This is the first picture book about how these two created the largest superhero of them all, and is a pick for any picturebook nonfiction holding. Ross MacDonald provides a blend of full-page color illustrations and comic-like panels for further attention.

Hello comic fans! Kirk Kimball aka Robby Reed of DIAL B for BLOG. "BOYS OF STEEL" has been reviewed by the Midwest Book Review, USA Today, and here on Amazon.com, and every review has been positive. Most were VERY positive. Yet to my mind, they are all textbook examples of how NOT to review a comic-related book.

First of all, were any of the reviewers comic book fans? Or Superman fans? Well, they've probably read a Superman comic, maybe even two. They may know that Superman's real name is Clark Kent, or Kal-El. And they've probably even heard of kryptonite! How nice for them. How very, very nice for them.

I say, let's find these reviewers, and ask them the following questions: What is the Reign of the Superman? Who are Superman Red and Superman Blue? Who is Nor-Kan? Who is Van-Zee? Who is Mort Weisinger? And Curt Swan? And Murphy Anderson? What is jewel kryptonite? What is Superman's uniform made of? What are the lethal letters? Where did Krypton get its name from?

Of course, we could go on and on all night, couldn't we? And these are the EASY ones! We're not even getting into the torturous intricacies of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, or Kingdom Come. Let alone 52 separate earths. And you just KNOW that the reviewers wouldn't be able to answer a single one of these questions. Why not? Because they're not real comic fans!

On the other hand, I, Robby Reed, AM a real comic fan. I used to tie diapers around my neck and run around the house pretending I was flying like Superman. My mother used to read Superman comics to me before I knew how to read. I know Superman. I have always known Superman. There has never been a time in my life when I have NOT known Superman. Superman is a FRIEND of mine. So from MY point of view, it is now my honor and pleasure to be the FIRST Superman fan to ever review BOYS OF STEEL. Here's what I thought.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK! 100% unqualified drooling rave! I was completely mesmerized by this book from the first instant I opened it. I loved every page, and every word. BOYS OF STEEL transported me; it made me feel young; it moved me to tears. Honest to God, it did! It caused my black heart to melt. The book is absolutely fantastic, the book is tremendous, the book is a huge achievement -ñ and strap yourself in, because I'm just getting started. (This will be like when Evil Robby tears things apart, only in this case it will be GOOD Robby building things up.)

BOYS OF STEEL is a deeply moving, surprisingly inspirational, and unexpectedly revealing portrait of the two teenage boys who created Superman. The book's brilliant mix of Joe Shuster-style art and richly evocative text combine to transport the reader back in time to the night of Superman's creation, capturing the tumultuous events surrounding this magic moment with a power and accuracy never before achieved in any media. BOYS OF STEEL is a sheer, unadulterated delight. Comic book fans, particularly Superman fans, will find a glorious revelation on every page. So says Robby Reed, creator of Dial B for Blog and author of this review!

Before I continue, I should mention that I do know one of the book's two creators, Marc Nobleman. Marc sent me a complimentary copy of the book. In other words, I got it for free. After reading the book and deciding I wanted to review it, I bought another copy. In other words, I paid cash money for it. Why? Because my policy is that I never review anything I have not personally paid full price for! I feel this entitles me to state my opinion in complete honestly, and without restraint.

This policy is particularly relevant in this case, because my initial reaction to BOYS OF STEEL was surprise at how THIN it seemed to be -ñ just 36 pages, with a list price of $16.99. Of course, it IS being marketed as a children's book, and no children's book is very long. Still, it was something I noticed. And it begs the question: "Is this thin little volume really WORTH $16.99?

As comic fans, we all know beloved hobby would not exist without Superman, and Superman would not exist without Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Therefore, the night Superman was created must be regarded as THE seminal event in the whole entire history of comic books.

This night has previously been described in Jim Steranko's immortal HISTORY OF COMICS, and further documented in Gerard Jones' epic MEN OF TOMORROW. Now, in Nobleman and MacDonald's BOYS OF STEEL, it has been, to put it quite simply, CAPTURED. Capturing the magic of such an event on paper is as impossible as capturing lightning in a bottle, yet that is precisely what this slim volume accomplishes.

Is it worth $16.99? Robby Reed says: HELL YES! For comparison fun, let's take a look at what some of the "other reviewers" I mentioned previously wrote about BOYS OF STEEL:

According to the Midwest Book Review, "BOYS OF STEEL is the first picture book about how these two created the largest superhero of them all, and is a pick for any picture book nonfiction holding. Ross MacDonald provides a blend of full-page color illustrations and comic-like panels for further attention.

Amazon.com's "Ramseelbird" said: "Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross MacDonald have found another way to get a fella like Superman into a library, and it's definitely a slick idea ... More fun than any children's biography has any right to be.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer said of the book's artwork: "With sepia tones and plenty of period detail, Ross MacDonald's stylized cartoon illustrations catch the look and feel of the 1930s."

Coming closest to the mark, Geek Review called BOYS OF STEEL "a charming, and rather haunting, storybook."

Based on these reviews, BOYS OF STEEL sounds like a good addition to a library, or a nice gift for a kid who has to read a biography for school. These reviews make the book sound educational, but fun. In short, they make this splendid book seem like a kid's version of kryptonite. "Hey, Johnny! Read this book I took out of the library! It's educational, but fun! Johnny? Johnny? Wait! Come Back!

As I mentioned at the start, these people are reviewers masquerading as Superman fans. I mean, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reviewer said the artwork in the book had "sepia tones and plenty of period detail, and added that "Ross MacDonald's stylized cartoon illustrations catch the look and feel of the 1930s."

Note to the Cleveland Plain Dealer reviewer: Did you know that an artist can actually CONTROL the style of his work, and, if he wants to, he can consciously echo the look or technique of another artist? It's true! Call it a Flash fact! Sometimes it's done simply to imitate a successful artist. Great Krypton, if we start counting the imitators of Jack Kirby or Neal Adams or Jim Lee out there, we'll NEVER finish! But sometimes, one artist "copies" the style of another as a kind of homage.

In BOYS OF STEEL, Ross MacDonald was not attempting to evoke the feel some nebulous sepia-hued 1930s of the imagination -- he was attempting to evoke the artistic style of one VERY specific artist, namely Superman co-creator Joe Shuster! And at this, MacDonald has succeeded brilliantly -- as you can see for yourself from the scanned examples on this page. They're like biographical period photographs if they were drawn by Shuster! They WORK to perfection, and it goes without saying that such an achievement certainly does not happen by accident. Characterizing all this as "stylized cartoon illustration" is damning wonderful work with faint praise.

In truth, the restraint shown by MacDonald's art is actually quite remarkable. His lofty goal is not to modernize the story of Superman's creation, but to antiquate our vision of it. He is not out to dazzle us with line work, rendering or special effects. He has successfully banished all trace of modern technique from his drawings to create Golden Age-ish illustrations that are by turns entrancing, menacing, charming, and heroic. Taken together, I found them to be a flawless and remarkable series of deceptively simple paintings that captured the seminal event in comic history with a sense of artistry that was both heartfelt and deeply profound.

When young Jerry is pictured reading pulps, MacDonald eschews the hoary device of rendering pulp covers with generic superheroes set against vomitized pastel montage backgrounds. Instead, thankfully, MacDonald renders bold, colorful covers of the real Doc Savage, Shadow, and Amazing Stories -- creating, in one simple montage, a mini-history of the pulps, the sensationalistic, mostly-text progenitors of comic books.

Were these "fake" pulp covers based on actual pulp covers? When questions such as this arise, Google itself has nothing on my friend Anthony Tollin, perhaps the world's foremost expert on The Pulps. I asked Tollin if he recognized the Doc and Shadow covers, telling him that I knew the Flash Gordon one.

In typically voluminous and comprehensive fashion, Anthony told me, "No, you DON'T know the Flash Gordon one! Flash Gordon never appeared in AMAZING STORIES (though the Flasher later appeared in his own one-shot pulp magazine). The AMAZING STORIES cover was for the issue that introduced ARMAGEDDON 2419, the first adventure of Anthony Rogers, a 20th century `Rip Van Winkle' who survived in suspended animation for five centuries and awoke to find himself in the 25th century. `Anthony' was shortened to "Buck" when the character moved onto comic pages. BUT that AMAZING STORIES cover did NOT feature Buck Rogers. The cover was for E. E. `Doc' Smith's SKYLARK OF SPACE, the science fiction epic that is credited with being the first great `space opera' novel and the story that first introduced a galaxy-spanning "Sense of Wonder" to science fiction." Tollin also added, "I think THE SHADOW cover is probably based on PARTNERS OF PERIL, and drawn by someone who used his own color scheme." [Partners of Peril is the Shadow pulp story that inspired Batman.]

Amazing! See how much wonderful pulp and comic book history MacDonald managed to reference in just a single, simple drawing? This drawing, like the art throughout the book, compliments the era, the story, and the Shuster style to perfection.

And just as the art is all about simplicity, the TEXT of the book, written by Marc Nobleman, is a masterpiece of economy. With scarcely a paragraph per page, sometimes less, Nobleman chooses each word and every phrase with great care, delivering maximum effect with as few words as possible. His sentences are simple and straightforward, as one would expect in a children's book, but at the same time they are full of phrases that speak volumes to comic fans.

For example, when Nobleman tells us that "Jerry read amazing stories every evening," and later that "other kids weren't interested in those weird tales," we understand immediately that he is referencing best selling Pulp titles Amazing Stories and Weird Tales. Little touches like this run throughout the story, providing an ongoing source of delight for those in the know.

Most admirably, Nobleman did not simply assemble a pastiche of existing Superman origin material, and rehash it. Behaving more like Batman than Superman, Nobleman researched his subject with unprecedented thoroughness, tracking down leads like a comic-crazed detective. Ultimately, it all paid off big time, as Nobleman unearthed several fascinating new historical details which added a previously-unseen level of texture to this story, elevating his masterful Super-narrative up, up, and away.

One of Nobleman's most striking revelations deals with the fate of Jerry Siegel's father. For years, no one knew how he had died. Then, after certain revelations came to light, we THOUGHT we knew what happened to him. But then Marc Nobleman took it upon himself to locate several official records concerning Jerry Siegel's father's death. (Police report seen right is from Marc's blog, and is NOT pictured in "Boys of Steel.")

Now, thanks to Marc, we know the REAL truth. I'm not going to get more specific than that. If you want to know, read the book! It's the ONLY place to get the authentic details of the actual story. (A brief essay at the end of the book offers an all-text version of the story aimed at a somewhat more adult audience.)

Another small but significant result of Nobleman's research can be seen on a page where young Jerry is seen typing at a desk in front of a window overlooking a yard. The scene is authentic down to the last detail, because Nobleman took the time to locate Siegel's actual house, then personally looked out the very window seen in the drawing.

In the book's key passage, Nobleman describes how, after conceiving of Superman one night, Jerry Siegel ran nine and a half blocks to the house of his artist and best friend, Joe Shuster. How does Nobleman know the distance was nine and a half blocks? Simple! Nobleman went Cleveland, found Jerry Siegel's former house, then located Joe Shuster's nearby apartment, and walked there.

A nine and a half block walk! But for teenagers Siegel and Shuster, it was a walk from obscurity to immortality. And now, through reading Marc Nobleman and Ross MacDonald's magnificent BOYS OF STEEL, it's a walk we can ALL take. Once taken, it will never be forgotten. At least not by me, Robby Reed -- creator of this web site, author of this article, and lifelong fan of the hero known as Superman.