What he has not done is make the case for Siegel and Shuster as more than one-hit wonders. (The one such illustration reproduced here looks for all the world like Lois Lane preparing to whip a trussed-up Superman.) He has unearthed everything from the short stories Siegel wrote for his high school newspaper to the kinky illustrations Shuster was reduced to doing for sleazy magazines in the mid-1950s, just a few years after he and Siegel were separated from Superman and fired by National. He gives an admirably thorough account of Siegel and Shuster’s long struggle to get their creation published their decision to sell the rights for $130 in 1938 and their much longer struggle to get a fair shake, or at least a fairer one, from National Comics (now DC), the corporate behemoth that Superman built and that is now owned by Time Warner. Ricca, who teaches at Case Western Reserve University, clearly knows a lot about comic books and has done his homework. Reading Brad Ricca’s “Super Boys,” the first such book, suggests a reason for that: Superman aside (and admittedly that’s a very big aside), Siegel and Shuster are not that absorbing a subject. Since the mid-1970s, when the national news media took notice of their plight, it’s been well known that Jerry Siegel (the writer) and Joe Shuster (the illustrator) naïvely sold their rights to the character for next to nothing - and that their fight for a bigger piece of the action has led to a series of victories and has continued even after both men died in the 1990s.Ī lot has been written about Superman over the years, but until now there has never been an entire book devoted to the lives of Siegel and Shuster. The two nerds from Cleveland who created Superman are not nearly as famous as he is, but they’re not exactly obscure, either. With the possible exception of Mickey Mouse, the indestructible and incorruptible Man of Steel is surely the most famous fictional character ever created in cartoon form. If you’re younger than 75, you don’t even remember a time when he didn’t exist.

Jerry siegel biography