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Superman book cover
Superman
A Celebration of 75 Years
2013
First Published
4.10
Average Rating
382
Number of Pages

Part of Series

When Superman debuted seventy-five years ago, it was not merely the beginning for one character, but for an entire genre. The phrase "super hero" had yet to be coined when ACTION COMICS #1 hit newsstands in 1938, but once Superman entered the scene, effortlessly lifting a car above his head on that first iconic cover, the character paved the way for each of the hundreds (if not thousands) of super-powered heroes written since. SUPERMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS gathers a range of stories featuring the first and greatest super hero, highlighting the many roles the Man of Steel has played over the decades. In these celebrated stories, Superman is in turns the Herculean champion, the lonely alien survivor, the super-powered Boy Scout and the soul-searching leader. Over the course of seventy-five years, watch as the character grows from a simple strongman to the beloved international symbol he is today! This Volume Collects: ("Superman, Champion of the Oppressed") / ("War in San Monte") — ACTION COMICS #1-2 (1938) Writer: Jerry Siegel, Artist: Joe Shuster "How Superman Would End the War" — Look Magazine (1940) Writer: Jerry Siegel, Artist: Joe Shuster "Man or Superman?" — SUPERMAN #17 (1942) Writer: Jerry Siegel, Penciller: Joe Shuster, Inker: Joe Sikela "The Origin of Superman" — SUPERMAN #53 (1948) Writer: Bill Finger, Penciller: Wayne Boring, Inker: Stan Kaye "The Mightiest Team in the World" — SUPERMAN #76 (1952) Writer: Edmond Hamilton, Penciller: Curt Swan, Inker: John Fishchetti "The Super-Duel in Space" — ACTION COMICS #242 (1958) Writer: Otto Binder, Artist: Al Plastino "The Girl From Superman's Past" — SUPERMAN #129 (1959) Writer: Bill Finger, Penciller: Wayne Boring, Inker: Stan Kaye "Superman's Return to Krypton" — SUPERMAN #141 (1960) Writer: Jerry Siegel, Penciller: Wayne Boring, Inker: Stan Kaye "The Death of Superman" — SUPERMAN #149 (1961) Writer: Jerry Siegel, Penciller: Curt Swan, Inker: George Klein "Must There Be a Superman?" — SUPERMAN #247 (1972) Writer: Eliot S. Maggin, Penciller: Curt Swan, Inker: Murphy Anderson "Rebirth" — ACTION COMICS #544 (1983) Writer: Marv Wolfman, Artist: Gil Kane "The Living Legends of Superman" (excerpt) — SUPERMAN #400 (1985) Writer: Elliot S. Maggin, Artist: Frank Miller "For the Man Who Has Everything" — SUPERMAN ANNUAL #11 (1985)Writer: Alan Moore, Artist: Dave Gibbons "The Name Game" — SUPERMAN #11 (1987) Writer/Penciller: John Byrne, Inker: Karl Kesel "Doomsday" — SUPERMAN #75 (1993) Writer/Penciller: Dan Jurgens, Inker: Brett Breeding "What's So Funny About Truth Justice and the American Way?" — ACTION COMICS #775 (2001) Writer: Joe Kelly, Pencillers: Doug Mahnke, Lee Bermejo Inkers: Tom Nguyen, Dexter Vines, Jim Royal, Jose Marzan, Jr., Wade Von Grawbadger, Wayne Faucher "Question of Confidence" — Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross (2003) Writer: Chip Kidd, Artist: Alex Ross "The Incident" — ACTION COMICS #900 (2011) Writer: David S. Goyer, Artist: Miguel Sepulveda "The Boy Who Stole Superman's Cape" — ACTION COMICS #0 (2012) Writer: Grant Morrison, Artist: Ben Oliver

Avg Rating
4.10
Number of Ratings
277
5 STARS
35%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
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goodreads

Authors

Elliot S. Maggin
Elliot S. Maggin
Author · 3 books
Elliot S. Maggin, also spelled Elliot S! Maggin, is an American writer of comic books, film, television and novels. He was a main writer for DC Comics during the Bronze and early Modern ages of comics in the 1970s and 1980s. He is particularly associated with the character of Superman.
John Byrne
John Byrne
Author · 43 books

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero. Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Dan Jurgens
Dan Jurgens
Author · 42 books

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is best known for creating the superhero Booster Gold, and for his lengthy runs on the Superman titles Adventures of Superman and Superman (vol. 2), particularly during The Death of Superman storyline. Other series he has been associated with include The Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 1), Thor (vol. 2), Captain America (vol. 3), Justice League America, Metal Men, Teen Titans (vol. 2), Zero Hour, Tomb Raider: The Series, Aquaman (vol. 3), and the creator of DC Comics' imprint Tangent. Jurgens' first professional comic work was for DC Comics on Warlord #63. He was hired due to a recommendation of Warlord-series creator Mike Grell who was deeply impressed by Jurgens' work after being shown his private portfolio at a convention. In 1984, Jurgens was the artist for the Sun Devils limited series (July 1984 - June 1985), with writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. Jurgens would make his debut as a comic book writer with Sun Devils he began scripting from Conway's plots with #8 and fully took over the writing duties on the title with #10. In 1985, Jurgens created the character Booster Gold, who became a member of the Justice League. His first work on Superman was as penciller for Adventures of Superman Annual #1 (1987). In 1989, Jurgens began working full-time on the character when he took over the writing/pencilling of the monthly Adventures of Superman. Dan Jurgens was the penciller of the 1990–1991 limited series Armageddon 2001 and co-created the hero Waverider with Archie Goodwin. In 1991 Jurgens assumed the writing/pencilling of the main Superman comic book, where he created a supporting hero named Agent Liberty. During his run on Superman, Dan created two major villains, Doomsday and the Cyborg. Doomsday was the main antagonist in the Death of Superman storyline. Jurgens wrote and drew Justice League America for about one year and in 1993 pencilled the Metal Men four-issue miniseries, which was a retcon of their origin story. Jurgens wrote and pencilled the 1994 comic book miniseries and crossover Zero Hour. He wrote and penciled layouts (with finished art by Brett Breeding) to the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey miniseries, which was a follow-up to the successful Death of Superman storyline. In 1995 Jurgens and Italian artist Claudio Castellini worked on the highly publicized crossover Marvel vs DC. In the same year, he gave up the pencilling duties on Superman. Jurgens scripted and provided layout art for the Superman vs. Aliens miniseries. The story was about a battle between Superman and the aliens created by H. R. Giger (a.k.a. the Xenomorphs), from the Alien film series. It was co-published by Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics in 1995. In January 1996, Jurgens was writer and penciller of the new Spider-Man series, The Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 1), at Marvel Comics. The title was initially conceived to be the flagship showcase for the new Ben Reilly Spider-Man (it replaced the Web of Spider-Man series). The initial seven issues (#0–6, January–July 1996) were written and pencilled by Jurgens. Jurgens pushed strongly for the restoration of Peter Parker as the true Spider-Man and plans were made to enact this soon, but Bob Harras, the new Editor-in-chief, demanded the story be deferred until after the Onslaught crossover. Jurgens had by this stage become disillusioned with the immense amount of group planning and constant changes of ideas and directions and took this as the last straw, resigning from the title. In a past interview several years after his Spider-Man run, Jurgens stated that he would like to have another chance on the character, since his run was with the Ben Reilly character during the Spider-Man Clone Saga, and not Peter Parker. Jurgens had also written and pencilled Teen Titans (vol. 2) for its entire two year, 24 issue run. New Teen Titans co-creator George Pérez came on board on this incarnation of the Titans as inker for the se

Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Author · 10 books

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel, who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S. Fine, was the American co-creator of Superman (along with Joe Shuster), the first of the great comic book superheroes and one of the most recognizable icons of the 20th century. He and Shuster were inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993.

Edmond Hamilton
Edmond Hamilton
Author · 42 books
Edmond Moore Hamilton was a popular author of science fiction stories and novels throughout the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14—but washed out at 17. He was the Golden Age writer who worked on Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many sci-fi books.
Marv Wolfman
Marv Wolfman
Author · 30 books
Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Author · 102 books

Grant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning his American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then he has written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, he has also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS. In his secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. He divides his time between his homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.

Otto Binder
Otto Binder
Author · 5 books
Otto Oscar Binder. Used these alternate names: Eando Binder (together with his brother Earl Binder -E and O Binder-), John Coleridge, Gordon A. Giles, Will Garth, Ian Francis Turek, Ione Frances Turek and Otto O. Binder.
Bill Finger
Bill Finger
Author · 21 books

William "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development. In later years, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation. Comics historian Ron Goulart, in Comic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger", and a DC Comics press release in 2007 about colleague Jerry Robinson states that in 1939, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for [DC predecessor] National Comics". Film and television credits include scripting The Green Slime (1969), Track of the Moon Beast (1976), and three episodes of 77 Sunset Strip. -Wikipedia

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