All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

In April 1938, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster entered the annals of history when they realised the debut appearance of their most famous fictional creation when he appeared on the cover of Action Comics #1.

75 years later, Superman has become one of the most enduring and instantly-recognisable icons of the 20th and 21st centuries; stop anyone on any street corner – young or old – in any town or city in the western hemisphere and show them his distinctive “s” chest symbol, and you will be met with assured acknowledgement.

Oddly, Superman originally started life as a villain in the science-fiction short story Reign of the Superman (1933) and was eventually sold to DC Comics by Shuster and Siegel in 1938 for a reported $130, having been rejected by almost every publisher in the USA.

Along with his alter-ego, the mild-manner reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper, Clark Kent, Superman was destined to become the first in a series of new comic book characters, and was quickly serialised no fewer than three different comics. A radio serial was commissioned shortly afterwards, and before the end of 1941, a series of animated cartoons appeared from Paramount Pictures – then became a 1950s television series starring George Reeves.

The Siegel and Shuster partnership benefited immensely from the work they provided DC Comics by the standards of their time. However, the two young men failed to secure any lasting rights to their creation, and in 1945 – while they were both in the military – DC created the Superboy series, and were the subject of litigation by the two Superman creators for $100,000. The lawsuit caused their relationship with DC to sour, and in 1948 the publisher removed the duo’s names from the credits on the title pages of all subsequent Superman comics.

Despite the setback for his originators, Superman soon emerged as an inspiration for the entire world. The fictional characters that preceeded him, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan, had been created in response to mankind’s natural enemies; the beasts in the jungle and nature – but in the aftermath of World War II, people of the western world required a new hero who could save them from themselves.

Superman quickly became the inspirational template for every subsequent fictional superhero character, and was partly responsible for raising the spirits of the American people during a time of harsh economic decline.

During the late 1960s, the popularity of Batman on television prompted DC Comics to develop the Man of Steel for the big screen, and in 1978, Superman: The Movie was released, directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve in the title role.

Prior to the movie’s premiere, publicity for the big-screen debut prompted comic book artist Neal Adams and a number of other professional comics creators to establish a campaign aimed at earning Shuster and Siegel the recognition they deserved for creating the world’s greatest superhero.

The campaigners also sought to obtain financial recompense for the two men, as a token of appreciation for the millions they had earned DC Comics over the years. DC, under pressure from its new owners, Warner Communications, eventually reneged and the Siegel/Shuster creator-credit was restored to the Superman comics permanently, with both men granted an additional yearly fee of $20,000.

The Superman movie became one of the highest grossing motion pictures of all time, producing three sequels and generating millions from sales of spin-off merchandise. However, by the time it had finished its rounds at the cinema, Shuster was living in an upstate New York nursing home suffering from blindness and eventually died of heart failure in 1992.

Following a steady decline in popularity for almost a decade afterwards, the Superman comics were subjected to a revamp by writer/artist John Byrne in the 1980s and recovered to reach the post-war sales levels once more, at which point DC decided to officially kill the character off. The ensuing media hype surrounding “The Death Of Superman” in 1992 saw sales of the comics leap to 4million per month, providing DC with enough financial incentive to revamp the character on a regular basis. The repetitive storylines had a remarkable impact on sales and the character was miraculously re-born in numerous guises over a lengthy period.

DC even decided it was time Superman got hitched, and married him off to his long-time sweetheart and fellow-reporter Lois Lane. He was given a new look – with long, curly hair – and his costume was redesigned in favour of an electric-blue, futuristic jump suit.

The character became irreversibly diluted, despite the impressive sales figures – which were slipping with each new publicity stunt – and DC decided it was time to take the character in a completely new direction.

The first of the major changes arrived when cult movie writer/director Kevin Smith was commissioned by Warner Brothers to pen a screenplay for the re-make of the original Superman movie, to be guided by Batman director Tim Burton. Smith’s script, while true to the essence of the comics, bizarrely failed to visualise Superman flying, one of the mainstays of the character’s fictional abilities. Nicholas Cage was cast to play the lead, and the movie was pencilled for released during the celebrations for Superman’s 60th anniversary. Industry insiders branded the project a potential failure, and Warner Bros officially shelved it, indicating that audience would probably never see another big-screen incarnation of the character for a generation.

On the comic pages, Superman eventually turned full circle, largely due to the success of writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross’ interpretation of the character in their groundbreaking Kingdom Come series. The 1996 book imagined a futuristic Superman persuaded to emerge from self-imposted exile by his contemporaries in a bid to save the world from criminal superheroes who had taken over the planet in his absence. It was a multi-layered story that played to the character’s core strengths of noble heroics and sacrifice.

The story was a timely warning to the comics industry, which had recently become self-obsessed with creating violent, ‘real-life’ characters.

Ross was also responsible for returning Superman to his original 1938 costume – a move which boosted sales with such effect, that DC decided to retain the look and develop the character in a new retro-direction.

In Scotland, native comics writer Mark Millar scripted Superman: Red Son – concerning the arrival of Kal El on Earth as a child, when his rocket ship lands on a collective farm in the Soviet Union and not a farm in Kansas – and ponders a world where Superman is raised by the communist state.

Glasgow writer Grant Morrison also revitalised sales of Superman comics by permanently returning the character to The Justice League of America and later in his groundbreaking, multi-award-winning All-Star Superman series with Rutherglen artist Frank Quitely he offered a modern retrospective of Superman’s finest moments.

In 2006, the character took centre-stage once again in Bryan Singer’s eagerly-anticipated Superman Returns feature film which boasted the unknown Brandon Routh in the lead role alongside Kevin Spacey as his arch-enemy Lex Luthor, but the $400m epic failed miserably to reignite interest in the Man of Steel and all but bombed at the box office.

Now, as the entire world plummets deeper into economic decline under the spectre of global terrorism, we are consumed more than ever before with fear and anxiety about our own mortality – and we find ourselves gazing skyward once more for a hero to guide us into an uncertain future.

As if to signal our collective need for a return to simpler times, Superman is set to appear once again on the big screen in the forthcoming movie Man of Steel directed by Zack Snyder and produced by the Dark Knight Trilogy helmer Christopher Nolan. The recent trailer, released on the eve of Superman’s 75th birthday, shows definite promise – with a supporting cast which includes Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Larry Fishburne and Diane Lane.

Despite the ups and downs of an erratic comic book market, a fickle movie audience, failing economies and growing fears about global safety, Superman is a hero for all time – and whatever you think of him, no matter how many transformations the character undergoes over the years, he will be here long after all of us are gone.

For me, he is still the greatest, the most powerful – and the most original fictional character ever created.

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The Brutalizers from The Copydesk.

A scorched future landscape where a gang of vicious outlaws stalk the quiet inhabitants of desert outpost, until a mysterious gunman emerges from the dust and shadows and takes on the role of their sole protector. Written by Martin Conaghan, with art by Mike Perkins (Marvel’s The Stand), Alex Ronald (Judge Dredd, Lobo), Dave Braysher (Black Hearted Press) and Gat Melvin (Fallen Heroes). Cover by Frank Quitely. 36 pages, full colour.

Priced just £4.00 (£5.20 including P&P).

Overseas customers, please email for a quote on postage.

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Reflections from The Copydesk.

A road accident, a death in the family, a TV quiz show, romance, school days and a collection of childhood and adulthood memories in a whimsical biography spanning 40 years. 22-pages, black and white, from writer Martin Conaghan and artist Simon Mackie.

Priced just £3.00 (£4.20 including P&P).

Overseas customers, please email for a quote on postage.

Cover to The Brutalizers, a 36-page one-shot coming soon from The Copydesk.

Cover art by Frank Quitely. Priced £4. Launches at Leeds Thought Bubble Festival on 17 November.

The Brutalizers cover by Frank Quitely

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Overload #1, on sale now.

Featuring: Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby, Eoin Coveney, Martin Hayes, Graeme Howard, Dave Cook, Gary Crutchley, Geoffrey D. Wessel, Steve Penfold, Matt Gibbs, James Reekie, Jacen Burrows, Paul McClaren, Jim Campbell – and a stunning cover from Graeme Neil Reid.

No more physical copies left. Get the digital copy priced just £0.99p emailed to your inbox as a PDF file.

Overseas customers – please email for a quote.

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Overload Issue #0 from The Copydesk.

Two young boys try to escape from their shadows; a wealthy art collector boastfully shows off his sinister collection; a family of psychos terrorise a suburban street; a young soldier gets help from a strange marine; God makes the world in six days; a psychic hitman faces his own suicide; a werewolf stalks a Louisiana Bayou – and a frustrated writer ponders life’s mysteries.

Overload is a new 44-page comic book anthology from The Copydesk, incorporating six black and white stories featuring the work of Martin Conaghan, Keith Chan, Dave Hill, Naniiebim, Nulsh, Mike Perkins, Stan Ridgway, Roy Huteson Stewart, Simon Wyatt and Simon Mackie.

Priced just £4.00 (£5.20 including P&P).

Overseas customers, please email for a quote on postage.

Bleeding Cool published my forgotten interview with the legendary Will Eisner today (he would have been 94 today). Here’s the full text below:

On Wednesday 5 July 1995, the legendary Will Eisner appeared in person to accept the honorary presidency of the Scottish Cartoonists and Comic Artist Members club.

The club no longer exists, having been replaced long ago by the Scottish Cartoon Society – which meets on the first Wednesday of every month in the Ingram Bar in Glasgow, but before the media circus and the army of professional fan-boys got their hands on the father of modern comics, I enjoyed the rare privilege of sitting with Mr Eisner and his wife Ann for a meal and chat.

The fascinating conversation I had with the creator of The Spirit, A Contract With God and To The Heart Of The Storm was never published. So, on what would have been his 94th birthday, here is a taste of the memorable evening I spent with a man regarded by many as the most influential comic book artist ever to have lived.

To me, the most striking aspect of Will Eisner’s back catalogue is how beautifully consistent it remained throughout his extensive career.

I opened my conversation by asking him why he thought this would be the case, since many artists often experience several changes in style before finally settling on their trademark work.

As anyone who knew Will personally will tell you, all you ever needed to do was ask him a simple, opening question – and he would spellbind you with his wise insight.

“I would say that my work has changed alot – or rather my approach to artwork began to change when I started doing graphic novels,” said Eisner.

“The reason, essentially, was because of the content – I began dealing with realistic story material – I started to write for a totally different audience level. The art could then be more impressionistic.

“The earlier style in The Spirit was controlled. The Spirit was aimed at newspaper readers, consisting of a broader age group and a more casual reader.

“There were three main missions. One; I had a short story to tell every week and I had to compress it – which kept my artwork compact. Second; I dealt with story material which was primarily humour and satire. Third – and most importantly; was that in those days I was still a young artist – remember that I started The Spirit when I was only 22 years old – and I was still showing off my drawing ability.

“The same thing happens to most of the younger artists today; they are more interested in flexing their muscles to show of their style and technique, as they become more sophisticated and experienced, they learn that the artwork is in service to the story.

“So, the work I do today probably has changed in the broadest sense, since I’m addressing an adult audience. People like Sienkiewicz and Frank Miller are much more adventurous with their style and tend to experiment more with the artwork – Miller, for example, has demonstrated perhaps three or four different styles or art in his bigger works.

“I avoid the use of colour in my work because I believe that the line is pure and I want my artwork to be ‘read’ – I believe that colour tends to dilute the artwork and knocks it out of focus, like a large orchestra playing behind a singer in an opera so loudly that you can’t hear the words being sung – I regard my artwork as a form of writing.

“I don’t see myself as a developer of art or style . I think of my lines on the page as a vocabulary.”

Another significant aspect of Eisner’s most famous creation, The Spirit, is that the other famous characters of the era such as The Shadow, Batman and Superman appeared on the comics scene at approximately the same time. I asked Eisner what sociological factors influenced the creation of these characters – in particular, The Spirit.

“I don’t consider The Spirit to be part of the Batman/Spiderman/Superman line of heroes – simply because all of those characters have an element of invulnerability to them, whereas The Spirit is just a crime-fighter” said Eisner.

“He was never in competition with any of them. My readers are not fans of comics like X-Men. At the time when I created The Spirit, our society was becoming increasingly complicated, and there was a rising need for contemporary mythological heroes who were capable of going beyond anything we had created previously – comic books tend to respond to the times in which they are created – for example, Tarzan was in response to the period in history where man’s enemy was the beasts in the jungle. At the dawn of the super-hero age man’s enemy was no longer the animals – it was man himself – and that changed the kind of hero we needed.

“In 1974 I became aware that there were now 40-year-old readers who had been reading comics all their lives, but there was nothing around for a 40 year-old who still liked comics and understood them. So, I felt that I had to market myself in that area.

“It’s a statistical fact that there will soon be 50 and 60-year-old men who will still want to read comics – simply because they grew up with them – and you can’t get a 50-year-old to read Wolverine. I did a Batman pin-up once for a lark, but I’ve never wanted to develop any superhero characters or devote myself to one.

“I feel that with a character like Superman or Batman, who can do just about anything – that’s it: end of plot. I suppose there is still the challenge of improvisation, like Frank Miller interpreting Batman in Dark Knight Returns. It was like a jazz pianist playing a well known musical composition – it may be satisfying as a performance, but it doesn’t cut new ground.

“Certain comics are easy to translate; Batman, Spiderman and Superman are examples, because they’re all circus. Super-heroes are pretty one-dimensional characters and basically remain the same however they are treated. Terminator and Rambo are the modern versions of cowboy movies – it seems that we need instant solutions to our problems in society, and these characters often provide it.

“I’m not a moralist, I’m an observer of life around us – I don’t provide solutions to social issues – I tend to see myself as an honest writer.

“What I mean by that, is that I try to write about what I know – for example, the reason I don’t write about science-fiction, is because I don’t know what other worlds are like… and I don’t care.

“Most of my work is written with a certain amount of passion; I feel about what I write. My books are often about people and places that I know or knew well. When you live in a certain place of a length of time, you accumulate stories and ideas about things that surround you.

“The thread you see throughout my work is emotion; if I distance myself from the work, it wouldn’t be believable.

“When I start the first page of a story, I want it to say to the reader; ‘believe this, it actually happened.”

“There are some terrific writers working in comics, like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Marv Wolfman – but the problem with comics now is that people aren’t only interested in the characters alone – a schism has developed where people are more interested in the write only, or the artist only, or the character only.

“Comics are often in two or three different hands – the writer has to give his script to someone and he is then at the mercy of his artist. Okay, the artist isn’t going to violate what he wants, but to a certain extent he doesn’t always get what he wants – it doesn’t come from one mind and body – it’s divided.

“There are people who still write and draw comics by themselves – like Robert Crumb, Jeff Smith and Frank Miller – but it takes so much time to produce them. For example, a graphic novel of mine can take about a year and a half to complete.”

Will Eisner died on January 3 2005 aged 87 in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, from complications from a quadruple bypass surgery performed a year earlier.

His work lives on.

THE WALKING DEAD “Opening Titles” from Daniel Kanemoto on Vimeo.