Observe: someone has scanned and posted Action Comics #1. For you philistines out there, this is the first appearance of Superman circa 1938. I normally wouldn’t link to this kind of thing (copyright violation and all) but I figure this is pretty close to being in the public domain and won’t be eating into DC’s profits much.
Plus it’s just so interesting to see what comics looked like 66 years ago. While Supe’s debut waffles between quaint an inane, it’s fun to see what kind of language they used, what kinds of predicaments they considered exciting, and what kind of behavior they deemed villainous. Look at this bit:
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Oooh. It’s a bully! Look out, Last Son of Krypton! He may use harsh language and serve you stale biscuits at tea time!
I can’t help comparing Butch with a typical villain from the last era of comics I’m familiar with: the Zinc Age from the early 1990s. The bad guys in those times more typically flesh-eating, hellspawn demons or psychopathic mutants that would rip out your eyeballs and eat them like candies. They might cut in on you at a fancy-shmancy dance, but they would be with an atomic axe the size of the Empire State Building and your date would have a 44-DD bust barely covered by a dress made out of a chainmail bikini.
(On an ironic side note, this is essentially why I gave up on comics in disgust. Most became poorly written, poorly drawn vehicles for too much sex and pointless violence. Think about that. I was a normal, young, American man who thought something contained too much sex and violence to be tolerated. That’s quite an accomplishment, comic book industry.)
Reading Action Comics #1 did finally clear up one thing that always bugged me, though. Many people may have at least seen the cover to this book:
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I always wondered what was going on with that terrified fellow in the lower left-hand corner. Here was this guy, minding his own business, when some flying fruit in his underwear shows up and starts totally wrecking cars left and right. I’d grab my head and run screaming, too.
Well, once you read the story within, you find out that the guy in the lower left is actually Butch The Bully from the clip above and that green car is his. He cut in on Superman’s dance, so of course he totally deserves to have his ride smashed against a rock until he pees his pants.
And now I know the rest of the story. Superman is a jerk.
I’ve read this one before in a compilation of Superman comics. The second half of the story (not shown here) is even better, since it marks the first appearance of Lex Luthor! (I think he even had hair if I recall!)