So when I was poking through old Superman comics looking for the perfect panel to head this post (where I’m still taking your questions and/or topic suggestions!), I came across this peculiar image from Action Comics #45 (1942):
…featuring Supes enjoying a copy of his own comic book.
This melding of comic fantasy with publishing reality is of course nothing new to us, the Jaded People of The Future, where it’s been long established that there is a Marvel Comics in the Marvel Universe that publishes licensed (I’m assuming) comics based on the “real life” superheroes that live there. I’m pretty sure, though, that this Action panel was a very early appearance of This Sort of Thing in superhero comics.
And it reminded me of something else…the slightly mind-bending story I recall reading in my old, beloved hardcover edition of Superman from the 30’s [sic] to the 70’s [sic again]. In this tale, also from 1942 (so the publisher was hitting that metafictional drum pretty heavily at the time), Clark and Lois go to the movies, where there is a featured cartoon…starring Superman!
And apparently the film, and the comics from which it was derived, are all news to Mr. Kent:
Anyway, what was mindbending about it to me, as but a young Mikester when I first obtained this tome, was the idea that Clark had to spend the duration of the film distracting Lois from the scenes that revealed his double life as Superman, even though it was apparently cool with him that the rest of the packed house found out.
I, like Clark, found that to be a puzzle, in my more innocent years before I took a cue from those wise philosophers and realized “it’s just a comic book, I really should just relax.”
Anyhoo, while I thought that push into semi-self awareness was interesting, what I found strange were some of the edits done to the work. One should remember that this book of mine, Superman from the ’30s to the ’70s, as it should be titled, was originally published in 1971. My copy is a 6th printing, which I got sometime in the very late ’70s, maybe 1980. But when originally assembled, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were…well, let’s just say the company for which they created their character did not afford them the respect they deserved.
And as such, as noted by the GCD entry, the story’s splash page includes an extra “Our Very First IMAGINARY Story” blurb, apparently placed there to cover Siegel & Shuster’s credit. (And notably, not replaced in the version currently available on the DC app, as pictured above.)
Also notable is that Siegel & Shuster’s credits are removed from the main story:
…but these are restored in the currently available version, also seen up there somewhere.
Now, there was a newer edition of the Superman hardcover, called Superman from the ’30s to the ’80s, which I don’t have on hand. But the GCD entry does note that the “IMAGINARY Story” blurb is still there, so I presume the other credit deletion is still there was well. But, if someone has a copy of this newer hardcover and can check for me, please let me know.
There is a smidgen of new text by then-publisher Jenette Kahn, so I’m presuming she gives Siegel and Shuster some proper, er, props there…again, let me know if that’s the case if you can.
No doubt DC was cross-promoting the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons with that story that features Lois and Clark watching them. Just as Clark mentioned, in the first Fleischer Superman cartoon a made scientist with a heat ray is hellbent on destruction, destroying bridges and other infrastructure with his heat ray until he meets his comeuppance at Superman’s hands.
But, yeah, it would be awkward for Clark to be sitting in the theatre with Lois when one of the Fleischer cartoons they are watching depicts Clark entering a supply closet, and then exiting it while proclaiming:
“This is a job for–SUPERMAN!”
I’ve never read the story, but based on what you wrote, it sounds like he has to distract her from finding out–but, yeah, odd that everyone else in the theatre would end up knowing his secret identity.
Roy Thomas would probably create a retroactive continuity story where Clark Kent uses his super-hypnotism on the entire movie audience so they would forget he is Clark Kent. Next, he would leap over some tall buildings until he reached the Max Fleischer animation studios and give them a piece of his mind!
Anyway, here’s a link to the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons
https://youtu.be/fjnupJIo0JQ?feature=shared
“Matinee Idol” is from Superman 19 in 1942 and was first reprinted in 80 Page Giant Superman 183 in 1966. That’s where the ‘Imaginary Story’ tag was added.
Seen a lot of these reprints where DC used the most easily available version of the stories and often did not compare them with the original. For instance I’ve seen a final panel with text that was not in the original version. (Can’t find it now, but I’m remembering it was a B&B Seeing You tagline from when the story was reprinted in an issue of Brave & Bold.) And that goof was continued in the DC universe digital archives. Most famous goof like this is the missing “This is an Imaginary Story” from Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to…” story. One of the first reprints had moved the text to the inside of the front cover, later reprints ‘forgot’ about this move and published the story without the text.
Also now wondering how much work actually went into choosing stories for their 30s to the 70s book, seeing that the “Case of the Funny Book Crimes” story was also from Superman 19! Along the same lines, a recent war story collection was basically the same content as the Fireside “America at War” volume from the 1970s. Where are you now, E. Nelson Bridwell?
We now know that everyone knew Superman was Clark Kent, and it was one massive mind-game that everyone in Metropolis was playing on Lois. In this pre-Crisis version of events, rather than Lois marrying Clark Kent after he reveals his secret identity, Lois married Luthor and declares war on Superman and Metropolis.
“You knew? Everyone knew?”
“Come on, Lois. All he did was take off his glasses. The cartoon reveal wasn’t necessary. We were waiting for you to figure it out for yourself.”
“The entire city. How could you?”
“Superman found it hilarious.”
“Marvel Comics in the Marvel Universe that publishes licensed”
Fantastic Four’s is official. it’s referred to in both Bryne era FF, and Mike Weinrigo FF. There’s a Captain America comic, too.
“well, let’s just say the company for which they created their character did not afford them the respect they deserved”
SO VERY MUCH.
Tom Brevoort looked at the differences in the reprints of this story at https://tombrevoort.com/2022/07/23/superman-matinee-idol-times-three/