Superman almost died when Shuster burned the first comic
After endless rejections, Jerry Siegel sought a famous artist to replace Joe Shuster. Hearing the plan, Shuster set their Superman book on fire, saving only the cover. They later reconciled—and the Kryptonian who landed in 1938 still defines the genre they invented.
Superman, by Siegel and Shuster, first appeared in Action Comics issue 1, published in the United States on 18 April 1938. The costume, codename, and disaster-averting powers popularized the superhero template even if earlier characters hinted at it. He was American comics' best-selling superhero into the 1980s and remains the highest-grossing across the genre's whole history from 1938. Born Kal-El on Krypton, he is rocketed to Earth by Jor-El and Lara before the planet dies, found near Smallville, Kansas, and raised as Clark Kent by Jonathan and Martha Kent. From 1939 he headlines both Action Comics and his own title, teams with Wonder Woman and Batman in the Justice League, and splinters into Earth-Two and Earth-One variants plus cousins like Supergirl and Krypto.
Siegel and Shuster met in 1932 at Cleveland's Glenville High, bonding over fiction; Siegel's amateur zine Science Fiction featured Shuster art. Newspaper editors demanded something more sensational than their early strips. A 1933 Superman comic modeled on Consolidated's all-original Detective Dan failed to sell; the burn followed Siegel's search for a bigger-name partner. Scripts to Leo O'Mealia and Russell Keaton reinvented him as a future scientist or a toddler sent back through time before the duo settled on Krypton, the S-shield tights and cape, meek reporter Clark, and Lois Lane who loves Superman but scorns Kent. National Allied's Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson hired them in 1935 for New Fun strips; Detective Comics, Inc. emerged in 1936 with Donenfeld and Liebowitz, who soon took the company through bankruptcy maneuvers just as Superman finally saw print.
Radio's Adventures of Superman (1940–51) starred Bud Collyer's voice, also heard in Fleischer cartoons (1941–43); Kirk Alyn played him in 1948 and 1950 serials. From a burned dummy book to the archetype of the cape, Superman's origin off the page is almost as melodramatic as Krypton's last son.
Source: Superman
