Anyone know the EXACT date of Superman's first appearance?

I ahve heard Action #1 was released in June 1938 but I don't know if that's just the cover date or not, and if it is when exactly in June did it get released?

I've seen people post different dates for when it came out on the newsstand. But I believe the correct date is May 3rd (which happens to be my mother's birthday).

That's [URL="http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/comic.php?comicid=5"]the date Mike's Amazing World[/URL] uses. As he notes there, the date of filing at the Library of Congress is April 18th, but that doesn't tell you when the comic actually went on sale.

April 18th of 1938.

See also [URL="http://davescomicheroes.blogspot.ca/2017/04/action-comics-1-first-superman.html"]Dave's Comics Heroes Blog[/URL]:

"On April 18th, 1938, (cover date June, 1938), Superman and the contents of Action Comics #1 were copyrighted (with the issue likely going on sale on May 3rd, 1938)."

I mean, you could get in your time bubble and travel to April 18th, if you want, but I think you'd be wasting your time for a few weeks until the bundle of comics showed up at the newsstand on May 3rd.

I wonder if it's canon that the kents celebrate clark's birthday on april 18th, the day his rocket crash landed in smallville.

[QUOTE=Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever;3518690]April 18th of 1938.[/QUOTE]

That is near my birthday! (The month and day, not the year, lol!)

I don't know if May 3 is accurate because comics were typically dated 2 or 3 months after the on-sale date because comics were published bimonthly or quarterly at the time, in general. Even though Action was a monthly title, it still followed the industry standard.

April 18 seems more likely, and it's the date that DC recognizes. That's why they postponed Action 1000 until Wednesday, April 18, 2018 so that issue 1000 would also occur on the exact 80th anniversary of Action #1.

I think I'm wasting my breath, because everyone else here has decided not to trust me--but one more kick at the cat before I let it drop.

The lag time between on sale date and cover date got longer as the industry progressed. There were times--and for different publishers--when it was very long indeed. They did it so their comcs wouldn't get pulled from the stands too early. But other publishers (like Fawcett) didn't have a long lag time. In 1938, it's still early, so this long lag time practice hasn't taken hold at DC. All their titles were dated a month after they went on sale. So all the titles on sale in April had a May date, all the titles on sale in May had a June date.

Of course, DC wants to claim that the on sale date is April 18th, because that's the copyright date and the only date that is documented. It's an earlier date (even if only by a few weeks), so it establishes the publication of Superman at the earliest date. Which for legal purposes suits their interests. But it's just not the date when the comic went on sale for the mass market.

Anyway, Superman existed much earlier than this, because the comic had to go to press much earlier for them to have a comic to submit to the Library of Congress. And Jerry Siegel created "Reign of the Supermen" in 1933, while Siegel & Shuster's heroic version of Superman took shape in the summer of 1934.