The Joe Shuster Story: The Co-Creator of Superman

[JackDaw]

It has been covered before..of course..in stuff like Rick Veitch’s Maximortal and Gerard Jones Men of Tomorrow.

Long time since I read either, but pretty sure I really enjoyed both when I read. Maximortal contained a memorable hatchet job on one of the early Superman editors..Rick portrayed whoever it was as a sexually repressed nut job.

[Jim Kelly]

Maybe I'm just not as nice as the rest of the people on this message board, but I can't imagine anyone with an agenda against me writing a book about me and it giving a nice portrait of me. I'm sure if they looked hard enough and interviewed enough people, they could dig up some dirt and then make that book all about how I was a horrible human being. Call it the Ted Mosby effect.

But that's just me--I have that Protestant guilt--so even though I try to live a good life, I always worry that people are saying nastly things about me behind my back. I'm sure everyone else here is teflon.

[JackDaw]

Maybe I'm just not as nice as the rest of the people on this message board, but I can't imagine anyone with an agenda against me writing a book about me and it giving a nice portrait of me. I'm sure if they looked hard enough and interviewed enough people, they could dig up some dirt and then make that book all about how I was a horrible human being. Call it the Ted Mosby effect.

But that's just me--I have that Protestant guilt--so even though I try to live a good life, I always worry that people are saying nastly things about me behind my back. I'm sure everyone else here is teflon.

Of course.

People can..and have.. written books that are heavily critical of Mother Teresa.

You should never under-estimate the power of bias, or indeed the sheer fallibity of human memory. (One minor example. I’ve just read a well researched book on life of Paul Robeson. Early on the book gives three versions of a key encounter in Paul’s early life. There’s really no particular reason to doubt that each of the three people were trying to give a truthful account...but the three accounts of same incident were substantially different.)

And..of course..it’s nearly always a mistake to simply look at events of yesteryear applying today’s values and bias. Many of the amounts paid to Messrs Siegel and Shuster many years ago that now seem niggardly were big amounts back then, for example.

[Jim Kelly]

I like to pride myself on having a good memory, but there are some movies that I watched years ago that I watch again and I realize I remembered the movie all wrong and it was something completely different. So if my memory can play tricks on me with movies, how do I know that what I remember from my life actually happened?

I don't trust any interviews with comic book creators. Because here you have people who spent their time telling stories and then they're being asked to tell a story about themselves. So they remember their life as as story--and it just follows that they want to tell the most entertaining story they can to the interviewer. They don't want to be boring. That's human nature. They aren't setting out to misrepresent the truth--they just have an embellished memory of the past.

[JackDaw]

I like to pride myself on having a good memory, but there are some movies that I watched years ago that I watch again and I realize I remembered the movie all wrong and it was something completely different. So if my memory can play tricks on me with movies, how do I know that what I remember from my life actually happened?

I don't trust any interviews with comic book creators. Because here you have people who spent their time telling stories and then they're being asked to tell a story about themselves. So they remember their life as as story--and it just follows that they want to tell the most entertaining story they can to the interviewer. They don't want to be boring. That's human nature. They aren't setting out to misrepresent the truth--they just have an embellished memory of the past.

Yes. I also think I’ve got a fairly good memory. But I learnt years ago that it can’t be completely relied on.

The event that first brought that home most keenly was decades ago when my memory was sharper than now. Back then I was a union rep...and went into a meeting with management to negotiate on time standards on various jobs. As part of the meeting I claimed with complete confidence (and honesty) that we’d reached some particular agreements in earlier meetings.

Those claims of mine were accepted in meeting itself..and we went on to reach a final agreement.

After the meeting, one of management team arranged to have a private word...and asked if I was really confident about some of claims I’d made in meeting. I said I was..but he went on to spell out how he recalled the earlier meetings. As his remarks refreshed my memory of the earlier events..I became slowly convinced his recall was accurate.

He was a guy I had immense respect for...so I just admitted that I’d almost certainly got it wrong, and asked him if he thought it was important enough to necessitate re-negotiations.

Thankfully it didn’t. But it taught me a lesson. In circumstances where you’re going to rely on accurate recall...make a written record as soon as possible, and get it agreed by all the people that were present.

[dancj]

People can..and have.. written books that are heavily critical of Mother Teresa.

Quite right too. She was a bit of a sadist.

[JackDaw]

Quite right too. She was a bit of a sadist.

Lol.

Not a complete surprise. (I’ve never read a Mother T biography, but “rumours” had reached my ears. In general, not read many biographies...not sure why because I nearly always enjoy the ones I do read.)

[Dr.j.]

This book coming out next month, will have a never printed story done by Shuster, saved by Marv Wolfman. That alone makes it worthy of getting. He had a wonderful cartoon ability, You can tell he was passionate about the characters.

[dcfanpal]

It seems strange to me that Joe Shuster would have fallen on hard times, given his family connections and notoriety in Canada. While he didn't have children of his own, Frank Shuster was his cousin. Frank was a famous comedian in Canada--and, although Canadians don't get paid a lot, I'm sure he would have helped Joe out. Rosie Shuster is Frank's daughter and she used to be married to Lorne Michaels and she wrote for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. She even produced the Superman anniversary special in 1988.

It seems that after the scandal that erupted in the '70s, DC agreed to pay Joe a lifetime stipend, yet he still fell into debt. However, Canada has celebrated Joe Shuster with stamps and coins. And he was the subject of a nationally famous Heritage Minute, released in 1991, which has played over and over on TV since then. And there's a comic book award in Canada called the Shusters. It strike me strange, given Canada's reputation for kindness and generosity, that no one stepped up to give Joe a hand when he found himself in tough financial straits.

We're a country starved for heroes of our own and we're even willing to share the ones we have with the United States. If we could do something for Hurricane Carter, surely Canada could have found the time to champion Joe Shuster when he was alive.

Back in August 1998, I met Joe's sister Jean Shuster Peavy at the Action Comics #1 Reunion panel (inside Comic-Con International) where I gave to her a gold plated Superman S-shield pin that I purchased from Danny Fuchs (America's foremost Superman collector), I told Danny about it in the next day, and he was pleased.

[Powerboy]

Of course.

People can..and have.. written books that are heavily critical of Mother Teresa.

You should never under-estimate the power of bias, or indeed the sheer fallibity of human memory. (One minor example. I’ve just read a well researched book on life of Paul Robeson. Early on the book gives three versions of a key encounter in Paul’s early life. There’s really no particular reason to doubt that each of the three people were trying to give a truthful account...but the three accounts of same incident were substantially different.)

And..of course..it’s nearly always a mistake to simply look at events of yesteryear applying today’s values and bias. Many of the amounts paid to Messrs Siegel and Shuster many years ago that now seem niggardly were big amounts back then, for example.

In fairness, in the case of Mother Theresa, I'm not sure that it was bias. The BBC felt they created the myth of Mother Theresa to begin with and later decided they needed to get the full facts and evidence out there. At the very least, the story of Mother Theresa is a story of a person with very questionable ethics and choices. But nobody wants to hear it because they heard the myth first and they don't want it ruined.