Paul Bryant's Reviews > Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster

Was there ever an introduction to a book which tried to put you off reading it? Stan Lee, famous King of Marvel Comics, tells us in his foreword that what you are about to see “caters to the basest of man’s character and morals” and is “the most sordid of projects”.

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel (writer) and Joe Shuster (artist) in 1932 when they were both 18. No one was interested. Finally they got Detective Comics Inc interested in 1938. DC Comics bought the rights to the character for the bizarro sum of $130 and put them both under contract to supply stories. So Jerry and Joe made the same deal as every teenage singer and rock band ever did, all of them being so grateful to be recognised by anyone that they signed the first contract that was shoved in front of them. And Jerry & Joe thereby lost millions. Superman was an immediate and colossal hit. After eight fat years, Jerry and Joe sued DC Comics for ownership of their creation and lost the case. DC fired them and took their credits off all Superman stories. Nice! That’ll teach these uppity creative types who’s boss. Ka-pow, guys! We’ll see you around! Don’t call us, we’ll call you! Except, we won’t! Ha ha!

So by 1947 Joe Shuster had lost the case, spent his money and had eyesight problems. He didn’t come up with anything much good after Superman. He was spiralling down and he was only 33 years old. By the early 50s he was freelancing for anyone who’d have him.

Enter stage left : a pornographer.

Yes, holy black leather kryptonite! It’s Superman In Bondage featuring Lois Lane (also in bondage) and Lana Lang (likewise)! Plus walk-on parts for Lex Luther and Jimmy Olson, cub reporter.

So, down on his luck, Joe Shuster, creator of the most emblematic of all superheroes, got to work in 1954 illustrating 16 flimsy booklets of BDSM tales called “Nights of Horror”.

For me, this is like finding out that my beloved Uncle Charles has been performing under the name Charlene at a tranny bar for the last ten years. It’s shocking.

Sample captions for the illustrations you will find herein:

I seemed to crave this treatment no matter how harsh or humiliating.

The red ants bit and nipped where the honey had been smeared.

Puff it in… in a few minutes you’ll feel wonderful.

“Implant upon my foot your most servile caresses,” he ordered.

I’ll teach you not to go out with someone else.

I’ll do anything you want.. if you let me have this job (The entire plot of Secretary)

Estelle led him further and further up the road to slavery.

He was not averse to having his plaything become the property of other seamen.

You get the idea. One final particularly outre one – a burly guy approaches a woman who has her arms tied behind her. He is waving a phallic cactus before him

I began to pat it on the naked skin of the lush beauty beneath me.

I mean, that’s just perverted. A cactus? Well, if there wasn’t so much whipping and threatening with red hot irons going on (mostly the victims are female, but not always) I might enjoy this stuff, because it’s beautifully drawn, and for anyone who remembers the mighty Man of Steel, it’s kind of a queasy pleasure seeing someone exactly like him being tied up and threatened by someone who looks exactly like Lois Lane only in her underwear. But there’s just a little too much whipping and beating and pain. Oh all right, it’s ALL whipping, apart from the ants literally in the pants, and the cactus.


footnote


I like it when books connect with each other. This one is like a large footnote to The Ten Cent Plague and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (reviewed elsewhere). I didn’t intend to read three books on early American comics all together but that’s how it turned out.