I like Irwin but some of the above is at odds with the facts as I've heard them. Jerry Siegel was certainly hired by others after leaving Superman and so was Joe Shuster, as long as his eyesight permitted. Siegel and Shuster won their lawsuit for Superboy, then sold those rights to DC for a dollar figure that has always been reported as much lower than what Irwin reports. It's true that DC gave Siegel work in the late fifties when he needed it but all records say that his employment there ceased in 1966, and when I first met him in '68, that's what he told me. There are other points and I've generally found Irwin to be accurate, but I have to note when his recollections do not coincide with others. (One other trivial matter: Vince Sullivan may have "cut up" those Superman comic strip samples to form the first story in the sense that he was the guy in charge. But Vince told me that Joe Shuster and his brother did the actual conversion, with Siegel deciding what should go where.)

- posted by Don Porges @ 12/08/2003 11:33:00 AM |