Picture This | Big Think: When Man of Steel opened in theaters on June 14, 2013, it pulled in $116.6 million USD that opening weekend alone. Superman remains a box office bonanza in his eighth decade of existence, continuing the billion-dollar tradition sparked originally by Joe Shuster’s eye-catching cover for Action Comics #1 (detail shown above). Despite all that success, Superman’s creators—artist Shuster and author Jerry Siegel—saw precious little of it. Brad Ricca’s Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—The Creators of Superman tells the exciting story of two Jewish Cleveland teens finding one another and then creating one of the most iconic figures of American (and world) popular culture, but makes you feel the soul-crushing aftermath of two young men exploited by the comic publishing industry and then cast aside, ultimately dying in near poverty. Super Boys will thrill every fanboy with juicy details of how Superman became Superman, but it will also sadden and anger with the tragic details of corporations crushing creativity. If it were a comic book story, Siegel and Shuster might have called it “Superman and the Case of the Wronged Artists.”
2 comments:
The large entertainment companies have huge advantages on all of the small artists and writers in the world. Companies have the funds to absorb all the ideas and innovations of superheroes at cheap prices from the artists who are far more in need of money. These companies can then pick out the best ideas and make millions off of them leaving the original artist and creator in the dust. The system is entirely legal and completely exploitive. Many artists do not have a choice when it come to selling their small creations. This system makes social mobility for artists and creators near impossible.
The story of an artist being taken advantage of by a big name is so old it literally dates back to before the light bulb. Edison took advantage of Tesla and the comic book companies took advantage of the creators of Super Man. Exploitation isn't alright, and yet it's accepted and expected. When an artist can create something so incredible and eternal and yet make pittance at best, what does that say about our culture? Sure, we pay lots for movies and songs, but how much actually goes to the artist?
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