Super Boys by Brad Ricca

Author:Brad Ricca
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter 19

Superboy

JERRY STARED INTO THE FACE of this boy before him. The baby was no longer pink and red but had a face and hair and could walk and say things. While Jerry was in Hawaii, Bella had been trying to teach him “Daddy.” Jerry had brought home a small mountain of toys, including a red plastic car. When the little boy ran all around the yard, they called him “Superboy.” Jerry remembered when this started, nearly two years earlier on January 29, 1944, in The Plain Dealer:

A SON IS BORN TO SUPERMAN AUTHOR

Superman is a father—at least his creator, Jerry Siegel, is.

Siegel, now a corporal in the army, arrived home yesterday after his wife gave birth to a nine-pound boy Thursday morning at Mount Sinai Hospital. Siegel is the author of the comic strip which appears daily and Sunday in the Plain Dealer.

He is stationed at Fort Meade, Va., and received a furlough while on maneuvers in West Virginia. His home is at 2402 Glendon Road, University Heights.1

Time magazine ran a similar announcement on February 14, 1944: “Born. To Corporal Jerry (Superman author) Siegel, 29, and Mrs. Bella Siegel, 22: their first superbaby [a son] in Cleveland. Weight: nine pounds.”2 So much of Jerry’s life could be measured in newsprint. When he was drafted, Bella was, at most, already two months pregnant. The timing here was very common. Jerry runs a joke in “Take a Break” claiming that “vital statistics for 1944 indicate that a lot of people went stork mad.”3

When Jerry got leave in 1944 for the birth of his son, he got to check in with Joe and the boys. Jerry and Joe had submitted a new comic called Superboy way back in 1938 when National was interested in expansion.4 After it was rejected, Jerry submitted a full script in 1940.5 It was rejected again, but there was the hint at least that it was a question of timing and that National could possibly move forward in the future. As he always did, Jerry kept tweaking and resubmitting, and he did so again right before he left for Hawaii. The concept itself was as old as Action Comics #1, where an infant Clark is shown lifting a chair over his head. Jerry always liked that image and thought a story about a young Superman would be a great opportunity.

While Jerry was in Hawaii, Joe Shuster was doing the same thing he always did: drawing. The city was gray, though there were yellow ribbons around the trees and fewer men everywhere. And lots more babies. But Joe still mostly just drew. But he also wanted to help the effort, so he produced some exclusive drawings for The Golden Gate Guardian in San Francisco and did a one-page comic for the Thirtieth C.B. unit of the Thirtieth U.S. Navy Construction Battalion.6 He also moved the studio back to New York City, at the insistence of editorial. He didn’t want to, not really, but without Jerry, National wanted them close and Joe didn’t feel like disagreeing.

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