- Person
- Jerry Siegel
- Lived
- 1914–1996
- Field
- Comic books
- From
- American
The story
Jerry Siegel, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants in Cleveland, co-created Superman with his school friend Joe Shuster. In 1938, as young men eager to see their character in print, they sold all rights to Superman to the publisher of Action Comics for $130. Superman went on to earn fortunes, but the men who invented him did not share in them.
Siegel fought back. In the late 1940s he and Shuster sued over Superman and Superboy. The case ended with them giving up their claims for a little over $94,000, and the company then removed their names from the comics. By the 1970s Siegel was struggling with debt, and Shuster was nearly blind.
In 1975, after learning that Warner Bros. was planning a big Superman film, Siegel alerted the press. Fellow cartoonists rallied to him. Jerry Robinson, who worked through the National Cartoonists Society and other arts groups, and the artist Neal Adams led a campaign of public pressure, including a press conference, that drew wide attention to how the creators had been treated.
Within a couple of weeks the company agreed to talk, and negotiations with Warner executive Jay Emmett ran for most of a week. Robinson pressed hard for health care and for the creators' names to appear not only in the comics but on screen as well. Under the settlement, Warner agreed to pay Siegel and Shuster $20,000 a year each for life, later raised, with health benefits, and to credit them as the creators of Superman. The restored byline first appeared in Superman #302 in 1976, and today Siegel and Shuster are credited on all Superman products.
Siegel's long refusal to give up made the treatment of comic creators a public issue. The 1975 settlement became an important example for writers and artists in comics and beyond, showing that the people who invent a character deserve recognition and a share of the rewards when it succeeds.
Why it matters
The campaign Siegel started helped establish the principle that comic creators should be credited and fairly treated, and every Superman story and film now carries his and Shuster's names.
About Jerry Siegel
Cleveland-born son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who, with artist Joe Shuster, created Superman in 1938, launching the superhero, then fought for decades for credit.
More about Jerry Siegel
Sources
- Jerry Siegel Wikipedia
- Jerry Robinson: Been There, Done That The Comics Journal
- Siegel, Jerome Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University
- Joe Shuster Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.