American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

"Mr. Colin Looper, CBS is confident that it can make "Superman" an excellent series..."

In the Courier newspaper, Colin fell silent.

The head of CBS immediately spoke up and made a promise.

In this era, radio dramas were still a relatively new form of entertainment.

In January 1924, London Radio broadcast a 20-minute radio drama "Danger".

This was the world's first radio drama, and the script was written by Chad Hughes specifically for the radio.

The development of radio dramas in the United States is linked to coffee advertisements.

Due to the impact of the Great Depression, a large number of unemployed people stayed at home, and the main form of entertainment at the time was listening to the radio.

Of course, low literacy rates were also a reason for the popularity of radio. At that time, one in 20 people in the United States was illiterate. They could not read newspapers and books, but they could understand what the radio was saying.

In other words, radio can reach housewives, unemployed people at home, illiterate people and children.

Some coffee merchants noticed this business opportunity and produced a radio drama called "Maxwell's Playhouse Ship", which incorporated southern jazz, realistic oars, bells and flutes. In addition, coffee advertisements were inserted into the radio drama. The creative team added the sounds of pouring coffee and shaking coffee cups, and the sound of people tasting coffee, integrating the pleasant feeling that Maxwell coffee brings to people into the script.

Limited by the unique broadcast format of radio dramas, the listeners in front of the radio at that time had no right to choose at all. If they wanted to listen to a program in full, they had to listen to the advertisements together.

This also led to an 85% increase in Maxwell Coffee sales at the end of the year when "Maxwell's Playhouse Ship" was broadcast.

Influenced by the radio drama "Maxwell's Playhouse Ship", more and more radio dramas began to insert advertisements.

The most noteworthy of them is a radio program called "Major Bowes's Spare Time", which can be called the American Dream Show in the radio era.

The program toured various cities and highlighted the local performance characteristics of different cities. The program team let the audience vote to decide the winner, and inserted advertisements at appropriate times to encourage people to buy more Chase and Sanborn coffee, so that more contestants can take the stage and become tomorrow's stars.

"The fate of the contestants is in your hands!"

"Buying Chase and Sanborn coffee with a production date is to help young Americans become famous and rich."

These are the slogans that "Major Bowes's Spare Time" has played.

Of course, in addition to the influence of coffee merchants on radio dramas.

Soap advertising is also one of the factors that make radio dramas popular, and even the origin of soap operas comes from this.

...

Colin did not resist the production of the "Superman" radio drama.

The conditions proposed by CBS were also very favorable, in sharp contrast to the previous "World Journal".

Obviously, they wanted to cooperate with his messenger newspaper in good faith.

Instead of just wanting the copyright of "Superman" like "World Journal".

"I can agree to produce a radio drama for CBS."

Therefore, after a little thought, Colin agreed.

"I assure you that Mr. Colin Luper will definitely produce a work that satisfies you."

Hearing Colin's reply, the head of CBS couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

CBS attaches great importance to this cooperation, and has repeatedly asked him to negotiate the adaptation rights of "Superman" before coming.

"But..."

However, before he could rest assured for long, Colin in front of him opened his mouth and put forward his own conditions.

"As a condition, I need to participate in the production of the radio drama to ensure that the "Superman" radio drama produced by the radio station conforms to the setting of the comics."

The reason why Colin participated in the production of the radio drama, in addition to ensuring that the content of the radio drama does not deviate from the story setting, is also to gain [faith] through the radio drama.

Since comics can collect [faith], there is no reason why radio cannot.

And, unlike comics, radio dramas have a wider audience, and even some illiterate people who can't read newspapers can understand the content of the radio.

This also indirectly helped Colin to bring Superman to some groups that were originally out of reach.

"Of course, no problem!"

At first, when Colin proposed the conditions.

The head of CBS was still worried about what to do if his requirements were too harsh.

However, when he heard that Colin's condition was to participate in the production of the radio drama, the head of CBS agreed without thinking.

With the participation of Colin, the creator of "Superman", for the radio drama that CBS is about to produce, it is a good thing with no harm.

Of course, CBS has no reason to refuse.

...

After finalizing the adaptation of the "Superman" radio drama.

The head of CBS said goodbye to Colin and left the newspaper.

The subsequent processing will be prepared by CBS's professional lawyers to determine the formal contract and some related terms.

At the same time, CBS also needs to form a professional radio drama crew to prepare for the next "Superman" adaptation.

Unlike comics, radio dramas, as a repertoire composed entirely of sound, require actors' dubbing and live music to create a sense of presence.

Therefore, the quality of the voice actors becomes the key to the success of a radio drama.

Of course, all these preparations are handled by CBS.

Colin does not need to intervene.

At the Courier Newspaper, as CBS left, Harry, who had been in charge of the printing factory, also came to the newspaper.

He came to ask Colin for comics.

The printing time of the quarterly issue of "Superman" has been finalized, and they are just waiting for the two-page origin story.

"This is the draft of "Superman."

Seeing Harry coming, Colin did not say anything and directly handed the draft that had been prepared long ago to the other party.

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After taking the sketch of the origin story from Colin, John and Jacob stood up at the same time, wanting to get a sneak peek at Superman's origin story.

In the origin comics prepared for the quarterly "Superman", the details of the explosion of Krypton appeared for the first time.

In these two pages of comics, Krypton, the home planet of Superman, appears and is described as a highly developed planet, and the destruction of Krypton also stems from the excessive exploitation of the planet by the Kryptonians. At the same time, in the first page of the drawing, Superman's father also made his first appearance. He put Superman in a spaceship, launched him to the earth, and was adopted by rural adoptive parents.

In the origin story on the second page, it explains why Superman has such unique abilities.

The reason why Superman has superpowers is due to the weaker gravity of the earth and the yellow sun.

Because of his different physique from that of earthlings, Superman can absorb the sun's light as his own power. At the same time, because of the long-term exposure to the sun, Superman awakens some special abilities.

Incredible?

Of course not!

In fact, plants grow in this way. They take root in the soil and grow vigorously by absorbing the power of sunlight, and can even grow as high as a building. And Superman also has similar abilities, so he can grow continuously by absorbing the energy of the sun.

In order to explain why Superman has this ability, Colin also deliberately mentioned the example of plants in the annotation.

In order to make the source of Superman's ability look more "reasonable".

"It turns out that the key to Superman's power is the sun!"

Sure enough, after reading the setting of Superman in the origin, Little John couldn't help but sigh.

Obviously, he has agreed with his setting in the comics.

"No wonder his eyes can emit hot eyes that burn everything."

And began to substitute the plot of the previous comic series around this setting.

...

Whether it is the printing of the "Superman" quarterly or the production of the CBS radio drama, it takes time to prepare.

Therefore, the works related to Superman that readers are exposed to are still from the latest issue of the "Courier" series.

In this issue of the series, the Prank King appeared again.

He was sent to prison by Superman because of the English tax, but even in prison, the Prank King was still a restless guy. By destroying the prison radio and playing false radio content, the Prank King successfully caused a riot in the prison.

And he also took this opportunity to successfully complete his own prison break.

After escaping from prison, the Prankster vowed to take revenge on Superman with a new and great prank.

However, before that, he needed some accomplices.

It was also in this issue that a group based on super villains was born. This was also the earliest super villain group in superhero comics, even earlier than the appearance of superhero groups.

After escaping from prison, the Prankster first found the Toyman. Obviously, this guy did not die in the previous explosion, but the Toyman was also full of hatred for Superman, the guy who destroyed his army of toys, so the two villains decided to join forces as soon as they met.

The Prankster: "You have an opponent, and I have an opponent, so why don't we join forces to deal with him?"

Toyman: "My opponent is not that easy to deal with!"

The Prankster: "That's right, my opponent is the same."

Toyman: "He is Superman."

The Prankster: "It is because he is Superman that we are worthy of working together, isn't this an interesting thing?"

Of course, both the Prankster and the Toyman know that the two of them are far from being Superman's opponents. Therefore, they found another guy who frequently caused trouble for Superman in previous crimes - Luthor.

Luther also showed great interest in the Prank King's proposal, but he obviously did not agree with the Prank King's identity as the leader of their group. He also had a quarrel with the Prank King as the leader. In the end, relying on his identity as the proposer and the support of the Toy Man, the Prank King successfully became the leader of their criminal group.

At the same time, it also laid the foundation for their subsequent failure.

"Luthor was obviously not satisfied with the King of Pranks as the leader of the team, but in order to defeat Superman, he reluctantly joined the team."

From the words surrounding Luther, readers can clearly understand Luther's inner dissatisfaction.

After the alliance was confirmed, Luther suggested that they should come up with a name for the group, and the Metropolitan Society was eventually chosen as the group's name.

Prank King: "Metropolitan Society, that's a nice name, I like it!"

Toyman: "Superman, he's the key."

Luther: "A stupid name, as if you want people to know your position."

In the newspaper, the last panel of the cartoon.

The three villains, the King of Pranksters, Toyman and Luthor, were frozen in the scene, sitting around the table.

At Colin's request, the background was filled with a lot of black in this frame, giving people a sense of reality of a secret crime.

In particular, the faces of Luthor, the three villains who have fought against Superman, emerging from the shadows, give readers the feeling of being immersed in the plot and participating in the evil plan.

…

Not surprisingly, the new serial content has aroused heated discussions among readers.

Especially when they saw the King of Pranksters, Toyman, and Luthor teaming up in the comics, they all began to worry about Superman and how to deal with the emergence of this criminal group.

For a time, the Courier's mailbox was flooded with letters from worried readers.

"...I think Superman should make preparations as soon as possible and not let the King of Pranks and others join forces. This is the evil existence that once caused the entire Metropolis to fall into huge chaos on the English tax!"

"First Evolution"

"Why didn't the prison respond? It was so easy to let a dangerous guy like the Prank King escape!"

"I think the 'Metropolitan Association' will definitely fail, because Luther is obviously not a guy willing to be under the King of Pranksters. Unlike Toyman, he is an ambitious villain!"

"Why not let Mr. Troublemaker join the 'Metropolitan Association'? If Mr. Troublemaker becomes a member of the association, Superman will definitely be in a big crisis."

"It is strongly recommended that the Human Torch join the 'Metropolitan Association'. Luther is the creator of the Human Torch and will definitely be able to control it to fight Superman."

…

"...Mr. Colin Looper was very good at integrating the current events in New York at the time into his comic creations. For example, the character of 'Mr. Huang' and the "Metropolitan World" alluded to the "World Journal" in New York at that time. ”, in fact that was the newspaper that was competing with The Courier in New York City at that time.”

"At the same time, the setting of the 'Metropolitan Society' also has its realistic prototype. At that time, New York's Tammany Hall and the Mafia family were still serious social problems, and they were also the objects of exposure by newspapers. Therefore, Colin Mr. Looper incorporated it into the "Superman" comics at the time , it is precisely because of Mr. Colin Looper's groundbreaking creative concept that "Superman" has always been loved and sought after by readers in the following decades, because it is not only a comic, but also a New York City Witness of history!"——Excerpted from "1932 The Golden Age of Comics"

Author: John Walker

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . Shuquge mobile version reading website:

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