Monday, January 26, 2015

The Daily Superman Newspaper Comic Strip X

Now last time I talked about how Superman's Daily Newspaper comic strip came to an end in the first half of 1966. But as always, you can't hold the Man of Steel down for long. Thirteen years later Superman would once again have a newspaper comic strip presence. On April 3rd, 1978, the Sunday and Daily Newspaper strip The World's Greatest Superheroes launched. It would feature a format that starred a number of DC heroes including Aquaman, Batman, Black Lightning, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, and more. That is until the format changed in October of the next year, when the title changed to The World's Greatest Superheroes Present: Superman. As the title implies, instead of focusing on a number of characters, the series focused on the Last Son of Krypton himself, Superman. The series incorporated Sundays and Daily strips to carry out one continuous story arc. This is similar to other strips of the time, like the Conan the Barbarian Newspaper comic strip that used a combination of the daily strips and larger, full color Sunday strips, to forward one continuous, cohesive story. For historical context, Superman at this time would have a number of monthly comics on the shelves, including Action Comics, Superman, DC Comics Presents, World's Finest Comics, and Superman Family. Superman was definitely enjoying a high demand of popularity in the late 70's as he hit the 40 year mark as a mainstay in American literature. The title would continue to focus on Superman until it ended, but it would undergo a format and name change in 1982. In August of 82, the series dropped the World's Greatest Superheroes tag and simply be called Superman. It would continue to feature the one cohesive storyline between daily and Sunday strips until January 1983 until the strip split. The daily strip kept the Superman title, while the Sunday strip became its own entity, with a storyline reserved to Sunday strips only, under the new name The Superman Sunday Special. Both strips wrapped up early in February 1985, putting the final end on Superman's presence in the newspaper comic strips.

This 1970's and 1980's revival of the Superman newspaper comic strip featured a host of DC creator mainstays. Writers on the strips included Martin Pasko, Paul Levitz, Gerry Conway, Mike W. Barr, Paul Kupperberg, and Bob Rozakis. Artists on the strip include George Tuska, Vince Colleta, Bob Smith, Sal Trapani, and Frank McLaughlin.






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