Superman Through the Ages! Forum

As mentioned elsewhere, we were recently given copies of the original Shuster Studio artwork of the formerly lost pages 2 and 4. (More on that later)

While working on page 2, I ran across a puzzling difference:

(https://k-metal.art/behind_the_scenes/page2/page-2-panel-1-legacy.jpg)

In our version of the page, the narration box reads,

"Hurtling thru inter-planetary space, a stellar fragment fated to change the destiny of SUPERMAN"

But in the original Shuster Studio artwork, it reads differently:

(https://k-metal.art/behind_the_scenes/page2/page-2-panel-1-shuster-studio.jpg)

"Hurtling through inter-planetary space, a stellar fragment fated to change the destiny of a SUPERMAN"

I was puzzled by this difference, at first assuming that either I or the Shuster Studio had made a mistake in reading the script; or had done a minor on-the-fly edit.

It turned out the solution wasn't that simple, and the more I looked into it, the more puzzled I became.

Here's what I tracked down:

When Mark Waid discovered the original K-Metal script in 1988, he didn't actually discover the original typed document - he discovered a mimeograph of it.

In the interest of historical preservation, he painstakingly typed what he thought was an exact duplicate.

Turns out it wasn't exact.

The mimeograph of Jerry's script reads "a SUPERMAN", Mark Waid's reproduction of that mimeograph (presumably unintentionally) omits the a.  It was Waid's duplicate that was copied and distributed around the DC offices, and that is the copy we were working from.

Does the "A" make any difference?

That's a question that may turn up again in future installments...  ;)

(It turns out the Shuster Studio usage of the more correct "through" for "thru" was, in fact, a minor edit made by whoever was doing the lettering - Siegel had written "thru" in both versions of the script)


:s:

Interesting analysis!

Thank you!!

I've run across the occasional minor difference between our version and the 1940 version on other pages that are later discovered  - things like the number of trailing dots at the end of a sentence, or the number of hyphens (as with Lois' dialogue in the page 24 "partners" panel; in the original panel it's three hyphens (https://k-metal.art/?page=24&art=old); in our version it's two (https://k-metal.art/?page=24&w=1192&art=new)).

Now I chalk these up to differences in the two versions of the script.

Fixed it! Back to the original "a SUPERMAN"  :D
 
(https://k-metal.com/pages/page-2/page-2-panel-1.jpg) (https://k-metal.com/secret-of-the-k-metal/page-2/)

and the new version of page 2 is online (https://k-metal.com/secret-of-the-k-metal/page-2/), although you may have to reload the page and/or clear your image cache (which I find very convoluted to do on modern devices) to see it.

What baffles me about this panel (and the whole page, in fact) is that Angel laid it out the same as the original artwork, before the original artwork had even been discovered!

That is amazing, what did the script for it look like? [We see a meteor approaching earth...?]

It also amazes me sometimes that people drew things with this kind of perspective before the existence of space probes.

Pretty much.  The description reads, "Shows huge meteor nearing Earth" (click/touch to zoom (https://k-metal.com/behindthescenes/k-metal-script-page-1.jpg))

(https://k-metal.com/behindthescenes/k-metal-script-page-1.jpg) (https://k-metal.com/behindthescenes/k-metal-script-page-1.jpg)

This is from Mark Waid's K-Metal article in Alter Ego 26 (https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=55&products_id=481) - the top shows Jerry Siegel's mimeograph, the bottom is Mark Waid's retyped version.

This article is what started the restoration project.