Recent Posts

[HERE]

A couple of things today -

I recently let my excitement get the better of me and asked Angel if he had anything from "Reign of the Superman" that he could share yet.  So he sent me some screenshots, which I put up HERE.  Thanks, Angel!

I've been trying to figure out ways to get word out that the K-Metal project is active again, that we finally have a complete comic, and that we have new material (both new restored 1940 pages, and new chapters in the saga) coming up.  The 'net is different now than it was 20 years ago; I can't just throw up a cheap banner ad somewhere - that option doesn't seem to exist.

One option I'm trying is that I created a Wordpress blog, because search engines like them and they seem to get traffic. I hope to populate it with a bunch of old legacy articles and forum announcements; but also create new material for it.

So it's looking both to the past and to the future.

As part of that plan, I started to write a more recent summary of the significance and discovery of the K-Metal story because I felt that the existing information is a bit out of date and contains a lot of anachronistic assumptions. One of those assumptions, which has since been repeated elsewhere, is that K-Metal is the precursor to Kryptonite.  But in reading Harl Vincent's 1931 tale, "The Copper-Clad World," I realized that it's not. It's the exact opposite. Kryptonite takes powers away, but K-Metal gives them. I try to explain what I mean by that HERE.

I will go on to say that I think Copper-Clad World was a big influence on Jerry, up there with Phillip Wylie's "Gladiator" and I'm surprised I've never heard this mentioned anywhere.

Copper-Clad World includes:

K-Metal, a mysterious "energizing metal";
A world where many things are described as being the color "green", due to the prevalence of copper (Krypton was often described as being a green bubble). This planet is entirely encased in copper shielding - a big, copper "bubble."
A villain with amazing powers of perception who can control the emotions and actions of other people through sheer mental ability; this would later be used in Siegel and Shuster's "Reign of the Superman";
The planet is destroyed due to an explosion involving the K-Metal;
A lone survivor of said planet who escapes in a small rocket and comes to Earth.

I suppose it could just be coincidence.

[Superman Through the Ages! comic]

I'd really love to have a 1970s or 1980s Kirby-verse Superman storyline going in the Superman Through the Ages! comic. I've got the cover picture all picked out, now I just need to find someone who'll write and draw it...



This wouldn't necessarily be the Fourth World/Jimmy Olsen stuff; but something new - a new take on Superman: What if DC had handed the Superman keys to Kirby, and he could build it all from the ground up? What would he have done with Krypton, with the "Superman Family", with the mythos, with the origin, if there were no restrictions on him? What kind of costume would Superman have? What would Krypton be like? Would he do a minimalistic 1940s Superman; or a super-cosmic, outer-spacey Superman?  What kind of hero would Kirby's Superman be?

The stuff of dreams.

[Historic Cover Gallery]

Added a new section - a collection of Superman Through the Ages! comic book covers in the new Historic Cover Gallery section.  I plan to add more as I remember them and where they are.

[beautiful comic]

Two recent arrivals now online, pages 3 and 4 of "Lara, Empress of Earth!":





Many thanks to Mark and Angel for creating such a beautiful comic!!

[updated the featured article]

Just a reminder that Supermanica still exists, and I have updated the featured article.

https://www.daughterofkrypton.com/supermanica/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I also discovered a bunch of spam articles had been created, so I cleaned those out and banned the troublesome legacy user (he had previously been banned in 2008, but for much smaller offenses). I figure his account was hacked, although it was odd that he spent two days creating spammy pages but then just stopped on his own.

[K-Metal]

The mysterious outer-space element of "K-Metal" along with the phrases, "I'll never give 'em the secret of the k-metal!" and "You will be compelled to yield the secret of the metal that energizes!" appear in the novella, The Copper-Clad World, by Harl Vincent; published in the September, 1931 issue of Astounding Stories magazine:

 

Jerry Siegel was nearly 17 years old when this issue hit the stands.


Check out the new Quick Timeline to see where this fits in the overall continuity: https://k-metal.art/secret-of-the-k-metal/timeline.php

["K-Metal Pages 2 and 4 Discovered at Local Museum!"]

Here is a summary of the discovery of K-Metal pages 2 and 4,

"K-Metal Pages 2 and 4 Discovered at Local Museum!"



which will hopefully help explain the challenges in restoring these two particular pages.



Also included in the museum exhibit were two Superman sketches by Joe Shuster.

[Silver Age]

Return to the Silver Age - preview the first two pages of LARA, EMPRESS of EARTH! right HERE - right NOW!

[The Secret of the K-Metal]

My first attempt to continue The Secret of the K-Metal was outlined in my old pitch to DC Comics.

That didn't work out; so we are attempting to do it here, as part of our own Superman Through the Ages! online comic.

The title of this continuing K-Metal saga, which will be a regularly recurring feature within the pages of Superman Through the Ages!, is "Saga of the K-Metal"

Here's where things might get a little confusing.

Our first storyline within Saga of the K-Metal is a trilogy, centered around Siegel and Shuster's The Secret of the K-Metal, which forms the central chapter.

Most people are already familiar with the second chapter, which is now a full-color, complete and restored-for-the-first-time; readable comic book:



We will continue to restore this classic comic, replacing our own versions of individual pages with the Shuster Studio versions as they become available.

The first chapter in Saga of the K-Metal is the prequel, which will precede and lead into the events of Chapter Two.

Here is its cover, unveiled now for the very first time:



This gorgeous cover artwork is the creation of Angel Criado, who is also the mastermind behind this genius trilogy.

Chapter One will be a fully painted re-presentation of Siegel and Shuster's 1933 masterpiece, The Reign of the Super-Man, which Angel has extended in order to explain just how it leads into the events of The Secret of the K-Metal.

Note that although The Reign of the Super-Man is a prequel to The Secret of the K-Metal, it is being published in a later issue of the Superman Through the Ages! comic book.

Chapters One and Two, taken together, will lay the groundwork for the events of the forthcoming Chapter Three.

After the trilogy is complete, Saga of the K-Metal may, or may not, continue on with additional chapters.

This topic has been moved to Secret of the K-Metal!.

https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/forum/index.php?topic=4157.0