Great Superman "Backup Strips?"

[MatterEaterLad]

I didn't read Bronze Age comics, but I did laugh at April and May Marigold when I was looking into some things for Supermanica entries...

I'd forgotten they were telepathic! Of course they were: they were twins, and in comics that only means one thing...

LOL, and May thinks Clark is cute and April doesn't...

[DoctorZero]

I would say that my favorite backups from the Bronze age were World of Krypton and the Private Life of Clark Kent.  One Kent story in particular "I can't go home again" detailed the old Kent family home being put up for sale and Clark's reactions to this was excellent.  The most effective Kent stories were those where he never appeared at all in his Superman costume.

[Kurt Busiek]

In the second, Clark's neighbours, the twins called April and Maye Something, entrust him with their parrot for the weekend, and to his dismay, he wakes up the next morning to hear it saying: "Clark Kent is Superman! Clark Kent is Superman!" Thinking that the parrot is mimicking something he said in his sleep, Clark then spends a frantic day trying to make the it say something else, only to find that it was a practical joke pulled on him by the twins. Which means, of course, that he has to teach the parrot to say it again.

That's "Clark Kent's Mynah Dilemma."



From SUPERMAN FAMILY #197.  One of my all-time favorite Superman stories.  I own a page of original art from it.

I'm also a big fan of "Mr. and Mrs. Superman," by Bates, Bridwell, Swan, Schaffenberger, Novick and others.  So it's kinda fun that that's what I'm writing in SUPERMAN these days!

I liked the idea of "Superman 2020" more than the execution on most of it -- it's a series I always wanted to write.

But another one I enjoyed a lot was "Superman: The In-Between Years," about Clark's college days.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

In the first story, Clark has to go and interview an informant in a seedy bar and gets picked on by a rowdy drunk who doesn't like his face and wants him to take his glasses off so they can fight. (Of course Clark has ordered a glass of milk in this dive, which doesn't make the situation any better.) Finally, the drunk recognises him as Kent, the guy who does the news on TV, and proves to be a big fan. Phew!

And that's "I Don't Like Your Face!" from SUPERMAN #292.  One of the very few times Curt Swan was inked by Al Milgrom, and a nice combination it made, too.

kdb

[Aldous]

I would say that my favorite backups from the Bronze age were World of Krypton and the Private Life of Clark Kent.  One Kent story in particular "I can't go home again" detailed the old Kent family home being put up for sale and Clark's reactions to this was excellent.  The most effective Kent stories were those where he never appeared at all in his Superman costume.

Yes, and it just goes to show what a brilliant character Clark is in his own right. A very early one I owned, which I haven't dug out of my comic boxes for years and years, involved Clark being railroaded into babysitting, then he lost the baby (or, rather, it lost him). The art was by Neal Adams if I remember correctly, and I always liked that story.

[TELLE]

Fave Super-Backups:

1. Mr and Mrs Superman, my favourite 70s back-up.  The whole thing is totally charming, imagining a Super-past that was too good to be true.  A neat aspect of the premise: only characters from before the Silver Age/1950s.

2. Tales of the Bizarro World.  Another charming strip and the aspect of Silver-Age Superman that many fans bring up first (and can still share as adults).

3. Private Life of Clark K.  I could read whole comics of this strip.  What stopped DC from just doing a "Daily Planet" strip?  The Lois and Jimmy books were approximations of this but I always felt the entire non-super Superman family was strong enough to run their own feature.  An ensemble comedy-melodrama like today's tv hits (and not like Lois and Clark).  First fell in love with this feature when I found the aforementioned "Mynah Dilema" in a DC Blue Ribbon Digest.  Still my fave story.

4. Supergirl. She appeared as a backup in many issues before she became a lead.  I love Silver Age Supergirl!

5. Legion of Super-Heroes. (see Supergirl)

6. Krypto, especially the Space Canine Patrol stories.

7. Whatever happened to.. in DC Comics Presents.  Great history lessons of obscure characters thta tied up equally obscure continuity.

8. The Mxy back-up by Elliot S! Maggin

9. World of Krypton --more Maggin world-building!

10. The Secret Life of Lex Luthor.  Wait, that wasn't a series, was it?  I guess I dreamed it...

[Permanus]

Thanks for finding those references for me, Kurt! DC should reprint all of those old backups in trades, since they are obviously very fondly remembered. You got any clout in that department?

As Telle says, I too would have liked to see a "Daily Planet" strip in which Superman did not appear; as I've said before, I loved the bits in the old comics with the cast just standing around the office chatting, going to lunch, that sort of thing.

And The Secret Life of Lex Luthor is an inspired idea for a backup strip: one imagines all kinds of intricate crime schemes, prison escapes and mad inventions. Quite a good premise for comedy, no?

[davidelliott]

I loved those Dollar Comics, like Superman Family and Batman Family... and those 100 pagers in the '70's for 60 cents!!!

But the "Whatever Happened To? series Telle mentioned was awesome... I like the updated Air Wave stories in Action as well!

Kurt... PLEASE... if you ever become a big old suit at DC... BRING BACK THE MULTIVERSE!!!  (please?)