Superman – eighty years and counting!
Kal-EL, you don’t look a day over thirty. Or forty. Or twenty. Or sixty. Depending upon who’s writing you, or who’s drawing you, or the title of your publication.
Eighty years ago, in the spring of 1938, Action Comics #1 rolled out onto newsstands across America, showcasing the greatest hero to ever grace the pages of a comic book. Superman, created by Cleveland-born Jerry Siegel and Toronto, Canada-born Joe Shuster, was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and was able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! He was dressed in all-American coloured garb and sported a giant-sized letter “S” on his muscular chest, one that matched the curling lock of black hair on his forehead.
What powers! What features! What literary long-life!
Today marks a very special occasion: DC Comics’ publication of the 1000th issue of Action Comics, the monthly series that started it all for Superman, decades ago. Someone, you see, has been counting, hard and oh-so-very-long!
Action Comics #1000
Written By: Various
Illustrated By: Various
Published By: DC Comics
DC Comics has made a real celebration of the 1000th issue of Action Comics. So much so that they’ve actually gone and scooped up arguably the greatest and most stalwart writer of Marvel Comics during the last two decades in Brian Michael Bendis.
It was a huge coup. Huge.
Bendis, you see, has left Marvel for the blue skies of DC, and will be writing (among other projects) Action Comics, as well as a brand new Superman comic book on a monthly basis.
But he’s not the only one cutting the cake and showering readers with streamers on this party. No, there’s plenty of talent to go around through the various short stories that make up the giant-sized, 80-page spectacle of Action Comics #1000!
In these pages you’ll also find industry titans and legends such as: Geoff Johns, Dan Jurgens, Tom King, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Paul Dini, Jerry Ordway, Brad Meltzer, Tim Sale, Louise Simonson, Scott Snyder and so many more! There’s even a tale by Marv Wolfman featuring old, unpublished, Superman art by the amazing and legendary Curt Swan!
This book is truly something to behold!
Action Comics #1000 is a tribute to Superman unique anything you’ve read before. We’re all witnesses to history here – a history that unfolds everyday with a beloved character who is eighty years young.
You can watch a recent Google Talks interview, featuring a panel of worthy comic creators in Brian Michael Bendis, Paul Dini, Marv Wolfman and Dan Jurgens directly below. It’s great – and insightful – fun!
The character is as relevant in our immediate gratification, highly cynical world, as he’s ever been. We’re all watching, observing. And it’s good to see Superman still acting – in the hallowed pages of Action Comics!
Be a witness to the ongoing history of the greatest comic book creation and make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up Action Comics #1000!
