EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture
Michael Uslan, Smithsonian Institute
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E 1938: The Birth of Superman Notes taken on January 10, 2017 by Edward Tanguay |
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June 1938
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sociological conditions that were present in America and the world
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poverty
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depression
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war
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this impacted America's need for heroes
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many publishers turned Siegel and Shuster down
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too crazy
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too over-the-top
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too unbelievable
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too crude
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finally published in Action Comics #1, June 1938
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starts with an origin story of superman
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unnamed planet exploding
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coming to earth as a baby
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he couldn't fly at this time, but could just leap 1/8th of a mile
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not yet dealing with super villains and alien threats
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he's more about being a crusader for social justice
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fighting everything from gangsters to corrupt politicians to big business
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the original Superman was representing every man, the common man, in his battle for truth and justice
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begins to describe the love triangle with Lois Lane
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by 1939 was awarded his own comic book
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Superman 2
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sales were high
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exceeded one million
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a retelling of the original story
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brings us into modern day stories of the man of steel
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gave birth to a modern-day mythology
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art of comic books and comic strips
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look at original art on the back, since artists do sketches on the backs of paintings
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on an original print, there is an inked picture of Lois Lane
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Stan Lee co-created the entire pantheon of Marvel superheroes
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superman was a man from another planet where the gravity is heavier
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but they had him able to fly with no visible means of propulsion
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would have been more realistic if he was only able to jump high
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began to market merchandise
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view master and slides
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watch
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belt
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television show which turned into a film
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on the black and white shows
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his costume was not red and blue
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tannish brown
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Kellogg's Pep Whole Wheat sponsored
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musical
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puzzles
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law suit from 1940 to 1953
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between National Comics (also known as Detective Comics and DC Comics) and the Fawcett Comics
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longest running legal battles in comic book publication history
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suit resulted in the dissolution of Fawcett Comics and the cancellation of all of its superhero-related publications