Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: George Bernard Shaw, jerry siegel, jerry siegel letters

George Bernard Shaw Sent Lawyers After DC Comics About Superman

This internal document from 1939 shows how the publisher confronted the first legal threat against Superman, from George Bernard Shaw.

This internal document from National Comics from 1939 provides an inside look at how the publisher who would be DC Comics confronted their first legal threat after the initial success of Superman in Action Comics #1, as publishers feared a lawsuit accusing Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of plagiarism. And with some major revelations too, such as that from George Bernard Shaw.

The auction house ComicConnect is currently selling off a number of historical documents regarding Jerry Siegel. Famously, in 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sold all rights to Superman to their publisher for $130. Later Siegel and Shuster would sue, claiming royalties and ownership, a legal matter that was only finally settled by their families in recent years. You can catch up on other documents here.

But back in 1938, there were other accusations in play. Readers have noted that Superman bore some resemblance to the lead character of Philip Wylie's Gladiator novel from 1930. Less than a year after Superman debuted in Action Comics #1, National Comics executive Jack Liebowitz was sending this letter to Siegel that suggests that Wylie had actually acted upon his threats of a lawsuit. And that the same attorney was also representing George Bernard Shaw, author of the play Man and Superman, suggesting George Bernard Shaw he was also being represented in legal negotiations with National Comics.

Dated the 10th of March, 1939, Liebowtiz begins the letter by noting that Siegel had provided a "comparison between the Gladiator and Superman" that "was quite to the point", that National had been dealing with an "attorney handling this case" and that Wylie's claims "is liable to be a tough case."

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist who wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman in 1902, Pygmalion in 1913 and Saint Joan in 1923, the leading dramatist of his generation. In 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Philip Gordon Wylie was a science fiction writer and screenwriter, including Gladiator, The Savage Gentleman in 1932 which inspired Doc Savage, and When Worlds Collide, which inspired Flash Gordon. Gladiator told the story of a scientist who invents an "alkaline free-radical" serum to "improve" humankind by granting the proportionate strength of an ant and the leaping ability of the grasshopper and gives the powers to his son, who is born with superhuman strength, speed, and bulletproof skin, though spends much of the novel hiding his powers, rather than using them openly.

There is no other documentation that suggests a lawsuit was launched by either Wylie or George Bernard Shaw or that the matter was settled. But something happened to make this all go away. Bids for the memo currently total $110.

Another document being auctioned is this telegram from the 16th of December, 1947 from Jerry Siegel to Jack Liebowitz regarding World's Finest #32 from 1947 , claiming that he had submitted the same story to Superman editor Mort Weisinger but it had been rejected. Bids for this are at $55.

And then, after Jerry Siegel had sent a number of poison pen letters to National Comis executives over the ownership of Superman in 1951. There is a reply from National owner Harry Donenfeld in which he mocks Siegel for the fears the company had in the thirties, "according to your own circulated statements, you plagiarized Superman from the writings of Philip Wylie, In as much as you openly and brazenly confess to such purloining, it seems that Philip Wylie should receive from the thousand of dollars paid for your creation, I will be more than glad to return the bions you gave me when you make restitution to Wylie, an author whose works I admire" as well as contradicting claims that National had "blackballed" Shuster. Instead mocking him for the performance of Funnyman and at other publishers, and that Joe Shuster didn't have problems with the company, and telling him to go and work at the post office instead. It is worth noting that Donenfeld would re-employ this "vicious, hypocritical, greedy" Jerry Siegel in 1959. Bids currently total $13.

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