Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: jerry siegel, jerry siegel letters

When Jerry Siegel Made Threats Over Captain Marvel & Superman Lawsuit

A letter from the 18th of June, 1953, sees Jerry Siegel using a lawsuit between National Comics and Fawcett over the publication of Captain Marvel.

Famously, in 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of Superman, sold all rights to the character to the comic-book publisher Detective Comics, Inc, later National Comics and forerunner of DC Comics, for $130. Later Siegel and Shuster would sue DC Comics for publishing Superboy comics, for royalties from the Superman radio show and merchandise, and more.

Bleeding Cool has been covering a number of historical documents up for sale from auction house ComicConnect concerning Jerry Siegel. You can catch up on other documents here. That included a series of poison pen letters – and an actual poison threat – from Jerry Siegel to National Comics executives and others describing himself as "destitute, living with my wife and tiny baby" and first mentioning a Curse On Superman.

There is then a gap of correspondence of eighteen months.  Below is a later letter from the 18th of June, 1953, with Jerry Siegel using a lawsuit between National Comics and Fawcett over the publication of the Captain Marvel comics. "For over a year," writes Siegel, "I've been deluged by subpoenas by Fawcett Publications in the National Comics Publications, Inc. vs. Fawcett Publications, Inc. suit." This has already become a twelve-year legal battle as National claimed Fawcett's Captain Marvel titles infringed on Superman's copyright. After listing dates on 10 different subpoenas, Siegel takes the opportunity to remind Liebowitz of the creator's lingering bitterness toward the company "while I exist in a vacuum and watch Superman's super-goodness and super-wealth on television, pinching pennies so my family can eat, I get subpoena after subpoena after subpoena."

Jerry Siegel makes a possible implied threat in regard to his possible testimony. "Have you ever tried to picture my life, and the thoughts that go through my mind? I can't earn a living — barely scrape by with the help of SUPERMAN, owners, who have made millions from my character SUPERMAN and now exploit it on television — meanwhile, I can offer no support to my son in Cleveland or meet his insurance payments — CAPTAIN MARVEL's owners, too, have profited millions from their imitation of my creation … and while I exist in a vacuum and watch SUPERMAN, super-goodness and super-wealth on television, pinching pennies so my family can eat, I got subpoena after subpoena after subpoena."

Whether or not Liebowitz considered any of this was soon a moot point, however, with Fawcett agreeing to cease publication of all Captain Marvel titles by the end of the year. Bids for the letter total $210

Three days later, Jerry Siegel would send another note to  National Comics executive Harry Donenfeld, a handwritten note for Father's Day saying, "I cannot support my son because of YOU". Current bids total $210.

Jerry Siegel would be allowed to return to DC Comics in 1959 writing Superman and Legion of Super-Heroes, his last work for DC in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in 1965. In 1975, with the Superman film, press coverage spurred by Neal Adams, and Siegel declaring a Curse On Superman, which saw Warner Bros. agree to give Siegel and Shuster a lifetime stipend of $20,000 a year in exchange for not contesting ownership of the copyright to Superman. But it seems that the declared curse came a lot earlier.

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