Funnyman

    (Magazine Enterprises, 1948)
™ and ©1948 Magazine Enterprises

The popular TV series “Smallville” features an innocuous line in the opening credits—“Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.” To comic fans who understand how long and hard those two men—and later their estates—fought for recognition from the company that published their creation, those few words are a poignant and welcome sight. In 1948, after losing a lawsuit against DC over the rights to Superboy, Siegel and Shuster tried again to capture lightning in a bottle with a new creation for Magazine Enterprises. The result was Funnyman—a “super-hero” based on vaudeville stage humor. It was the start of a long, steep decline for the creative team that eventually resulted in Siegel returning to DC as a freelance writer and Shuster sinking into illness and obscurity. Funnyman #1 incidentally features the first published work by future Marvel Bullpen stalwart Dick Ayers.
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