American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

"Good morning, Colin..."

Positive World, Courier Newspaper.

"Good morning, Jack, good morning, Harry."

Nodding to the two people in the newspaper office, Colin took off his hat, glanced at the drawing paper on the table that was mostly printed with colored ink, and asked with a smile: "How is it, how is the progress?"

"It's almost finished." Sitting in front of the workbench, handing the still-dry ink sketch to Colin, Jack rubbed the corners of his sore eyes and replied, "We have deleted some of the content of the frame and let the entire The plot of "Superman" has become more compact, and professionals have been hired to color these works. Although this greatly increases the cost of printing, it also makes the entire comic work look more attractive..."

Putting comic strips from newspapers into magazines requires more than just printing.

For the sake of convenience, comic strips are generally in the form of strips, which is a fixed form of four-frame comics.

And now, since it has been decided to move the story of "Superman" to a magazine, the original form of the comic strip will naturally have to be changed. In the past few days, Jack and Harry have been staying at the Courier newspaper for the purpose of bringing the story to a magazine. The comic content was changed from the original comic strip form to the comic book form.

Reaching out and taking the drawing from Jack, Colin looked at the crude drawing in his hand that still smelled of ink and glue.

Flipping through the manuscript paper, looking at the comic content that had been re-energized after coloring, Colin's eyes finally stopped at the one at the top of the manuscript paper, which was re-colored by the artist and was wearing a blue tights. , wearing a red cape and a big "S" mark on the shield logo on his chest, holding a car high above the Superman cover image above his head.

The professionals hired by Jack and Harry were quite skilled in painting, and the coloring of the comics was also very restored, basically replicating the image of Superman in Colin's impression.

However, looking at the Superman on the cover in front of him, Colin always felt a sense of dissonance in his heart. He always felt that there seemed to be something missing about him on the drawing paper.

"What's wrong?"

Noticing the expression on Colin's face, Jack immediately asked.

"Is there something wrong?"

Without answering Jack's question immediately, Colin flipped through the manuscript in his hand again and carefully confirmed every Superman image depicted on the manuscript paper. Then he closed the manuscript again with a look of surprise and pointed at the cover. asked about Superman's crotch: "I remember that in the comic book Superman's appearance, in addition to the blue tights, he also wore a pair of tight shorts, but the artist who colored it didn't seem to draw it on the newly colored Superman. body."

Hearing Colin's reminder, Harry quickly picked up the cover of The Courier and compared it with the colored version in Colin's hand. Indeed, he could vaguely see the shadow of a pair of tight shorts on Superman's crotch. However, perhaps because of the black and white printing, the shadow is not very clear, and the artist ignored this detail when coloring.

"Sorry, I was negligent."

There was a mistake, and Jack immediately apologized.

"Do you have to keep this design? I think Superman looks appropriate without wearing tight shorts?"

Comparing the situation of the two covers, Harry on the side put forward different opinions.

Is Superman still Superman without wearing red underwear?

In later generations, Superman wearing underwear has already become synonymous with his image.

However, whether Superman must wear these underwear has always been the focus of debate among readers.

Not everyone likes the look of Superman wearing underwear, just like Harry in front of him.

"That's because what you are seeing now is a drawing that has been carefully color-matched by the artist. Naturally, you won't think there is any problem with losing the design of the tight shorts. However, once these comics are put into the factory for mass printing, it will be very difficult. Ensure that the color in the later stage still maintains this quality.”

Hearing Harry's suggestion, Colin didn't wait for him to speak.

Jack, who was on the side, took the lead in rebutting his friend.

During this period, printing methods were generally divided into two types, one was black-and-white printing, which was the method used by The Courier, and the other was color printing, which was limited by technological development and cost considerations. The so-called color printing of this era, also known as four-color printing, uses four colors of yellow, red, cyan, and black to color characters.

Affected by the Great Depression, in order to save costs, factories often chose to use some poorer papers to affect printing.

This approach also leads to a result, that is, the finished products of magazines and periodicals are often much worse than the printed samples. This problem is not obvious in the text, but it becomes particularly obvious once it falls on the characters. up, especially after a large print run.

This is why early comic characters often have colors overflowing from the character's outline.

In order to cope with this situation, painters at the time would often add shadows or colors to the turning points of the characters, such as the waist, hands and feet, to help readers better understand the character's posture. The red tight shorts on Superman appeared for this reason.

In this way, not only can some character dynamics be shown, but also some unnecessary troubles can be avoided.

After Jack's reminder, Harry realized that he had taken it for granted.

Indeed, once mass printing began, Superman's overall blue shape did give people a sense of disharmony, as if there was nothing on his crotch.

"I'll call the artist over right away to revise the color."

After figuring this out, Harry did not hesitate and immediately set off.

"No need to be so troublesome."

Colin reached out to stop Harry's action, picked up a brush with red paint from the table, and outlined the iconic red tight shorts on Superman's crotch on the cover.

"Don't forget, I'm also Superman's artist."

Putting down the brush in his hand, looking at the Superman shape wearing red underwear on the drawing paper, Colin nodded with satisfaction, turned his head and said to the two people beside him.

……

“…Later, Harry Donafield told me that he occasionally thought that if he had insisted that Superman not wear those tight shorts at that time, perhaps what we would see next would be a completely different image of Superman. Of course, we all know that this is impossible, because Colin Looper will definitely stick to his own way, he is always so confident and determined…”

“To this day, I still feel a little regretful that I didn’t see Mr. Colin Looper color Superman with my own eyes, but I am also proud of it, because I was the first person to see Superman in color after Mr. Colin Looper and others. At that time, no one thought that the golden age of American comics would kick off…”-Excerpt from "The Golden Age of Comics in 1932"

Author: John Walker

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