SUPERMAN - FROM THEN 'TIL NOW (ALMOST)...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Most of you will likely have heard of the book "SUPERMAN From The '30s To The '70s", which was published in the U.K. by HAMLYN BOOKS in 1972. (CROWN BOOKS published the U.S. edition the previous year.) With an infor-mative introduction by E. NELSON BRIDWELL, the book featured a mixture of black and white and colour reprints of Superman tales from down through the decades. It was described as a compendium of Superman 'firsts', but not every story really qualified in that department. 'Twas a nice, big, thick book though, and well worth £1.25.

In 1979, Hamlyn reissued the tome in the wake of the success of the blockbuster Superman The Movie, which had been a huge hit only a few months before. Interestingly though, the Other Media In Which Superman Has Appeared list wasn't updated to include the movie - the book being simply a straightforward reprint (on slightly thinner paper) of the earlier edition from seven years before.

Cut forward to 1983, and Crown released a revised edition, called, funnily enough, Superman From The '30s To The '80s.  Apparently DC itself had very little to do with the contents of the earlier volume, which had mostly been chosen by an editor at Crown.  This time around though, it was a different story.  Gone were some of the more whimsical, run-of-the-mill tales, being replaced with newer classics like "The Miraculous Return Of Jonathan Kent" two-parter and "The Origin Of Superman" tale from The AMAZING WORLD Of SUPERMAN tabloid-sized treasury special.  E. Nelson Bridwell revised his introduction from the '70s, but retained the spirit of the original.  If I have one minor quibble, it's that the "Kryptonite Nevermore!" story was omitted this time 'round.  SWAN and ANDERSON at their very best, too.

As far as I know, there was no Hamlyn British edition, so the Crown volume is a nice little collector's item which is well worth having, even if you already own its pred-ecessor.  Start your hunt on ebay today.  In the meantime, enjoy the scans from my personal copy of the book.