August
21 Lost version of Superman uncovered

Jeff Trexler of Uncivil Society brings to light over at Blog @ Newsarama some fascinating documents regarding the origin of Superman that show Jerry Siegel worked for a time on a version of the character with artist Russell Keaton. This version saw Superman as a visitor from the future who had come back in time rather than as a visitor from an alien planet. Trexler has copies of some of the correspondence between Siegel and Keaton, as well as fuzzy copies of the sample comic strips they produced. This collaboration took place in 1934, after Siegel and Joe Shuster's original "Reign of the Superman" story. Keaton eventually decided against working with an untested writer and Siegel returned to working with Shuster, plugging away at the concept until DC Comics bought it in 1938. Be sure to check out the comments on the blog, as publisher Denis Kitchen talks about a book project on this topic that stalled in the mid-1990s and says there's lots more material to be made public.

This is as good a place as any to link to this 1981 BBC interview with Siegel and Shuster produced for a BBC special on comicbook heroes.