THE ORIGIN OF SUPERMAN
The first Superman images were created by American writer Jerry Siegel, and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1930's Cleveland, Ohio. Joe Shuster modelled Superman after Douglas Fairbanks Sr., a popular American actor, screenwriter, director and producer in the 1930's. Shuster modelled superman's alter-ego, Clark Kent after both himself and Harold Lloyd, a popular American actor of the 1920's. Siegel derived the name Clark Kent, from those of Clark Gable, and Taylor Kent, both movie stars of the time. Shuster and Siegel sold the rights to Superman to Detective Comics Inc. (D.C. Comics today), and contributed greatly to Superman's first official appearance in Action Comics #1 in June 1938. Several years later, tales of Superman's adventure are no longer solely restricted to the original comic book format, but are now available across a wider range of media. The movie Man Of Steel, already touted as a potential block-buster is soon to be released as a sequel to a host of five initial Superman movies. Smallville, a TV series that narrates Superman's adventures, aired for the last time on the 31st of May 2011, after earning numerous accolades, and averaging 4.34 million viewers per episode. There have been Superman radio serials, video games, cartoon shows, e.t.c. Stores such as Stylin Online offer numerous Superman themed commodities for sale, and Superman has established himself as one of the most iconic comic characters in the United States, as well as the rest of the globe.
The film and television rights to Superman are currently in the possession of Warner Bros.Inc. (Warner Bros. Inc. purchased D.C.Comics in 1969) for the next eighteen years, following a ruling by Judge Stephen Larson against Jerry Siegel's heirs in 2009. The rights, however, to the superman comic's first few publications have been awarded to the heirs of Siegel and Shuster, while several other rights to the Superman franchise remain under a dispute dating back to Siegel and Shuster's first case in 1947 against D.C. comics, on the premise that they had not been fairly paid for their intellectual property, Superman.
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