SPECTATORS - Part 95
Plus, a lost story from the co-creator of SUPERMAN!
What did you watch this weekend?
Brian here, and I actually left the house to see an interesting film that ultimately wasn’t quite strong enough to recommend/mention… though I at least loved one of the trailers that played before it, for the upcoming Love Lies Bleeding, “a lesbian bodybuilding neo-noir.”
Sign me up.
Two viewers who probably also would have been seeking out counter-programming to yesterday’s Super Bowl are Spectators spectral protagonists Val and Sam, who continue their voyeuristic quest in today’s installment from astonishing artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon and lauded letterer Fonografiks.
After that, I hope you’ll stick around for some of our coolest bonus content yet, a long-lost story from Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel!
Next up, a trip into Val’s colorful past.
How beautiful are Niko’s latest pages? If you’ve been thinking about picking up a piece of his immaculately hand-drawn/painted original artwork from Essential Sequential, stay tuned for a very cool update in our next dispatch.
For now, thanks to the hundreds of you who joined our over 17,000 subscribers with last week’s “collected edition” of Spectators, especially you generous paid members of The Tower, who might see something like this on an an upcoming credit card statement:
Some folks have been taken aback by the word “S3X” seemingly appearing next to an unfamiliar charge, but our website https://explodinggiraffe.substack.com apparently gets condensed to “HTTPSEXPLODINCA.”
And “Future Investigations” is just the name of my dumb production company/sci-fi detective agency. Here’s a three-second, Easter egg-stuffed vanity card created by acclaimed animator and old pal Daniel M. Kanemoto:
Anyway, whatever you munificent Tower giraffes contribute to the completion of our dream graphic novel is hugely appreciated by Niko, Fonografiks and me, many thanks again.
Right, get to the prizes already, slaphead!
I promised to give away some signed copies of Saga #1 to a few of you Tower types, and from our existing membership, intrepid intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe randomly selected:
Michael Banys
Melannie
Ian Sorensen
And for our three NEW Tower members, they drew:
Hilda Torres
Grayson Bell
MollyB
Congrats to everyone who won, and apologies in advance if you get a copy with one of my horrid drawings on it. Genesis will be reaching out for your mailing addresses when they’re back on the clock later this week.
And if you didn’t win this time, please don’t despair, as we’ve got more cool giveaways coming up RIGHT NOW.
Behold the latest limited edition Saga swag from artist/co-creator Fiona Staples (who’s very hard at work on this year’s new issues, thanks for your kind patience!), merch maestro Ben Rankel, and our good friends at Threadless, celebrating the most subversive romance novel in the galaxy:
All of this sultry A Nighttime Smoke gear will only be available for THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS, and then the design goes back into Fiona’s art vault, so head over to Threadless now, D. Oswald Heist devotees.
Genesis will also be selecting a few random commenters from this week’s Tower chat thread to receive some of those official items, so if you’d like a shot at a shirt, please just let us know: Seriously, what DID you watch this weekend?
In addition to any Super Bowl commercials, I mean. I know February used to be a notorious dumping ground for subpar movies, but maybe you watched an old classic, new ballet, fireworks show, state execution…?
During the pandemic, editor Scott Dunbier helped reignite my love/problem for collecting by auctioning off (to help benefit legendary artist Bob Wiacek) a long-lost Gen 13 script by none other than Alan Moore.
I was fortunate enough to nab that script, and I’m just sorry I was only able to share it with readers for a limited time. But recently, I was able to acquire another piece of comic history that I thought might be of interest.
Online auctioneer ComicConnect has been offering some pieces connected to writer, Superman co-creator, and fellow Cleveland native Jerry Siegel, who—along with his artistic partner Joe Shuster—infamously sold all rights to their creation for a meager $130.
These unearthed documents include some furious correspondence Siegel sent to his former employers as he struggled with his finances over the years, and those poison pen letters are pretty hard to read (but informative, especially if you’ve ever considered creating new characters of your own).
Still, the historical document that most interested me was this one:
In 1939, Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel was desperate to develop a new superhero after the success of Action Comics #1. He struck gold again with The Spectre, but things didn’t go as well with Dr. Miracle—who would be completely lost to time if not for this rare lost script!
A new superhero from Jerry Siegel, written less than one year after he helped create arguably the greatest superhero of all time?
Tough break, Vaughan kids’ college fund!
I was lucky/foolish enough to win/buy this 85-year-old script, which you can see is in pretty rough condition (though I was delighted to find some handwritten corrections by Siegel).
My scan-to-text software was struggling to decipher these mold-covered pages, but because I love you (and am having some kind of rapidly evolving midlife crisis), I spent much of this weekend carefully retyping Mr. Siegel’s words.
Was that a weirdly emotional experience, you ask? Please see the previous parenthetical.
Included in these pages are the “full scripts” (dialogue and panel descriptions) for the first six daily newspaper strips starring a new costumed adventurer named Dr. Miracle, as well as a detailed synopsis of the science-vigilante’s complete first adventure.
I realize I’m a biased purchaser, but I thought the whole thing was pretty fucking amazing, especially considering how many of Siegel’s ideas (including a bus that will explode if it hits a certain speed!) were far ahead of their time.
I don’t think this complete document has ever been shared anywhere, but the full transcript is below exclusively for you generous paid subscribers.
This Dr. Miracle pitch was apparently never sold or purchased, so I’d guess that the 85-year-old unpublished character long ago entered the public domain. Still, in honor of the late Mr. Siegel and the hometown he loved, I’m going to donate my share of any Exploding Giraffe loot from this dispatch to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
Thanks so much again for being here, have a lovely week, and I’ll see you next Monday evening for more free Spectators.