Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman

Picture it: Cleveland, 1933. One hot summer night in Cleveland, Jerry Siegel, still a child, unable to sleep, lie awake fantasing, not of girls or cars, but of a new breed of comic. Inspired by Philip Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator and science-fiction pulps, he dreamed of a futuristic man with incredible powers. As Jerry tells it, the Superman concept came to him piece by piece over the night. He would rise from bed and scribble down each detail as it came to him, and when morning came, he had a complete story. Having now fully realized his hero, Jerry quickly ran the 12 blocks to his buddy Joe Shuster's home at first light. Joe quickly became just as excited, and they immediately began developing the script.

The early Superman seems heavily drawn from Gladiator, where the hero has superstrength, is able to leap 40 feet high, and watches bullets bounce off his chest. He also was inspired by the pulp hero Doc Savage, who was advertised at the time at "Superman Doc Savage, man os Master Mind and Body."

Over the rest of the year Joe continued to draw more of Jerry's scripts and the character, originally conceived as a villian hellbent on conquering the world, evolved into a hero, though he still had no name. He was eventually named and his appearance refined, with the duo immediately settling upon the initial costume design.

Try, try, again...

The strip made it's way into the hands of McClure Syndicate editor Sheldon Mayer who immediately fell in love with it. About the same time, Harry Donenfield of DC Comics, looking to publish a new anthology title, he contacted Gaines, Mayer's boss, looking for additional material. Having listened to Mayer praise this new strip idea, Gaines took it to Donenfield. Donenfield had already bought some work from Siegel and Shuster, particularly Federal Men, Slam Bradley, and Dr. Occult, so he wasn't completely unfamiliar with Joe and Jerry. He bought the strip and signed them to a standard release of rights. He told them to rewrite some of what he had seen and gave them just three weeks to complete the thirteen page story and paid them $10 a page. Those thirteen pages would be Superman's first appearance. Action Comics No. 1. Finally, five years after his conception, Superman was born.

Needing to save space, Donenfield ordered that the beginning of the story be cut, making it appear as the story was starting in the middle when published in Action Comics. The following year, in Superman No. 1, the pages would be reprinted completely.

Onward from Action No. 1...

Action Comics #2, the first of the next five issues not featuring Superman on the cover

Superman continued to appear in Action Comics, but only appeared on the covers of No. 7-10, 13, 15, and 17 after DC was told people were looking for the comic with Superman in it. Sales approached 500,000, double the average 250,000. From No. 19 onward, he has been on nearly every cover. His powers have changed since his first early appearances. It first he could not fly, only leap tall buildings in a single bound. He could outrun a train. Though not invulnerable, bullets merely bounced off his chest. He had no X-ray power.

On January 16, 1939 Superman first appeared in a newspaper strip. By 1941, over 300 newspapers were publishing the daily Superman strip. Shuster continued drawing Superman until 1947. After those few early issues, they were paid $500 per 13 page story as well as a small part of merchandizing royalties. Siegel began a lengthy and bitter right for the rights to Superman, ending with DC attaching "created by Siegel & Shuster" to all Superman stories and paying them an annual stipend. Joe Shuster died in 1992.

Enter The Batman...

With the success of Superman, Bob Kane began taking his earlier idea of a costumed superhero seriously. First conceived in 1934, it wasn't until Kane heard of the vast money, up to $800 a week each, that Shuster and Siegel were earning with money from merchandizing. Kane, earning as much as $50 a week, spent entire weekend creating his new character, the Bat-Man.

Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of The Batman

Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings of flying machines, Kane tried a number of names before settling on Bat-Man, Bird-Man, Eagle-Man, and Hawk-Man among them. The name again, was inspired by Da Vinci, this time with his quote "remember that your bird should have no other model than the bat." Batman having a secret identity was influenced by the movie The Mark of Zorro which featured a masked mysterious hero. The identity of Bruce Wayne was created by writer Bill Finger however. Finger also named the Gotham City, after deciding he wanted anybody in any city to identity with it. The Bat-Man was a independent masked vigilante who, after his parents were killed by a mugger, turned to crime-fighting to exact vengeance on all those who broke the law. He was a loner and Kane expounded upon this by having Bat-Man work under the cover of darkness and outside the law. His costume was designed to be so awesome that it wonder throw fear and respect into all villians that he would encounter.

Batman #1, the first appearances of The Joker and Catwoman

The Bat-Man had no superpowers. His main asset was his exciting stories, which were better than those of Superman, and Kane's new and different art style. Kane's cinematic angles and use of light and darkness created a unique fantasy world The twisted, dark villians, Bat-Man's quest for vengeance were unlike anything seen previously.

Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics No. 27 in May 1939. In the Spring of the following year, Batman No. 1, featuring the first appearances of The Joker and Catwoman appeared on newsstands. The Joker was created by Kane's assistant Jerry Robinson and Bill Finger supplied the look with a photo of actor Conrad Veidt in the movie The Man Who Laughs. The Penquin didn't appear until December 1941 in Detective Comics No. 58.