Joe Shuster

A struggling young artist teams up with his childhood friend to create the world's first superhero, but as their iconic creation soars to new heights, he must fight to reclaim the legacy that was stolen from him.

Born

July 10, 1914

Died

1992

From

Toronto, Ontario, Canada·Los Angeles, California, USA

Also:
Writer
Art Department

149

Credits on file

Decades active

In short · Wrote for nine decades — 149 credits.

Remembered for

Ranked by community engagement + sustained interest across this person's credits in our database.

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Biography

Joe Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At age nine, he and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he met and befriended his future partner Jerome "Jerry" Siegel. Siegel and Shuster were both avid science fiction fans, publishing a fanzine in the mid-1920s. It was during this period that they read Philip Wylie's book *Gladiator*, about a mysterious character with superpowers and invulnerability. They created a strip for their fanzine (Shuster drawing, Siegel writing) featuring a super-powered villain, but later made him into a hero. In 1936, they tried, unsuccessfully, to turn it into a daily comic strip. About the same time, both young men got a job working for DC-National (now DC Comics), working on such titles as *Doctor Occult*, *Slam Bradley*, and *Radio Squad*. In 1939, DC editor Sheldon Meyer decided to give the two young men a chance, and published their character Superman in a new comic title, *Action Comics*. Superman was an almost immediate hit, spawning his own eponymous title within a year, then going on to be featured in virtually every type of media. Shuster and Siegel continued working on Superman for many years, but became increasingly resentful of the profits that DC-National made off their character (because of the practice at the time, the creators had signed away all rights to the character to the publisher). In 1946, Shuster and Siegel sued DC for a share of the rights to Superman (their lawyer was Albert Zugsmith). The case dragged on until 1948, when the two men settled for royalties only on the Superboy character. They were also required to sign away any future claims to the Superman character. Shuster was bitter about his treatment, and decided to leave the comics field. In 1975, after the *Superman* movie raised new interest in the character, the two men once again sued DC for recognition and royalties. DC, with much prodding from publisher/editor Carmine Infantino, re-instated Siegel and Shuster's name on the masthead as creators, and awarded the two men an annual stipend of $35,000. Shuster died in 1992, nearly blind and still bitter about the treatment he'd received.