Superman (comic strip)

Superman
Ad announcing the beginning of the Superman strip.
Publication information
Publisher	McClure Syndicate
Schedule	daily
Format	newspaper comic strip
Genre	Superheroes
Publication date	January 1939 – May 1966
Main character(s)	Superman

Superman was a daily newspaper comic strip which began on January 16, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. These strips ran continuously until May 1966. In 1941, the McClure Syndicate had placed the strip in hundreds of newspapers. At its peak, the strip, featuring Superman, was in over 300 daily newspapers and 90 Sunday papers, with a readership of over 20 million.

During the National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications court case, the District Court ruled that McClure Syndicate failed to place the copyright notice on some of the strips and thus those strips are in the public domain.

The daily strip was host to many storylines, unique from the regular Superman comic series. The early years consisted of Siegel-era Superman stories, many of which have yet to be republished. The strips contained the first appearance of a bald Lex Luthor, the first appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk and the first telephone booth costume change in comics. Other stories of note include Superman saving Santa Claus from the Nazis, World War II-era stories of Superman protecting the American home front and Clark Kent marrying Lois Lane (and they lived together for years without her figuring out that he's Superman). The artwork includes runs by famed Superman artists Wayne Boring and Curt Swan.

Mr. Mxyzptlk was first created to appear in the Superman #30 (September 1944) story, "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk". But due to the publishing lag time, the daily strip team of writer Whitney Ellsworth and artist Wayne Boring saw what had been created for issue #30, and were able to use him first in the daily strip story “The Mischievous Mr. Mxyzptlk” published from February 21, 1944 to July 19, 1944. So Mr. Mxyzptlk was not created for, but first published in the Superman daily strip. And while published second, Mr. Mxyztplk was first created for Superman issue #30 and first written by Jerry Siegel and drawn and inked by Ira Yarborough.

Superman appeared in the newspapers again in 1978, with the newspaper strip The World's Greatest Superheroes, which lasted until 1985. Between these two comic strip series, Superman appeared in almost 12,000 unique newspaper strips.