the first comic book featuring superman was published on june 1938.
the first comic book featuring superman was published on june 1938.
when was the first comic book featuring superman published?
june 1938
superman is an ongoing american comic book series featuring the dc comics superhero superman as its main protagonist. superman began as one of several anthology features in the national periodical publications comic book "action comics" #1 in june 1938. the strip proved so popular that national launched superman into his own self-titled comic book, the first for any superhero, premiering with the cover date summer 1939. between 1986 and 2006 it was retitled the adventures of superman while a new series used the title "superman". in may 2006, it was returned to its original title and numbering. the title was canceled with issue #714 in 2011, and was relaunched with issue #1 the following month which ended its run in 2016. a fourth series was released with issue #1 in june 2016 and ended in april 2018. a fifth series with new issue #1 was launched in july 2018.
superman (comic book)
with the introduction of dc's multiverse, it was retroactively declared that the version of superman published between 1938 and the early 1950s lived on earth-two, while comics featuring superman published since approximately the mid-1950s took place on earth-one. this was confirmed by the introduction of the earth-two superman as a distinct character in "justice league of america" (volume 1) #73 (august 1969). however, since superman was one of several dc characters continuously published throughout the 1950s, there isn't a clear dividing line between the earth-one and earth-two versions of superman. several stories published before the mid-1950s took place on earth-one, such as "superman" (volume 1) #78 from september–october 1952, the first appearance of the adult lana lang in superman comics. also, any superman stories published before the mid-1950s that featured or mentioned superboy also took place exclusively on earth-one, as the earth-two superman, per the earliest superman comics, never had a superboy career. the earth-one superman's first appearance in comics was in "superman" (volume 1) #46 (may 1947), the first time superboy was referenced in a superman story. the earth-one superman's first appearance (in a flash-forward) in a superboy story was in "superboy" (volume 1) #1 (march–april 1949).
superman (earth-one)