"Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-creator Joe Shuster" showcases rare and recently discovered early erotic artwork by the most seminal artist in comics. Created in the late 1940s when Shuster was down on his luck after suing "DC Comics" over the copyright for "Superman", he illustrated these images for an obscure series of magazines called "Nights of Terror", published under the counter until it was banned by the U.S. Senate. The discovery of this artwork reveals the 'secret identity' of this revered comics creator and is sure to generate controversy and change the perception of the way we look at Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lana Lang and Jimmy Olsen forever. The book includes reproductions of these images and an introduction that provides a detailed account of the scandal and the court trial that resulted from the publication of this racy material.
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About the Author
Craig Yoe runs the New York design firm YOE! Studio with Clizia Gussoni. Yoe is the author of over thirty books, including The Art of Mickey Mouse, which was a Time magazine book of the year and boasted an introduction by John Updike. Yoe has won the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, two Addys, the Mobius, and an Eisner Award. Yoe is a popular speaker and has curated art exhibits around the world. Joseph "Joe" Shuster (1914-1992) was a Jewish, Canadian-born comic book artist. He later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and is best known for co-creating Superman, with boyhood pal and writer Jerry Siegel. Published by DC Comics in Action Comics no. 1 (June 1938), Superman lays the groundwork for the entire comic book industry.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By red_monkey
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
With this book we see the darker side of Joe Shuster. There is no caped crusader to rescue the damsels in distress. Here they must suffer at the hands of thugs and criminals. They are highly charged drawings which could arguably be dismissed as misogynistic fantasies but if fantasies cannot be harmlessly dissipated through the pencil then where can they be? We see women being brutalised, drugged, whipped, tortured, caged, experimented on and seduced. Lesbianism fetures heavily too. The men don't get off so lightly either and seem to end up being chained slaves wincing at the sting of the whip in many of the works.
It's all good fun and very erotic.
The art itself is incredible with very clean lines and not a stroke of ink wasted. This book would hugely benefit the budding pin-up artist due to the simple fact of the ladies being almost totally naked and in a variety of positions.
It's all good fun and very erotic.
The art itself is incredible with very clean lines and not a stroke of ink wasted. This book would hugely benefit the budding pin-up artist due to the simple fact of the ladies being almost totally naked and in a variety of positions.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this book by pure fluke in a comic shop in Newport, Isle of Wight. I am an avid reader of books about comics and artists and was surprised to see a book about the art of bondage and BDSM Joe Shuster, the Superman co-creator. I had to buy it and its both a good read and a great insight into the art of Shuster.
It does seem somewhat naive to think that the 17 year old who created Superman only drew comic strips of Herculean men heros. Of course that would not have paid the bills and Shuster drew a number of images for Night of Horror throughout the 1930's. Probably paid better then the science fiction he drew prior to Superman taking off (pardon the pun). The images are basic but beautiful too and I wonder who modelled for them. Some of the images do look like Lois lane and the old fellow like Superman.
All in all a good read and well worth looking at.
It does seem somewhat naive to think that the 17 year old who created Superman only drew comic strips of Herculean men heros. Of course that would not have paid the bills and Shuster drew a number of images for Night of Horror throughout the 1930's. Probably paid better then the science fiction he drew prior to Superman taking off (pardon the pun). The images are basic but beautiful too and I wonder who modelled for them. Some of the images do look like Lois lane and the old fellow like Superman.
All in all a good read and well worth looking at.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
15 reviews
54 of 55 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, the missing piece of the puzzle!
11 Mar 2009
By David Burd
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Anyone even remotely interested in comics has heard the story of Superman's creation many times over. Two imaginative kids from Cleveland concoct this fantastic tale of super-heroics and an industry is born. Likewise, we've all heard the story of how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster lost control of their character in a bitter lawsuit with DC Comics in the late 1940's. The same is true of the last chapter: With a big-budget Superman movie in the works, pressure is put upon DC by the community of comic artists. Siegel and Shuster are given a pension by DC and their credits are restored to the comic pages. But the Christopher Reeve Superman movie was released in 1978 and the DC lawsuit took place in 1948. That's a gap of nearly three decades in which Shuster is unaccounted for! An anecdote about Joe working as a messenger is the only story we've heard that explains what Shuster did in those missing years.
Now, with this book, Craig Yoe fills in the missing chapter in the Joe Shuster story. With an introduction by no less than Stan Lee, it is by turns sad, sordid, strange, shocking and super-man-datory reading. Without giving any of it away (I want you to be as fascinated as I was) the story of Joe's lost years involves obscenity, torture, murder and a cast of characters as odd and as varied as the ones he drew in the comic books. Fredric Wertham makes an appearance, along with various gangsters and pornographers, the US Supreme Court, and even Hitler!
No less startling is the art that Shuster produced during this period. It's a tossup as to which is more disturbing, Joe's fetish art or the true story behind it. Subject matter aside, Shuster did some of the best work of his career in this gap between Superman, the comic book and Superman, the movie. Yet it's almost impossible to appreciate the drawing without an uneasy feeling about the bizarre scenes he depicts and the sleazy underworld for which it was created.
Although on the surface this is an art book (the first title released by the new Abrahms ComicArts imprint) it is as much an exposé and a serious work of history. Yoe and his investigators did an amazing job of researching the scandalous facts surrounding these undiscovered drawings and putting them in the proper context.
Joe Shuster's secret identity is revealed at last.
Now, with this book, Craig Yoe fills in the missing chapter in the Joe Shuster story. With an introduction by no less than Stan Lee, it is by turns sad, sordid, strange, shocking and super-man-datory reading. Without giving any of it away (I want you to be as fascinated as I was) the story of Joe's lost years involves obscenity, torture, murder and a cast of characters as odd and as varied as the ones he drew in the comic books. Fredric Wertham makes an appearance, along with various gangsters and pornographers, the US Supreme Court, and even Hitler!
No less startling is the art that Shuster produced during this period. It's a tossup as to which is more disturbing, Joe's fetish art or the true story behind it. Subject matter aside, Shuster did some of the best work of his career in this gap between Superman, the comic book and Superman, the movie. Yet it's almost impossible to appreciate the drawing without an uneasy feeling about the bizarre scenes he depicts and the sleazy underworld for which it was created.
Although on the surface this is an art book (the first title released by the new Abrahms ComicArts imprint) it is as much an exposé and a serious work of history. Yoe and his investigators did an amazing job of researching the scandalous facts surrounding these undiscovered drawings and putting them in the proper context.
Joe Shuster's secret identity is revealed at last.
36 of 40 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superman's co-creator was a closet kink monster
11 Mar 2009
By Mike Rogers
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Craig Yoe. Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Creator Joe Shuster. Abrams ComicArts. Apr. 2009. 160p. illus. ISBN 978-0-8109-9634-2. $24.95. ART
Who would have imagined that the artist who invented Superman was a closet kink monster! Digging through a junk box in a used booksellers stall, author Yoe stumbled across extremely rare copies of Nights of Horror, an under-the-counter sex rag banned by the Supreme Court for inspiring the 1954 murder spree by neo-Nazi gang, the Brooklyn Thrill Killers. Disbelieving his eyes, Yoe showed the work to other comics gurus who confirmed that Supes creator Joe Schuster undeniably was the unnamed artist depicting images of torture, rape, bondage, and S&M. How he fell to this level is an even seedier story, which, unfortunately, is all too common. Artist Shuster and writer/partner Jerry Siegel were so desperate to break into the comics industry that they sold the rights to Superman--to Superman!--for the grand sum of $130. Carping about royalties, the duo were replaced by other artists/writers and left destitute. Yoe theorizes that along with making much-needed money, Shuster, who also was going blind, purposely drew the lusty Nights characters to resemble Clark Kent and a super-endowed Lois Lane as an act of vengeance. Shuster indeed almost succeeded, as the thrill kills fueled the government's anti-comics campaign that almost scuttled the industry in the late 1950s. Regardless of the subject matter, Yoe and others feel this is among Shuster's finest work. Sporting an intro by Stan Lee, Secret Identity is an incredible find of historic significance to comics art, but be warned that many could find it offensive. Recommended with caution.--Mike Rogers,
Who would have imagined that the artist who invented Superman was a closet kink monster! Digging through a junk box in a used booksellers stall, author Yoe stumbled across extremely rare copies of Nights of Horror, an under-the-counter sex rag banned by the Supreme Court for inspiring the 1954 murder spree by neo-Nazi gang, the Brooklyn Thrill Killers. Disbelieving his eyes, Yoe showed the work to other comics gurus who confirmed that Supes creator Joe Schuster undeniably was the unnamed artist depicting images of torture, rape, bondage, and S&M. How he fell to this level is an even seedier story, which, unfortunately, is all too common. Artist Shuster and writer/partner Jerry Siegel were so desperate to break into the comics industry that they sold the rights to Superman--to Superman!--for the grand sum of $130. Carping about royalties, the duo were replaced by other artists/writers and left destitute. Yoe theorizes that along with making much-needed money, Shuster, who also was going blind, purposely drew the lusty Nights characters to resemble Clark Kent and a super-endowed Lois Lane as an act of vengeance. Shuster indeed almost succeeded, as the thrill kills fueled the government's anti-comics campaign that almost scuttled the industry in the late 1950s. Regardless of the subject matter, Yoe and others feel this is among Shuster's finest work. Sporting an intro by Stan Lee, Secret Identity is an incredible find of historic significance to comics art, but be warned that many could find it offensive. Recommended with caution.--Mike Rogers,
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
SUPER SURPRISING
3 May 2009
By Gerald Kolpan
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Craig Yoe's SECRET IDENTITY is a real eye-opener. It chronicles the shabby treatment of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster at the hands of DC comics and reveals the dire circumstances that drove artist Shuster to create these S&M comics of the 1950's.
Real comic nuts will have been over some of this territory before but the actual illustrations from the lurid "Nights of Horror" magazines and others will even shock and amaze the likes of them.
My only criticism is that I would have liked a bit more background on these kinds of magazines and some more information about where Yoe unearthed the actual materials. Also, beware: this book is not for kids or those with delicate sensibilities.
But children and the squeamish aside, SECRET IDENTITY is a must for anyone interested in Superman's creators and no, I don't think it sullies Mr. Shuster's memory at all.
A terrific book for those who can take it.
[...]
Real comic nuts will have been over some of this territory before but the actual illustrations from the lurid "Nights of Horror" magazines and others will even shock and amaze the likes of them.
My only criticism is that I would have liked a bit more background on these kinds of magazines and some more information about where Yoe unearthed the actual materials. Also, beware: this book is not for kids or those with delicate sensibilities.
But children and the squeamish aside, SECRET IDENTITY is a must for anyone interested in Superman's creators and no, I don't think it sullies Mr. Shuster's memory at all.
A terrific book for those who can take it.
[...]
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