There is a tendency to treat comic books, more than most media, as timeless and part of every time. Yet it is perfectly possible to reconstruct the times, and give an added bit of virsimillitude to the life of Superman. I am going to start...I doubt I'll ever finish this---with the first adventures of Superman. (I'll add the Hugo Danner years later.)

A lot of these I was actually able to nail down to the day. That's because of, in many of the early stories, Superman worked on nights of full moons, it seemed. That seems suspicious, until you realized the early Superman (a) didn't want to be seen and (b) didn't have super-vision at first. If you can't see where you're leaping at night, you could cause some nasty accidents, landing on cars, cats, dogs, people....full moonlight would have been a blessing.

Such things as the length of sleeves of people also indicate the time of year, among others.

We also have several "benchmarks" to determine the time against. For one thing, it's anxiomatic that a story has to occur before it's written. Given the time it takes to write, draw, and publish a comic book story, there has to be at least six months' gap between its occurence and when it happened.

In one story, Superman saves a would-be U.S. Senator from scandal just before an election. That has to be placed in 1932, 1934, 1936, or 1938.(Further examination narrows it down to 1934---in fact, I know which senator.)

In another, a "cyclone"---obviously a hurricane---wipes out much of a Florida town, and it will be rebuilt at government expense. Hurricane season is between July and November, with its fiercest at September.

One very early story has Superman taking the place of a football player during the last game of the year for the college...again, we know what part of year that has to be in.

Now, we know that Siegel and Shuster got the idea for Superman "a few months" after the creation of REIGN OF THE SUPER-MAN, a short story published in January 1933. So we're talking the first half of 1933 has to be---has to be---when Superman first started operating, at the latest. They didn't necessarily know of the split-identity yet, their ideas were self-admittedly crude, but they knew of him by then.

How did they hear of him? The answer is quite simple. Despite Clark Kent's best attempts, some rumors about Superman were circulating in Cleveland, where he was situated at the time. Nick Williams, a con man, had appointed himself Superman's "manager" and was trying to work out all sorts of commercial deals using Superman's name. (The banners and billboards were put up by Williams to impress the newspaper, but they were proposed deals, which fell through.) Williams bragged:

"I've also licensed Superman bathing-suits, costumes, physical developement exercisers, and movie rights, to name a few. ---Why, I've even made provisions for him to appear in the comics!" (Italics mine.)

Now from what we know of Williams, he wouldn't hire an Alex Raymond, a big-name cartoonist who would demand a big salary. Yet it would be perfectly in keeping with his slimy personality to hire two kids who had little experience....like Siegel and Shuster.

Now notice, we know that Shuster had some preliminary drawings, and then "tore them up" save for the cover. We also know from the story that Williams and a fake "Superman" tried to kill Lois when she exposed them as a fraud...and Superman stopped them, of course. They were jailed for trying to kill Lois Lane.

Doubtless Siegel and Shuster tried to find their employer--and were startled to find he was in jail---and even more startled when they heard Williams' somewhat incoherent story about Superman being real and inhumanly strong. Like Williams, they had assumed that Superman was "probably just a myth". Maybe Shuster destroyed his first drawings then, afraid of drawing the ire of such an incredible being....

Yet that allows us to date the "Nick Williams" story in the first half of 1933. Then we can work our way backwards, for the first panel of that story refers to already published stories (Although they never really were headlines in papers...Clark was too canny for that.)

Siegel may have started to track down the facts, and turned up too many facts to be dismissed...and later been found out by Superman. Superman always had a soft spot for kids, and may have felt sorry for Siegel and Shuster---and may have been canny enough to know if they could convince others he was a fictional character, it would be the best "cover" of all.

From what I can determine, the first Superman adventure---the one afterwards titled "Superman, Champion of the Oppressed" from Action #1...first occurred in August 15-16, 1932. In it, Superman stopped a lynching at a jail (notice the short sleeves predominately worn by people, including the would-be lynchee and the sheriff) so it seems to be warm, and there's a full moon. (The governor of Ohio at the time was George White, and it was he that Superman broke into and convinced to sign the pardon for Evelyn Curry. As far as I know, there is no relationship between George White and Perry White.)

Evidently almost immediately afterwards George Taylor, the editor of the paper, sent Kent to cover a foreign war in South America. (Clark made a "detour" to Washington that night, and it was still nearly a full moon when he, Lois, and the munitions expert he threatened were aboard ship.)

As soon as the ship alighted in South America, Superman made the munitions expert and himself join the San Monte army. If you take several days for the sea voyage, at least a week or two of even a rudimentary boot camp, we can safely assume that the next full moon we see is a month later, on Sept. 14th. (The trouble Lois gets in, in which she is thought of at as a spy, seems to be running concurrently, and the same full moon in which he rescues her is probably the next night, not a month afterwards.) Superman wrapped up the war in San Monte (I have as yet been unable to ascertain what and where that war was, although there were several candidates.) and was back to Cleveland by October at the latest.

The next story, "Superman Battles Death Underground" from Action #3, runs in all from 10-13 to 10-18 for the final interview, with a full moon on 10-14. (Most of the action of the story happens on October 14.)

The next story, "Superman, Gridiron Hero" from Action #4 is obviously a benchmark, since it has to occur at the end of the football season. I have been unable to determine when the end of the football series was in 1932, but common sense dictates November or December 1932. I'm going to say December 13 for the beginning of this, and ending a week later.

The next story, "The Big Scoop" from Action #5 seems to be placed a few months later. Torrential rains put a severe strain on the Valleyho dam, which suggests spring, not winter. Lois and others wear short sleeves for comfort. I think the earliest we can assign this story is March 12, 1933, since that is the earliest one might wear short sleeves. (The full moon allows us to pinpoint the date.)

What happened inbetween?

I suggest the two-page text story in SUPERMAN #1 happened in January 1933, and Superman's encounter with "Biff" Dugan, and the two-page text story in SUPERMAN #2, where Superman encountered "Big Mike" Caputo, happened in February 1933. Clark is learning the reporter business, and Superman is slowly making a reputation, at least among the rougher classes in town. I can't pinpoint it any more than that.

The next story, "The Man Who Sold Superman", from Action #6, I put at April 10th, 1933. That agrees with Siegel's description of when he "came up" with the idea of Superman, and it's cool enough to wear a jacket in the evening, yet warm enough for short sleeves or even strapless gowns.

The next story, "Superman Joins the Circus" from Action #7, happened between May 9th and May 12th. Again, short sleeves during the day, yet jackets at night...

Now we have another gap. For reasons I'll get into, I think the next story, "Superman and the Slums" took place in September. That leaves us all summer.

I suggest at least two stories happened during this period---"Superman and the Skyscrapers", from SUPERMAN #2, starting on Jun. 8th, 1933, with another full moon. Summer is a prime time for construction.

Then, the first story of Superman #3, which I call "Superman and the Orphanage", obviously happened during the summer...at one point a child passes out from hunger, fatigue and heat. A full moon was there that night, so I would place it on July 7th---but it would take at least a month for the orphanage to be rebuilt, so probably the final panel wasn't until August.

In "Superman and the Slums" there is a full moon, and there is also a reference to a "cyclone" (obviously a hurricane) in Florida. The full moon was on September 4th. When Superman tore down the slum---there must have been some cover story issued by the governor. In time, new buildings replaced the rotting slums, although it must have taken several months to rebuild them.

I see no reason not to put "Wanted: Superman", from Action #9, in the next month, while the slums were being rebuilt, and place it during October 2 through the 4th, with the full moon on the 3rd.

In "Superman Goes to Prison" Action #10 the people in the Daily Star generally wore overcoats when outside, yet further south, where the prison was, people worked with bare chests or short sleeves. I place this as happening around the latter end of October to the full moon of November 2nd, taking roughly two weeks, making allowances for stories being printed, and even the quickest roughshod "justice" in judicial sentencing. One could reasonably expect it to be cool far to the north, and warm in the South.

The "Black Gold Swindle" in Action #11 would happen around five days in December 1933.

In January 1934, Superman wages a two-day "War on Reckless Drivers".

The "Cab Protective League"---the first Ultra-Humanite story, started around January 30th and took a minimum of three weeks, going into February 1934, since Ultra's henchmen were tried, sentenced, and freed on their way to Sing Sing. Justice was a little faster back then, the time between arrest and trial often quite quick, but not any faster than that.

"Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite" took place one day in March.

"Superman on the High Seas"...in which Superman raised two million dollars for "Kidtown"---took three weeks in April.

"Superman and the Numbers Racket" from Action #16 took about three days in May, 1934. We might note the short sleeves of one of the gamblers placing a bet.

"The Return of the Ultra-Humanite" from Action #17, took place in two days, and there was evidence of Superman's super-hearing being used for the first time. I put that in early June 1934.

Here we have another long gap, because "Superman's Super-Campaign" from Action #18, had to be placed in late October to early November 1934. (In fact, Senator Hastings appears to be Senator Alvin Victor Dohaney of Ohio, who was elected in 1934 to the U.S. Senate.) What happened inbetween?

Again, I place two adventures. The longest was what might be called "Superman in the Ring", the first story in Superman #2 which also appeared in the Superman newspaper stirp. This is where Superman takes the place of "Larry Trent", and helps him win the World Heavyweight Championship again. (I suspect that Trent was instead Heavyweight Champion of Ohio, not the world. That Siegel exaggerated same.) It would take a minimum of three months to get Trent (or Superman) back through the fights needed to earn a championship fight. One might say that Superman saved the suicidal Trent on June 27th, a full moon.

One might also note that Superman uses super-hearing in this story---part of the developing "expansion" of the senses that hit Superman early in his career, as part of the "adulthood" of a Kryptonian.

The championship fights might have continued through early September. The fourth story in Superman #3, also originally from the newspaper strip, is placed immediately after the "Larry Trent" story. Clark is promoted, and Lois is put back to the lovelorn column. I would put that story, which has a full moon, which I call "Superman and the Tough Dive" is placed in September 23rd. There are short sleeves worn by most people (although jackets at night).

"Superman's Super-Campaign" from Action #19, had a full moon--obviously on Oct. 22nd, 1934. Again, "Senator Hastings" is most likely Senator Alvin Victor Dohaney of Ohio. It took about two weeks in all, allowing for the Senator's election. (One quibble---it was not a RE-election, but Doheney was a prominent politician in Ohio politics, having served as governor in the twenties, so he certainly was an experienced politician. That might have been Siegel's way of trying to "disguise" Dohaney.)

"The Purple Plague" probably took several months for the disease and the cure to run its course. (It was also very, very exaggerated, although if Ultra had been able to get his plans to run through without Superman's interference, it would have rivalled the Black Plague.) We will tentatively put it at December 1934 through March 1935.

"Superman and the Screen Siren" featured another vacation---albeit a working one--for Clark---so I'm assigning it at least a year later than his first one, in April 1934. So this happened the week of April 11 through the 18th, 1935, at least, where the full moon appeared.

That's as far as I'm going for now. I'll tackle some of his later adventures...and his earlier years as "Hugo Danner" and the decade inbetween...later.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. "Superman", of course, is currently owned by DC Comics/Warner Communications. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.