Inside the Guide: Overstreet HOF – Joe Shuster

By the time his greatest creation had become a worldwide sensation in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, he was already beginning to lose his eyesight, but artist Joe Shuster (1914-1992) had vision to spare when working with partner and writer Jerry Siegel to craft the quintessential hero – Superman.

Based on a mutual love of science fiction and pulp adventure shared by the Cleveland teens, the Man of Steel debuted in 1938 in Action Comics #1 (DC) with Shuster’s hand shaping the dynamic look that would remain more or less intact for the next 70 years.

Although marginalized by the industry in later years, Shuster eventually earned permanent credit for his role in Superman’s creation thanks to a crusade spearheaded by the likes of industry star Overstreet Hall of Fame members Neal Adams and Jerry Robinson. Today every Superman comic and production still proclaims: “Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.”

For a man that saw the future clearly even through fading sight, there is no better epitaph.