American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

"No, Mr. Doug."

It's over!

Hearing Colin's reply, the factory owner flashed a flash of despair in his heart.

Just when Doug thought everything was over, Colin changed the subject and said, "I want this machine."

"What...what?"

Doug didn't react for a while after hearing Colin's words.

After a long while, he came back to his senses and said with a bit of surprise in his tone: "Sorry, I didn't hear clearly, Mr. Colin, what do you mean?"

"I mean, if the price you give is reasonable, Mr. Doug, I am willing to buy this color wheel machine."

In fact, from the beginning, Colin didn't have too high expectations for the technology of color printing.

After all, the times are there.

At this time, it took less than ten years from the emergence of color printing technology to its application in newspapers. With the occurrence of the Great Depression, the development of printing technology seems to have fallen into a certain stagnation stage. In an era when everyone is hungry, it is difficult to expect any great progress in technology.

Although Doug's color rotary printing press was bought before the Great Depression, it still uses the mainstream four-color printing technology, a relatively mature color printing method.

The characters are colored by continuously superimposing the four colors of yellow, red, cyan, and black.

After finalizing the purchase of the color rotary printing press, the rest of the matter was left to Jack and Doug to discuss.

Perhaps based on the relationship of selling, the factory owner did not bother about the price of the rotary press, and soon the two parties finalized a "reasonable" price that satisfied both parties.

The printing machine was purchased by installment payment.

...

"So, sir, will the Courier only publish color newspapers in the future?"

At the Courier Newspaper Office, John Jr. couldn't help but ask Colin around the newly purchased four-color rotary printing press.

"To be precise, the serialized comic strips of Superman are replaced with color printing, and the rest of the Courier will remain in black and white."

The color printing of the comic strip page was the earliest publication method adopted by the World Journal, and Colin just "borrowed" it.

It's like the World Journal "borrowed" his Superman's idea.

Buying the machine is just the preliminary preparation.

The real counterattack starts now.

...

"Extra, Extra!"

"The latest color version of Superman is out!"

On the streets of New York, Jimmy waved the newspaper and ran on the streets and squares.

"Give me a newspaper..."

Hearing the shout from the newsboy, a passerby hurriedly stopped him and took out a two-cent coin from his pocket, with a little doubt on his face: "Are you sure, this is a real color version of Superman?"

"Of course!"

Facing the doubts of the pedestrians, Jimmy immediately opened the Courier in his hand and flashed the color version of Superman on the comic section of the newspaper.

"Mr. Colin of the Courier believes that only a colorful Superman can better let readers feel the charm of Superman, so he would rather spend a lot of money to buy machines to color the comics during this economic downturn, and at the same time decided to maintain the original price, and also publish newspapers so that more people can see the color version of Superman comics..."

"I want a newspaper!"

I don't know whether it was influenced by Jimmy's touching deeds of Mr. Colin, the owner of the Courier, or simply attracted by the colorful comics in the Courier in the hands of the newsboy.

In short, after listening to Jimmy's explanation, the pedestrian immediately bought a newspaper without hesitation.

"It's a colorful Superman."

Looking through the Courier, looking at the Superman in a blue tights, a red cape, and a big "s" mark on the shield on his chest on the comic page, the pedestrian felt an inexplicable excitement in his heart.

Suppress the excitement in your heart and continue reading.

As the first issue of the Courier's transition from black and white printing to color printing, the content of this issue of Superman seems to be significantly different from the past.

In the new issue of the color Superman comic.

A super villain, the copycat Superman, appears.

This copycat Superman has a similar appearance to Superman and uses this to do evil in Metropolis.

Metropolis, the Courier Daily.

Reporter A: "What, Superman is destroying public facilities?!"

Clark: "Destroying public facilities, Superman?"

In the Courier Daily newspaper office, Clark heard the intelligence about Superman from his colleagues and was a little confused, because he, the real Superman, was staying in the office.

Lois: "No, I don't believe Superman would do this."

Clark: "I don't believe it either."

Two Supermen?

The appearance of the copycat Superman attracted the attention of passers-by almost instantly.

He looked at the silhouette in the comic grid that was 80% similar to Superman, and couldn't help but become uneasy in his heart.

Is there really another Superman? Superman is not unique, but there are many?

With such doubts and uneasiness, the pedestrians continued to read on.

In the following comics, the Daily Courier where Superman worked seemed to have encountered a crisis. A newspaper called Metropolitan World appeared, attracting the attention of the people of Metropolis through a large number of yellow news. With the proliferation of yellow news, it had a huge impact on the entire Metropolitan news industry.

《Metropolitan World Newspaper? Yellow Journalism?

Looking at the two familiar but ambiguous names in the comics, the pedestrian gradually figured it out.

"Interesting, this 'Metropolitan World Newspaper' should refer to the real 'World Journal', and yellow journalism is exactly what 'World Journal' developed and promoted."

This connection between reality and comics makes the pedestrian feel more involved.

In the following comics, facing the dual crisis of work and Superman's identity, our protagonist Clark did not give up. He sneaked into the 'Metropolitan World Newspaper' and discovered the connection between the fake Superman who appeared in Metropolis and this newspaper. In the end, this guy who was doing evil in Metropolis was discovered by Superman and his appearance was exposed. It turned out that the fake Superman was a man with sparse hair, no front teeth, and wearing a baggy yellow pajamas.

"Yellow kid, haha!"

Seeing the guy in the comics who was revealed by Superman and turned back to his original appearance.

The pedestrian couldn't help but laugh.

Although the story exaggerates the character who pretends to be a fake Superman, his iconic yellow pajamas and sparse hair remind the readers of the most representative comic character in the World Journal, Little Yellow.

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