My Film & Fairytales professor informed me today that she considers comic books/superheroes to be a type of fairytale. She then proceeded to approve my final project proposal of a research project on none other than... Superman.

I get to do a research project. On SUPERMAN. For a grade.

Is this not the greatest assignment EVER?! It's a total win/win situation.

The point is, while I have a lot of sources available to me (wikipedia, etc.), I'm wondering if any of you know where I can find some more reliable/accurate sources of information. And if you know of any scholarly-type articles that I can use, that would be great also.

Specifically some things I'm going to be focusing on are:

-The concept of a hero and why he fits it
-How the different adaptations have reflected the time period and what's happening in the world
-How Supes himself has changed over the years, specifically how he's become a little softer (more "feminine" is the term my prof used) than he used to be
-General history of the character

Thanks in advance!

Crikey! That is awesome!

Um... I'm not sure where the 'best' is, but I DO know that www.Wikipedia.org has some spiffy (although usually generalized) information, and I learned a good bit from it

I recommend starting with JSTOR and typing Superman. Your school should have a subscription to it. Then there's also Muse . Both are online scholarly journals. JSTOR is particularly good.

Hope this helps

alcyone

Every scholarly discussion I have ever heard on the idea of a hero has referred to the works of Joseph Campbell, so one of his books or articles might be a good place to start. There is a list of his works on Wikipedia.

Time magazine did a cover story on Superman when he turned 50 back in 1988. It might be fun to check that out for some of the historical background concerning Siegal and Schuster's creation of the hero and the circumstances of their getting him published.

There are also several books out there on the 'history of comic books'. All of them have to have a section dealing with Superman by default.

Sounds like it could be a fun paper, but like any scholastic endevor, it will take some work to actually make it worthwhile. You might wind up learning a lot of cools stuff whether you want to or not.

Tank (who knows he has a copy of that Time magazine but the likely hood of him ever actually finding it are very slim)

Eek...I swear my friend did a similar essay on such a topic when she was majoring in English. I so wish I could remember the sources we had to use. (I typed we...b/c she left things until the last minute and I was a better researcher in the libraries than her ). We were not allowed to use online sources and only trusted journals. However that was back in 1997-99 sometime.

- the-real-story.com
- Superman: The Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel by Les Daniels
- The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim
- Of course this is just a blog (right?) but something to get the brain juice flowing.
- Concepts about Superman and RL
- monomyth

- Popular magazine article -- I just groaned when I read the first paragraph for this one.

You might want to look at http://www.comicsresearch.org/

(courtesy of my hubby the librarian - I'll let you know if he finds anything else!)

Lisa

and, of course, Nietzsche

c.

Hey Trinity, I'm not sure if you saw, but I posted some great sites in response to your thread on Zoom's board. Bluetights, Superman Homepage and Superman Database are all great for general information, and there are certainly some knowledgeable people there who can point you in the right direction for anything you want to know. Stay away from Wikipedia, while it might be good for trivia ... most professors don't like it and for good reason. Professors in my University will actually deduct points from your paper if you credit Wikipedia as a source in any way. Good luck with your paper!

More links from the librarian husband!

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2006/07/71442

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6679

http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i36/36b00701.htm

http://www.robmacdougall.org/index.php/2006/03/superman-i-secret-origins/

http://www.rpi.edu/~bulloj/comxbib.html

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00007135/

http://discoursechronicle.net/Curriculum_Vitae/research.htm
(Tons of research cited, but none seemingly available online. Pity.)

http://www.ninthart.com/
(Search the archives for Superman. Don't know if you'd call these academic, but they sure are plentiful.)

Lisa

Be careful and ask your teacher whether Wikipedia is considered as a reliable source. Quite a few scholars refuse Wikipedia as a source in academic papers.

Don't have much to add, but congratiulations on your awesome research project!

Ann

Absolutely right, there. IMO, don't use Wikipedia as a source - look up the sources it cites and use them.

I never thought of him as more feminine. But I know some have. What I definitely would consider, if you are writing a long paper (you'd need a lot space for this) is tracing how he went from what he was in the beginning (knocking down tenements to force re-building, etc.), a "champion of the oppressed", to the very main-stream, law-and-order, boyscout we're more familiar with. Some of the Silver Age stuff - wow. The goofy age. Or so it sometimes seemed. Maybe how/if the comic codes authority or the end of WW II affected or changing economic conditions in the 50s are reflected in Superman (seen some interesting essays on comics in general in that arena). Then to Crisis and Clark Kent as the real person. Take a lot of space to cover this with any depth. Maybe just hit the highlights, though, if the paper has a broader range.

I'd also see if I could find essays or anything explore the idea that Superman became less directly involved (in threatening slumlords, beating wife-abuser, etc.) because his powers grew so strong. Originally he couldn't fly, could be hurt by a "busting shell", and so on. But later he got God-like powers (moving planets, etc) and became more PC - perhaps because the more powerful a character is, the more carefully those powers have to be used. Or just a changing in what was expected of comics? Anyway, and interesting thing to look into, if you like the idea.

Is it too late to mention the History Channel special Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked?
That's a *very* good one.

There are also a few "offical history of Superman" books floating around out there, too.

Gladiator by Philip Wylie is considered one of the inspirations for Superman. Etext at archive.org.