Super Secret: Craig Yoe Uncovers Joe Shuster's 'Secret Identity'

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WHEN COMICS HISTORIAN Craig Yoe purchased a rare copy of "Nights of Horror" at a rare-book sale, he had no idea what adventures awaited him between the covers.

Of course, he knew of the lurid contents: "Nights of Horror," of which only 16 issues were published in the mid-1950s, specialized in seedy pulp stories of S&M exploitation illustrated with pencil drawings of voluptuous women in torn garters and square-jawed men wielding whips or worse.

"Nights" was notorious as the inspiration for the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, a group of teenagers who attacked women with bullwhips and tortured homeless men. That incident added fuel to the anti-comics crusade, and 80 detectives were assigned to investigate the menace-to-society publication.

The publisher and printer were jailed, but the head writer avoided prosecution by dumping the manuscripts into the Long Island Sound. As a result of the trial, Congress officially censored comic books, effectively hobbling the industry and its artists.

Escaping prosecution, the artist responsible for the graphic illustrations remained anonymous for decades, but it took Yoe only a few moments to form a theory.

"It was instantly recognizable," he recalls, "like a fingerprint on a stolen Ming vase. I knew it was Joe's."

He means Joe Shuster, co-creator of Superman and one of the fathers of the comic book. He and writing partner Jerry Siegel created the superhero in 1934, but had a falling out with DC Comics over the rights. By the 1950s, he was destitute, nearly blind and willing to accept any assignment.

After confirming the attribution with other comics historians, Yoe wrote "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster," which includes an introduction by comics legend Stan Lee and reproduces all of the images from "Nights of Horror" and its offshoots "Hollywood Detective," "Rod Rule" and "Continental."

"It's the squint of the eyes, the highlights in the hair, the way the faces are structured, the smallish hands, down to how the fingers are drawn," Yoe explains.

"It's the rendering and shading techniques. Joe was one of the few comic book artists who liked to use pencil to shade the figures." It didn't hurt that the women all looked with Lois Lane or her blond sister Lucy, or that the men resembled Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen or bald Lex Luthor.

Not only did Shuster not sign this work, but he rarely spoke of the assignment and kept no records of it. "Did he detest the assignment or did he enjoy it?" Yoe asks. "I don't know. And people like to say he did it just for the money, but I don't know. He could have done other things for the money ... but he took this assignment."

Yoe believes the images lose little of their potency five decades on. They may be artfully refined, but they aren't quaint. For this reason, "Secret Identity" has stirred up controversy among Shuster fans "who feel like this besmirches his name," he says.

"They believe if I found it, I should have buried it in my backyard. And, obviously, there are some people who would once again agree with the Supreme Court in the 1950s that this work should be banned."

There's no question which side the historian takes: "I don't feel you can ever go wrong if you tell the truth. I never thought about not publishing the book. I tried to write it respectfully because I have the utmost respect for Joe."

In fact, Yoe believes this material may represent Shuster at his most artistically confident and capable: "I think he was at the height of his powers. When he drew that first Superman story, he was still a teenager. This is a mature artist. The compositions are flawless, and there is a beauty and grace to these figures.

More crucially, the images in "Secret Identity" are Shuster at his, ahem, purest. Producing Superman comics for DC during the 1930s, he hired assistants to do the artwork, "so you get watered-down Shuster," says Yoe.

"These pictures were drawn entirely by Joe. There wasn't money for assistants, and maybe he didn't want to get other people involved. Now we have a new body of work by the most seminal artist in comics."

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Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo courtesy Abrams Books