Number 1693: Funnyman dooed it

I have shown Funnyman stories before. The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster after their creation, Superman, was seized and then S and S were kicked to the curb by their publisher. That isn't funny, man.

Funnyman was not a big hit as a comic book, lasting a short run of six issues, and for a short time as a newspaper comic strip. ME was the publisher, and several artists did the drawing. This particular episode, from Funnyman #3 (1948), is credited by the Grand Comics Database to John Sikela for pencils, and inks by the Shuster studio. I see the character as being modeled after Danny Kaye and Red Skelton (“I dooed it!” is taken directly from Skelton). Throw in some baggy pants and some superhero-style gimmicks and voila, Funnyman.

More Funnyman. Just click on the thumbnail:

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Another superman before Superman

It is no secret that Siegel and Shuster had their models for Superman, even a villainous Superman. Philip Wylie’s novel, Gladiator, is widely touted as a direct inspiration. Wylie always believed it, anyway, even if Siegel denied it (why put yourself on record with a statement that can get you sued?). Gladiator was published in 1930, and this story, “The Superman of Dr. Jukes” by Francis Flagg, is from the November, 1931 issue of Wonder Stories.

“Killer Mike” is Dr. Jukes’ superman, and the author makes it fairly clear that the story is also about Al Capone — called Frazzini, or “The Big Shot” —  throughout the story. Killer Mike makes more like the Flash than Superman, moving so fast everything appears to him to be in slow motion.

To me the story if of its era, corny in spots. Brad Ricca, who wrote Super Boys, a book about Siegel and Shuster, says that Siegel read it. It is true that Siegel’s early fanzine story, “The Reign of the Super-Man” was about a criminal superman, not unlike Flagg’s.

These are scans of the pages of the story from its original appearance in Wonder Stories, so you can see for yourselves.

Number 1231: Funnyman — tragic, man!

I wrote in Pappy's #798 my opinion of why Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman's creators, created Funnyman in the wake of being sacked by DC Comics, losing their most famous creation.

Funnyman wasn't funny — at least not as funny as the premise of the character made him out to be, a baggy-pants, old school shtick comedian with a secret identity:

Yuk, yuk.

Funnyman is an interesting failure, and also interesting as part of the still ongoing history of the world's most iconic superhero, and the tragic story of its creators.

From Funnyman #2 (1948):

Number 798

Born of a nightmare

Consider if Edgar Rice Burroughs had lost Tarzan to a huge corporation which made millions in profit from the character over the years, and fired Burroughs from writing his own creation. Think of Conan Doyle losing Sherlock Holmes in a similar fashion. Good thing those nightmare scenarios never happened.

Superman is an icon like those characters, yet the nightmare happened to creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. A few years after being bumped from Superman they came up with another character, Funnyman. I'm sure they knew all about the Superman lawsuit against Fawcett over Captain Marvel and their lawyers may have told them, "Make any new characters you create unlike Superman or DC will sue." Funnyman is about as un-Supermanlike as you can get.

OK, so Funnyman isn't so funny...more oddball than humorous. And if anyone other than Siegel and Shuster had come up with the character our expectations might not have been so high. But he's not all that bad, either. Unfortunately, he didn't get much time to prove anything one way or another. His self-titled comic was canceled after six issues.

The Grand Comics Database says this was drawn by Dick Ayers ? or Marvin Stein ? but those question marks mean they just aren’t sure.The story, inspired by Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is from Funnyman #4, 1948.