Superman & Orson Welles Team Up on Mars in 1949, Up for Auction

Fifties-era Batman is usually regarded as the height of DC Comics superhero weirdness, however Superman’s 1949 crossing over with a real-life Orsen Welles in a promotional tie-in with Welles’ movie Black Magic can be as unusual because it will get. Superman #62 options Superman teaming up with Orson Welles to battle Martler, the Martian Nazi, in order to forestall a Martian War of the Worlds with Earth.  The unique U.S. model of Superman #62 was cover-dated January-February 1950 with an on-sale date of October 31, 1949. The UK version was revealed by Okay.G. Murray and cover-dated June 1950.  Featuring a canopy and story drawn by the legendary Wayne Boring, this unusual four-color basic from the late Golden Age of comics is up for public sale in the 2023 January 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122305 at Heritage Auctions.

Of course, Welles was a author/director/actor greatest remembered for the movie Citizen Kane and his radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.  His movie Black Magic, an adaptation of quantity considered one of Alexandre Dumas‘ Mémoires d’un Médecin, had debuted in theaters about two months previous to the discharge of Superman #62.  Dumas’ four-volume work focuses on key occasions that lead as much as the French Revolution. The story in this Superman comedian picks up as Welles and his co-star Nancy Guild are filming the ultimate scene of Black Magic, revealing the climatic second of the movie in the method, oddly sufficient.

As Welles and Guild drive away from the filming location, they occur throughout a bunch of scientists getting ready to launch a rocket to Mars. Welles finally ends up by accident trapped contained in the rocket because it launches, and as soon as he makes it to Mars he’s captured by Martian Nazis who intend to “blitzkrieg the solar system” and plunder Earth for its Uranium. Ironically, the Martian Hitler “Martler” presents Welles the function of Propaganda Minister of Earth, and getting him again to Earth finally includes Superman.

DC Comics often collaborated with film studios throughout this period.  Universal Pictures received its star Ann Blyth on the duvet of Action Comics #130 to advertise the movie Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid in 1949, for instance.  The comedian ebook title Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood was launched as a automobile for Paramount Pictures stars.  A really unusual second in Superman historical past, there is a Superman #62 UK Edition (Okay. Gordon Murray Productions Inc., 1950) CGC VF 8.0 Off-white to white pages up for public sale in the 2023 January 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122305 at Heritage Auctions.

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