Posted in: Comics, Conventions, DC Comics, Events, Pop Culture, san diego comic con, Superman | Tagged: Andrew Fogel, jerry siegel, jerry siegel letters, joe shuster, mark waid, mark zaid, sdcc
Rewriting History With The Creation Of Superman At San Diego Comic-Con
Newly discovered documents concerning the creation of Superman from Jerry Siegel will be revealed next weekend at San Diego Comic-Con
Article Summary
- San Diego Comic-Con will spotlight newly uncovered Jerry Siegel documents that could reshape Superman’s origin story.
- A Comics Arts Conference panel asks whether the accepted history of Superman’s creation leaves out key legal facts.
- Mark S. Zaid, Andrew Fogel, and Mark Waid will present evidence and Jerry Siegel’s own words on Superman.
- As Superman nears the public domain, fresh records challenge the myth of Siegel and Shuster versus DC villains.
Jerry Siegel is the famed co-creator of Superman with Joe Shuster. But as we head toward Superman entering the public domain, the character’s creation is getting a little reworked. A much-rumoured but unpublished autobiography of Jerry Siegel has been mentioned a number of times over the last few years, and his correspondence with various publishers, co-workers and authorities has beensecured. And this coming Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con, we may see more revelations about the man and the creation of Superman. Is anyone going to the panel? I hear word that it may be recorded for later use…
Comics Arts Conference Session #9: Superman’s Co-Creator Jerry Siegel: Do We Have the Whole Story?
Saturday July 25, 2026 10:30am – 11:30am PDT Room 26ABJerry Siegel, writer of Superman with artist Joe Shuster, has attained legendary status through fans’ enduring love of the character. Since 1975, the Superman saga, chronicled by comics luminaries such as Neal Adams, Jerry Robinson, and others, has portrayed Superman’s creators as hapless victims of a greedy corporation once managed by Jack S. Liebowitz and owned by Harry Donenfeld. Early Superman artwork and comics read in concert with published materials and documentary evidence paint a more complicated picture of the legal and personal circumstances behind the production and management of Superman. The historical record, much of it only recently unearthed through court exhibits and the collector market, blurs the familiar mythology of Superman’s creators as victims and his corporate owners as villains. Attorney Mark S. Zaid and historian Andrew Fogel (Center for Jewish History) will reveal this hidden history, with comics writer and editorMark Waid (Kingdom Come) presenting Siegel’s own words. This roundtable asks the audience the thorny question: Do we have the whole story?
Mark S. Zaid is an American attorney specialising in national security law, government accountability, freedom of speech and constitutional claims, whistleblower protection, Freedom of Information Act litigation, security clearances, and related international matters such as foreign sovereign immunity and defamation. In 2010, he curated”Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books at Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Law Library, drawing heavily from his personal collection, explored the intersection of law and comics, including the Jerry Siegel vs DC Comics dispute over Superman/Superboy ownership, and gave a similar lecture at the University of Miami School of Law in 2012. He represents auction houses and collectables dealers and represented comic book writer Mark Waid, also on the panel, in his legal battle with Richard E Meyer.
Dr Andrew Fogel is a historian of popular culture, with a particular focus on superheroes and their place in American society and imagination. His work examines how superheroes, especially Superman, intersect with themes of identity, race, body image, masculinity, and Jewish-American experiences. In 2024–2025, he received the Howard I. Friedman Memorial Graduate Essay Prize from the Skirball Cultural Center for his essay Superman’s Jaw and has written similar articles such as Stop Jewhooing Superman, critiquing the tendency to retroactively emphasise Jewishness in the character against the creators’ stated intentions.
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