Look! Up in the top left panel! It’s….
Okay,
let me just get my breath. All right. The other day—no,
wait, I need another minute.
Okay. Okay. I’m just going to say it: in the latest issue of Action Comics, Clark Kent is reading Jennifer Government.
Action Comics is the series that introduced Superman in 1938. And now he’s reading my book.
This is possibly the greatest moment of my life.
Just before I left Australia, I noticed I had a couple of emails with odd subject lines, like “Superman reads Jennifer Government.” But I had a plane to catch and didn’t get around to reading these for a couple of weeks. Then I was sure that it couldn’t be true, that maybe Clark was reading a book that just looked a bit like one of mine if you turned the page upside down and squinted, because… well, it just couldn’t be. But if that was happening, a lot of people seemed to be doing it.
So I emailed DC Comics, pausing only briefly to wipe the drool from my keyboard, and soon had not only confirmation that this extraordinary event had actually come to pass, but a fascinating (and flattering) explanation as to how:
I’m glad you enjoyed the bit — I’m Kurt Busiek, co-writer of that issue, and the guy who violated copyright on your book cover for my own nefarious purposes. The idea, mostly, was that in the past, whenever Clark mentions reading anything, he almost invariably mentions Dickens or Austen or some other long-dead writer that the audience knows from being forced to read them in high school lit class. Since Clark’s supposed to be in his early thirties, I want him to come across like a reasonably young guy, not like your college professor’s dad (and I say that as a big Jane Austen fan; it ain’t the quality, it’s the image). So I wanted Clark to be reading something current, interesting and smart. Something that made him look like he’s part of this century and knows what’s good.
I’m not ashamed to admit that this made me giggle like a schoolgirl who just found the penis pictures in her biology textbook.
My new goal is to land a poster-sized copy, so I can frame it and hang it somewhere conspicuous, like on the front of my house. I mean, Superman! Superman!
Comments
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Location: Fremont, California
Quote: "www.caffeinatedmuslim.com"
Posted: 6851 days ago
Location: London, England
Quote: "We're today's scrambled creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature (Bowie)"
Posted: 6851 days ago
Yenzo (#829)
Location: Secret underwater pyramid base in the Pacific
Quote: "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe (Carl Sagan)"
Posted: 6851 days ago
No, seriously: Walk proudly, Mr. Barry. :-)
Anita Heiney (#292)
Location: Richmond, VA USA
Quote: "I came. I signed up. I got an error."
Posted: 6851 days ago
hee hee
Dude - that's way cool. That's cooler than cool - that's Super Cool! Congrats to you!
Picto (#64)
Location: United Kingdom
Quote: "Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? - Maurice Freehill"
Posted: 6851 days ago
Location: England
Quote: "Eagerly awaiting the European Tour."
Posted: 6851 days ago
Mike Sarzo (#517)
Posted: 6851 days ago
Quote: ""it's the way of the future""
Posted: 6851 days ago
Feel proud Max, feel proud!
Can't believe it, SUPERMAN! Congrats dude! :)
shabooty (#637)
Location: D.C./V.A/M.D.
Quote: "I will shake your foundation. I will shake the f**cking rafters. Nobody'll be the same -Danny Bonaduce ....& go visit my blog @: http://www.shabooty.com"
Posted: 6851 days ago
let's hope the superman curse doesnt get ya now
;)
-s-
but yeah- uber coolage d00d
Duncan (#1311)
Location: The Free Web
Quote: "One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."
Posted: 6851 days ago
Kalle (#1278)
Quote: "Sex is herital. If your parents never had it, chanses are you'll never have it either."
Posted: 6851 days ago
Nora Jean Stone (#1170)
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Quote: "Do Wa Ditty, Life in the CITY, where the Women are Strong and the Men are Pretty... anon"
Posted: 6851 days ago
Carly (#2091)
Posted: 6851 days ago
Sehr toll, Max!
Chris McBride (#1977)
Location: Belfast, N.Ireland
Quote: "Plagiarism saves thinking time"
Posted: 6851 days ago
Mincetro (#584)
Quote: "This isn't skiing"
Posted: 6851 days ago
Mindy Beth (#2341)
Location: Tualatin, OR
Posted: 6851 days ago
Jason (#1193)
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Quote: "The bulwark of the suggestion box has failed."
Posted: 6850 days ago
John Doe (#797)
Location: Live from Omicron Persei 8
Quote: "You're just jealous because the little voices only talk to me."
Posted: 6850 days ago
Hobbie (#1359)
Location: Cornwall, England
Quote: "There was a little man in his hair!"
Posted: 6850 days ago
Tim Ashwood (#595)
Location: Sydney
Posted: 6850 days ago
Producing a darling little girl? Personal delight.
Being incorporated into Superman? Abso-frigging-lutely awesome!
Rod McBride (#688)
Location: Gardner, KS
Quote: "www.MidwestRockLobster.blogspot.com"
Posted: 6850 days ago
Location: Sydney, Australia
Quote: "Why are the pretty ones always insane?"
Posted: 6850 days ago
However, when wearing the tights and travelling faster than a speeding bullet I believe he prefers something more chick-lit'ie to pass the (short) time...
Coolet (#37)
Location: Goshen, Indiana
Quote: "Man who goes to bed with itchy bum, wakes up with smelly finger."
Posted: 6850 days ago
shalini (#717)
Location: http://www.kai-india.com
Posted: 6850 days ago
SilverCloud (#2038)
Location: SANTA MONICA ,CA.U.S.A.
Quote: "Fortune Favors the Brave"
Posted: 6850 days ago
How about a second printing of the poster..say 500,000
I would gladly hang it on my wall
You were cool before the poster, now you've become immortal.
Rick (#2406)
Posted: 6850 days ago
Location: Darwin, Australia
Quote: "Inconceivable!"
Posted: 6850 days ago
Just kidding, that is just... out there for coolness..
Will (#2384)
Location: In the depths of Yorkshire.
Quote: "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."
Posted: 6850 days ago
Now i wonder how many people are going to go out and buy that copy of Superman now...
Rob2Kx (#1125)
Location: Canada
Quote: "Anything for laughs even if it kills you"
Posted: 6850 days ago
Michael Ricksand (#2212)
Location: Terra
Quote: "You do not have a right to be stupid."
Posted: 6850 days ago
Jason Wallwork (#675)
Location: Peterborough, Canada
Quote: "If it ain't broke you're not trying hard enough."
Posted: 6849 days ago
kap (#1374)
Location: DC
Posted: 6849 days ago
DewKnight (#815)
Location: WP, CO,USA
Quote: "Booyah"
Posted: 6849 days ago
Kurt Busiek (#2410)
Location: The Vast Pacific Northwest
Posted: 6849 days ago
Alas, it was added after -- we just stole the Amazon cover-image file and dropped it in during the coloring stage. There's nothing but a white rectangle there on the original art.
But DC is doing up an 11 X 17 color print of the page for Max, in recognition for his unwitting contribution to the Superman mythos and as thanks for not having his publishers sue them.
Now that Max has printed an image owned by DC in his blong, though, they're going to sue him unless his next novel contains the line, "My! That Kurt Busiek certainly is a fine fellow, wouldn't you say?"
Or so I hear.
kdb
David L (#2403)
Location: New Jersey
Quote: "I'm a nasty piece of work, chief. Ask anybody. - John Constantine"
Posted: 6849 days ago
Location: Blighty
Quote: "So it turns out the only only way to stop the butler running is to cut off his legs."
Posted: 6849 days ago
Grrr. Ive lost my Jennifer Government copy, ill have to find it. I probably should clean my room so i can see it.
Steve Collins (#1763)
Location: Canberra, Australia
Quote: "Ouch!"
Posted: 6848 days ago
Now, if it had been Sandman, or one of the X-Men or Melaka Fray reading (I dramatically give away my reading prefs here, don't I?) THAT would be even cooler.
That said, Superman rates fairly high in the coolness stakes.
Jeffrey (#2286)
Location: Right here
Quote: "Mathematics is a powerful language. Just look at how mathematicians destroyed the housing market."
Posted: 6848 days ago
Cupie (#1396)
Location: Seattle-ish
Quote: ""You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." -Dorothy Parker"
Posted: 6848 days ago
Coley (#2323)
Location: USA
Quote: "I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code"
Posted: 6846 days ago
Joe (#2270)
Location: Campbell, CA, USA
Quote: "I'm subverting the system from the inside. I think."
Posted: 6846 days ago
Before you get too excited about Superman's endorsement, you might want to check out
http://www.superdickery.com/dick/1.html
for an aspect of Superman's character you might have been unaware of. :-)
Mincetro (#584)
Quote: "This isn't skiing"
Posted: 6843 days ago
Can we buy the posters?
Trespassers Will (#2174)
Location: Puyallup, WA
Quote: ""...and if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'tis that I may not weep" - Lord Byron"
Posted: 6838 days ago
You've really hit the Bigtime!
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