Comic strip hero Superman meets

First was a daily newspaper comic strip which began on January 16, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. These strips ran continuously until May 1966. In 1941, the McClure Syndicate had placed the strip in hundreds of newspapers. At its peak, the strip was in over 300 daily newspapers and 90 Sunday papers, with a readership of over 20 million.

During the National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications court case, the District Court ruled that McClure Syndicate failed to place the copyright notice on some of the strips and thus those strips are in the public domain.

Original storylines

The daily strip was host to many storylines, unique from the regular Superman comic series. The early years consisted of Siegel-era Superman stories, many of which have yet to be republished. The strips contained the first appearance of a bald Lex Luthor, the first appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk and the first telephone booth costume change in comics. Other stories of note include Superman saving Santa Claus from the Nazis, WWII-era stories of Superman protecting the American home front and Clark Kent marrying Lois Lane (and they lived together for years without her figuring out that he's Superman). The artwork includes runs by famed Superman artists Wayne Boring and Curt Swan.

Superman appeared in the newspapers again in 1978, with the newspaper strip, which lasted until 1985. Between these two comic strip series, Superman appeared in almost 12, 000 unique newspaper strips.