Q. Can you tell us about The Superman Wars? – This book is the story of Jerry Siegel, the Cleveland Depression-era eleventh-grader who came up with the idea for the world’s first superhero, Superman, creating a new genre and giving credibility to the new industry publishing “comic books,” only to lose control and watch helplessly as the company fired him and erased his name from the credits. He and his family fought for almost seventy years to restore his rights in what became the most dramatic and influential creator-rights battle of the twentieth century. But this story is not just about lawsuits. This is about a writer, his artist-friend, and the family and fans that stood with him in the worst of times.
Q. What set Jerry apart from other aspiring writers of his time? – Perseverance. Jerry came up with the initial idea for Superman and got his best friend Joe to draw the feature based on his scripts. He spent years trying to get a newspaper syndicate to pick up the series. He was confident it would be a hit, but the syndicates couldn’t see the appeal. It was too different. He eventually allowed a comic book company to publish it, but a last-minute change of ownership left him working for, and being taken advantage of by, the new owners, sharks with mob ties and a history of pornography indictments. Nonetheless, he stood up to power and fought back, which led to many tough years but is also why his name, and a credit to his family, appears in all Superman comics today.
Q. What was the fundamental injustice at the heart of Superman’s creation?- The new owners took advantage of Jerry’s inexperience and business naivete, bombarding him with abusive letters, gaslighting him about Superman’s success, and never paying him what they promised. While he was overseas serving his country during WWII, they took complete control of the feature and furthermore used Jerry’s script for a new character called “Superboy,” which they hadn’t bought and had no legal right to publish. Jerry filed suit but he was outlawyered and ended up with no job or income, while Superman made the new owners millionaires.
Q. How does Superman Wars stand apart from other books about Superman? – First, I did a huge amount of research and uncovered many details never before published concerning how the new owners acquired the company, how they treated Jerry, and how he dealt with it. I was able to interview the members of Jerry’s family, his daughter Laura and her sons Michael and James, who have been reluctant to talk in the past. I have a legal background, which allowed me to explain the litigation without letting the book get bogged down in it. And I write in a narrative nonfiction style, writing from Jerry’s viewpoint, so readers will understand not just what happened, but why.
Q. When did the story finally reach a meaningful resolution?- The last lawsuit was settled in 2016. As a result, the Siegel family does now benefit from Superman’s ongoing popularity, and every new Superman comic contains the credit: Superman Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster/By Special Arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family.
Q. What do you wish you knew before you started to write your book? – How long would it take! This was a passion project for me. I love writers, and I could relate to Jerry Siegel, precocious writer and fighter for his rights. This was something I felt compelled to write, but once I started diving into the research, I realized the immensity of the task I had taken on. I ultimately traveled to eight different states, combed through numerous library collections, interviewed more than fifty people and read hundreds of books, periodicals, and unpublished manuscripts. 2025 became the first year I did not publish a book since 1990—because I was buried in Superman research!
Q. What’s next for Superman in popular culture? – Superman has always been a beloved figure in popular culture, a global symbol of hope, but now he is finding new popularity with Gen Z as a result of last year’s feature film (and this year’s Supergirl film), plus an animated television series (My Adventures with Superman on HBO), and hugely popular comic book and graphic novels series like Absolute Superman and others using the “manga” style now incredibly popular worldwide.
Q. What’s one thing you want the reader to remember about your book long after they finish? – This is a cautionary tale I hope all creatives will hear. The vultures are still out there, more than happy to take advantage of writers and artists and internet content creators. We still have corporate sharks, plus vanity presses and AI repackaging and many other threats to artists’ ability to benefit from their work. This is also a story about the power of family, and the power of readers and fans. The courts failed Jerry, but it was fans and their amateur publications that brought Jerry’s story into the limelight.
