Superman, icon of the American dream, celebrated by the Angoulême comic book festival

With his red cape and his emblematic “S” on his chest, Superman has always embodied a kind of sunny and benevolent champion of justice, while Batman feeds on the fears of his contemporaries to better exorcise them. In 2019, the Angoulême international comics festival celebrated the 80th anniversary of “Dark Knight” by devoting a major retrospective to it. Six years later, it is Superman’s turn to be entitled to his own Angoumois celebration at the Vaisseau Moebius, under the leadership of Yann Graf, expert and curator of the exhibition.

Born in June 1938 under the pen of Jerry Siegel (1914-1996) and the brushes of Joe Shuster (1914-1992), in the midst of an economic crisis, Superman symbolizes the super white knight in the service of a just and invincible nation, at the limit of naivety, that of the bright side (“Bright sight of America”), while Batman rather explores the “Dark side of America”, his dark side. One of the three festival posters signed Frank Quitely (who will be present for a masterclass during the event) shows Superman flying over the roofs of Angoulême…

LE FIGARO. – Where did the idea of ​​a major exhibition dedicated to Superman come from?

Yann GRAF. – Several ideas converged towards this decision. Six years after the Batman exhibition, a great public success in Angoulême, the FIBD, Urban Comics editions, as well as DC comics and Warner wanted to celebrate the character of Superman the very year he returned to the cinema, the July 9, under the leadership of James Gunn, played by the young David Corenswet. But our angle of attack mainly focuses on comics. Even if since its creation, the character, according to the principle of communicating vessels, has experienced adventures on the radio as well as in animation or in the cinema.

What are the main axes of the exhibition?

Above all, we managed to bring together nearly 57 original plates, which go from the 1940s to today. Among these visuals, there are around forty in color, integrated into the scenography. The main principle of this retrospective is to immerse the visitor in the different creative universes of Superman, so that he is immersed in the comics, and can discover the Fortress of Solitude, the skyscrapers of Metropolis, the editorial staff of Daily Planetor even the planet Krypton. I think this exhibition is a sort of love letter to the character and a celebration of the creativity of the artists who brought him through all his adventures.

How did the character of Clark Kent/Superman come about?

First of all, we must return to the historical context of the United States at the end of the 1930s, just after the stock market crash of 1929. Superman is the first superhero in history. Its creators, screenwriter Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, are two sons of Jewish immigrants who become friends at the age of sixteen in Cleveland, Ohio. Students at Glenville High School, they were fascinated by Greco-Roman mythology and cinema. Their favorite movie is The Mask of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks.

They are avid readers of the works of Edgar Rice Burrough, Tarzan and John Carterand mainly science fiction fans. Quickly, his two friends collaborated on the high school newspaper, the “Glenville Torch”, then created their own fanzine Science-fiction where they published in 1933 The Reign of the Super-Man, a story featuring an evil being, a wanderer transformed into a super-telepath by a mad scientist. This Super-Man, as he was then called, is therefore first and foremost a “supervillain”.

But after five unsuccessful years of trying to impose their Superman on comic book publishing houses, the Siegel and Shuster tandem changed their tune. What if their hero was an orphan from elsewhere? Extraterrestrial, sole survivor of Krypton, his planet about to be destroyed by a cosmic catastrophe, his wise scientist father saved him by placing him in a space capsule which he sends to earth…

Is there not something of the biblical story featuring Moses saved from chaos in a cradle drifting on the waves?

Quite. The character thus appears in the pages ofAction Comics n°1 in June 1938 against a legendary prize of 130 dollars. He has a secret identity, superpowers and a red cape. The cover image of the magazine Action Comics has become cult: we see a new hero lifting a car with his bare hands, an emblematic testimony to physical strength in action. At the start of his adventures, Superman deals with social problems, confronts crooked real estate developers or defends striking miners. Superman is a hero of the New Deal. A patriotic symbol.

How has Superman evolved over the decades?

If the creation of Superman resembles the unconscious revenge of two kids, sons of Jewish immigrants who created a protective superman for themselves, in anticipation of the dark years to come, the evolution of the character will take many twists and turns. Superman is first and foremost the fictional response to the uncertain times that the world is about to experience just before the Second World War. He is also the archetypal boy scout. A super-patriot with limitless powers who defends the widow and the orphan against Hitler and the Nazis. After the end of the war, with each new decade, Superman will reinvent himself graphically. Excellent artists will stand at the bedside of this DC Comics superhero, from Neal Adams to John Byrne via Alex Ross, Frank Miller, Gary Frank, Jorge Jimenez or Jim Lee.

Can we think that Superman is a hero who has gone out of fashion over time?

I don’t believe it for a single moment. In my opinion, Superman has always remained a moral compass for the United States. It has become a myth of 20th century pop culture. Andy Wahrol and Roy Lichtenstein created paintings that are now famous. When people say that Superman is old-fashioned, I prove with this exhibition that it is false. Superman is a paragon of integration, an icon of the American dream. He can do everything from fly through space at the speed of light, cut down an entire forest at supersonic speed and make a village or a boat out of his wood. It can pierce mountains, lift deckchairs, build glass dikes by transforming beach sand, thus protecting the coast from a tsunami. By the simple pressure of his hands, he can heat coal to such a temperature that it transforms it into diamond. Besides, Superman is like a diamond. It has a thousand and one facets, and a thousand and one lives…

Exhibition “Superman – The hero with a thousand and one livesat Vaisseau Moebius, 121, rue de Bordeaux – Angoulême (16000). From January 30 to March 10, 2025.