Joe Shuster quotes

Joe Shuster was a Canadian artist best known as the co-creator of Superman. His work, in collaboration with writer Jerry Siegel, gave birth to one of the most iconic superheroes in popular culture. He influenced generations of comic book artists and forever changed the landscape of graphic storytelling. Here are 17 of his quotes:

I was mild-mannered, wore glasses, was very shy with women. (Joe Shuster)
Clark Kent, I suppose, had a little bit of Harold Lloyd in him. View quote
Joe Shuster
Jerry and I always felt that the character was enjoying himself. He was having fun: he wasn't taking himself seriously. It was always a lark for him, as you can see in my early drawings. View quote
Joe Shuster
Jerry reversed the usual formula of the superhero who goes to another planet. He put the superhero in ordinary, familiar surroundings, instead of the other way around, as was done in most science fiction. That was the first time I can recall that it had ever been done. View quote
Joe Shuster
In the beginning, we had a great deal of freedom, and Jerry wrote completely out of his imagination - very, very freely. We even had no editorial supervision to speak of, because they were in such a rush to get the thing in before deadline. But later on we were restricted. View quote
Joe Shuster
In this drawing we just let our imagination run wild. We visualized Superman toys, games, and a radio show - that was before TV - and Superman movies. We even visualized Superman billboards. And it's all come true. View quote
Joe Shuster
Not only that, but when I first met Joe, to my intense delight, he showed me that he was a collector. He was collecting some of the early Tarzan pages by Hal Foster, and, later, early Flash Gordons; and I found that we were both absolutely interested in the same type of thing. View quote
Joe Shuster
Jerry picked up the technique of visualizing the story as a movie scenario; and whenever he gave me a script, I would see it as a screenplay. That was the technique that Jerry used, and I just picked it up. View quote
Joe Shuster
And I agreed the feeling of action as he was flying or jumping or leaping - a flowing cape would give it movement. It really helped, and it was very easy to draw. View quote
Joe Shuster
I drew a picture on the back of a calendar in pencil. In those days they used to give out free calendars, I had no art paper, so I took whatever else I could. View quote
Joe Shuster
I think initially we wanted to use the first letter of the character's name. We thought S was perfect. (Joe Shuster)
I had to produce a complete page - or two or three - in one day. I took a lot of pride in my work, and I hated to do a mediocre job. Evidently, some of the writers enjoyed my work best of all for that very reason. View quote
Joe Shuster
I came from Canada when I was about 10 years old, and our family settled in Cleveland, Ohio. View quote
Joe Shuster
Jerry often says that Slam Bradley was really the forerunner of Superman, because we turned it out with no restrictions, complete freedom to do what we wanted; the only problem was that we had a deadline. View quote
Joe Shuster
He was mostly leaping tall buildings in the beginning. There were cases where he would leap off a tall building or swoop down, and at that point he would look like he was flying, I suppose. It was just natural to draw him like that. View quote
Joe Shuster
Before I ever put anything on paper, Jerry and I would talk back and forth. View quote
Joe Shuster
I did all the work at the beginning up until the point where I couldn't handle the increasingly heavy art production burden alone. I needed, and got, assistance. View quote
Joe Shuster

Joe Shuster

Joe Shuster - Image
Occupation: Canadian Artist
Born: July 10, 1914
Died: July 30, 1992
Quotes count: 17