Next Wednesday 10/16/19, the first volume of Superman Smashes the Klan debuts in comic shops!
In 1946, the year after World War II ended, one of Superman’s most iconic storylines debuted on the Superman radio show. It was titled “The Clan of the Fiery Cross.” Over sixteen episodes, the Man of Tomorrow teamed up with his friends at the Daily Planet and a Chinese American family to fight bigotry in Metropolis.
Those sixteen episodes aren’t perfect. There are moments that would make a modern audience cringe. Even so, the story they tell encapsulates an important lesson that America — and the world — learned during World War II. It seems to me that lesson is being forgotten.
Artists Gurihiru, letterer Janice Chiang, and I have the privilege of presenting this storyline as a comic book series for the very first time. We’ve kept it set in 1946. All the major pieces of the plot are still there. We’ve even dressed Big Blue in his costume from the Fleischer Studio cartoons of the early 1940s.
We’ve really put our heart and souls into this one. We hope you’ll check it out.