Aventuriers d'aujourd'hui (Collection Les) #94
Published on 17 October 1941 in the middle of the German Occupation of France, this issue of the long-running Editions Mondiales anthology marks the first time the Superman newspaper comic strips — retelling Kal-L's origin, the destruction of Krypton, the introduction of Jor-L, Lara, Clark Kent, and Lois Lane — were presented as a stand-alone French-language comic fascicule. It is, alongside issue #98, the earliest Superman strip reprint in the Les Aventuriers d'aujourd'hui collection, and therefore a cornerstone document in the history of American superhero comics reaching a European audience under wartime conditions. The heavily disguised presentation — Superman rechristened 'Le Fantôme,' Clark Kent renamed 'Dan Garet,' Krypton named in French for what the GCD records as the first time — illuminates the creative and political contortions French publishers navigated during the Occupation. That the full origin mythology of Superman, from doomed planet to Daily Star reporter, was introduced to French readers at all under these circumstances makes the issue a remarkable artifact of Golden Age international comics history.
"L'évadé de Krypton" marque la première apparition de Superman dans une version française, réinterprétée avec soin par Jerry Siegel et Joe Shuster. Dans ce récit fondateur, Joris, le père de Kal-L, tente de sauver sa famille alors que Krypton s'effondre, envoyant leur fils vers la Terre dans un vaisseau prototype. Adulte sous le nom de Dan Garet, il devient le Fantôme, un héros anonyme qui, après avoir sauvé Louise de la menace d'un chef de la pègre, intègre le staff du L'actualité mondiale. Couverture par Joe Shuster, cette édition de 1941 reste un incontournable pour les amateurs de l'origine du plus célèbre des super-héros.
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The Les Aventuriers d'aujourd'hui collection was launched by Editions Mondiales in 1938 as a series of complete-story fascicules translating American comic strips; earlier numbers featured adventure fare such as King of the Royal Mounted before superhero material arrived with issue #80 in July 1941. By the time issue #94 appeared, Editions Mondiales had relocated its main operations to Nice in the Unoccupied Zone, with Parisian publishing continued under a separate entity called SEPI — a displacement that appears to have affected the irregularity of the run during this period. The underlying material is Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's syndicated Superman daily newspaper strip, which had debuted on 16 January 1939 through the McClure Newspaper Syndicate, retelling Superman's Kryptonian origin in far greater detail than the single-page version in Action Comics #1; the French adaptation collapsed two strip storylines — 'Superman Comes to Earth' and 'War on Crime' — into a single continuous fascicule. Editions Mondiales was operated by Italian émigré Cino Del Duca, who had left Mussolini's Italy in the early 1930s; the renaming practices that obscure Superman's identity throughout this run may reflect both commercial habit and sensitivity to Occupation-era censorship.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published 17 October 1941 by Editions Mondiales (Paris/Nice) as issue #94 of the Les Aventuriers d'aujourd'hui collection, titled L'évadé de Krypton ('The Escapee from Krypton').
- Reprints two early Jerry Siegel / Joe Shuster Superman newspaper comic strip storylines — 'Superman Comes to Earth' and 'War on Crime' — in continuous French-language adaptation.
- The GCD indexes this as the first French-language appearance of Superman (Kal-L), Jor-L, Lara, Lois Lane, and Clark Kent in this publication, with Krypton noted as 'first named' in this French context.
- Superman is called 'Le Fantôme' throughout the issue; Clark Kent is renamed 'Dan Garet' (the secret identity of Blue Beetle, apparently borrowed from an earlier Editions Mondiales adaptation); Lois Lane becomes 'Louise'; Jor-L becomes 'Joris'; Lara becomes 'Laura'; the Daily Star is rendered 'L'Actualité Mondiale.'
- Issue #94 and the following issue #98 ('L'audacieux détective') together constitute the first Superman strip reprints in the Les Aventuriers d'aujourd'hui collection — the first time the character's origin was presented in complete fascicule form in French.
- The series ran color covers with black-and-white interiors, saddle-stitched, at an oversized 310 × 240 cm format, across 112 issues from 1937 to 1944.
- During publication, Editions Mondiales had relocated to Nice in the Unoccupied Zone; Parisian operations were managed by a separate company (SEPI), a wartime split that affected publication regularity around this period.
- The contents of this issue were later reprinted in Golden Reprints Vol. 1 #2 (Eric Vignolles, post-war) and again sourced for L'histoire des super-héros (Neofelis, 2016 series).
Cast · 5 characters
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Jor-L (traduit en français par Joris) découvre que la planète Krypton est condamné. Il construit le prototype d'un vaisseau destiné à le sauver lui, sa femme Lara(traduit en français par Laura) et Kal-L. Mais la fin survient plus tôt que prévue et ils envoient leur fils vers la Terre dans le prototype. Sur Terre, devenu adulte et sous l'identité de Clark Kent (traduit en français par Dan Garet) il prend l'identité de Superman ((traduit en français par Le Fantôme). Il sollicite ensuite un emploi au Daily Star (traduit en français par L'actualité mondiale). Il sauve ensuite la vie de Loïs Lane (traduit en français par Louise) qui enquetait sur le chef de la pègre et est embauché comme journaliste.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).