Superman #24
Superman #24 arrives at a pivotal moment in Golden Age publishing: it is one of the earliest issues of the series in which Don Cameron, not Jerry Siegel, wrote the Superman stories—continuing a new editorial arrangement that had quietly begun with issue #23, when wartime conscription pulled Siegel toward military service. The issue also houses what the DC Database identifies as the only Earth-Two appearance of Sam Lane, Lois's father—a curiosity complicated by the fact that the scene unfolds inside Clark Kent's imagination. Its Jack Burnley cover, a patriotic image of Superman commanding an American flag against a New York skyline, belongs to the celebrated run of wartime propaganda covers that made Burnley's Superman work a defining visual document of the home-front era. If a Captain Tootsie advertising strip does appear in this issue as cataloged, it represents one of the earliest placements of C.C. Beck's candy-sponsored superhero inside a Superman comic—a cross-promotional collision between the medium's reigning hero and the era's most visible in-comics advertiser.
In "Perils of Poor Lois!", Superman #24 (1943) delivers a classic early adventure where Lois Lane and Clark Kent’s heated argument takes an unexpected turn when Lois seeks the Man of Steel’s advice on reconciliation. With a surprise birthday party on the horizon, Lois enlists Superman’s help to make amends—only for Clark to unwittingly hire a lookalike who’s far from heroic. Written by Don C. Cameron and illustrated by Ed Dobrotka with inks by George Roussos, the issue features a cover by Jack Burnley, capturing the tension and charm of a moment that’s equal parts heartfelt and mischievous.
In "Perils of Poor Lois!", Clark Kent spins a whimsical scheme after watching a vintage melodrama, convincing Superman to star in a live stage show where Lois Lane plays the damsel in distress—only to find the real danger might not be in the script, but in the shadowy figures watching from the wings. With Editor Lane and his assistant Sam Wheet caught in the chaos, and two mysterious villains, Black Jack and Squire Squeazel, lurking in the spotlight, the line between performance and peril begins to blur.
In a wartime twist of genius and chaos, Superman and Lois Lane are led on a tour of the War Department, where they hear whispers of Crackpot Lane—a place where the wildest inventions gather, from the absurd to the surprisingly effective. When a trio of scheming Fifth Columnists begins targeting the oddball inventor behind a few working marvels, even the Man of Steel must navigate the line between madness and mayhem.
When a downed military officer and his crew fight for survival in the frozen Arctic, Superman races to intercept a dangerous alliance between Nazis and Japanese forces plotting to carve a deadly aerial path through enemy territory. With Lois Lane and Perry White at the Daily Planet, and Radio Joe broadcasting urgent updates, the Man of Steel must navigate treacherous ice and wartime deception before the enemy’s scheme becomes unstoppable.
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The issue was published on June 26, 1943, carrying a September–October 1943 cover date, and was edited by Whitney Ellsworth (executive editor) and Jack Schiff. With Jerry Siegel moving toward military conscription, Don Cameron took over the scripting chores under the house byline, continuing a ghostwriting arrangement that had formally begun one issue earlier. Interior art was handled by Ed Dobrotka and Pete Riss, both working under the Joe Shuster studio credit that DC maintained throughout the early 1940s. The Captain Tootsie advertising strip—created in 1943 by C.C. Beck and writer Rod Reed—was a one-page adventure format conceived for Tootsie Roll Industries; if present here, it would be among the strip's very first placements in a Superman-branded comic.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover date: September–October 1943; on-sale date: June 26, 1943 (DC/Superman Vol. 1 #24).
- Cover art by Jack Burnley: a patriotic image of Superman holding an American flag before a city skyline, which echoes and reworks the visual concept of his earlier Superman #14 (1941) cover.
- Stories written by Don Cameron (credited as Jerry Siegel) and Jerry Siegel; interior art by Ed Dobrotka and Pete Riss, both credited under the Joe Shuster studio name.
- The DC Database identifies this issue as containing the only Earth-Two appearance of Sam Lane (Lois's father)—though it occurs within Clark Kent's imagination, leaving his canonical appearance ambiguous.
- Captain Tootsie and his sidekick Rollo were created in 1943 by C.C. Beck and writer Rod Reed; the character is a candy-sponsored superhero whose one-page adventure ads ran across dozens of comics publishers from 1943 through the mid-1950s.
- Rollo is Captain Tootsie's primary kid sidekick and a core member of the Secret Legion, the boy-gang that accompanied the Captain on his Tootsie Roll–powered adventures.
- The issue's contents were reprinted in Superman Archives Vol. 6 (2003), Superman in the Forties (2005), Superman: The War Years 1938–1945 (Chartwell Books, 2015), and Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus #3 (2017).
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Superman Archives #6 (2003), Superman in the Forties #[nn] (2005), Superman: Cover to Cover #[nn] (2006), Superman: The Golden Age Sundays #[1] (2013), Superman: The War Years 1938-1945 #[nn] (2015), Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus #3 (2017)
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