From: Bud Plant Posted: 06/09/09
Here's feedback paraphrased from The Library Journal: Who would have imagined that the artist who invented Superman was a closet kink monster! Digging through a junk box in a used booksellers stall, Craig Yoe stumbled across extremely rare copies of Nights of Horror, an under-the-counter sex rag banned by the Supreme Court for inspiring the 1954 murder spree by neo-Nazi gang, the Brooklyn Thrill Killers. Disbelieving his eyes, Yoe showed the work to other comics gurus who confirmed that Supe's creator Joe Schuster undeniably was the unnamed artist depicting images of torture, rape, bondage, and S&M. How he fell to this level is an even seedier story, which, unfortunately, is all too common. Artist Shuster and writerpartner Jerry Siegel were so desperate to break into the comics industry that they sold the rights to Superman to Superman!for the grand sum of 130. Carping about royalties, the duo were replaced by other artists/writers and left destitute. Yoe theorizes that along with making much-needed money, Shuster, who also was going blind, purposely drew the lusty Nights characters to resemble Clark Kent and a super-endowed Lois Lane as an act of vengeance. Shuster indeed almost succeeded, as the thrill kills fueled the governments anti-comics campaign that almost scuttled the industry in the late 1950s. Regardless of the subject matter, Yoe and others feel this is among Shusters finest work. Sporting an intro by Stan Lee, Secret Identity is an incredible find of historic significance to comics art, but be warned that many patrons could find it offensive. From Craig Yoe, the author discovered incredible, previously unknown, fetish art by the creator of Superman, Joe Shuster. The artist and his writing partner, Jerry Siegel, had sold Superman for 130 dollars. When they sued to get the rights back they lost and got drummed out of the comic book industry and Shuster fell on hard times. It was unknown that to get by and/or because of a personal interest in the subject, Shuster then did S&M porn for under-the-counter booklets called Nights of Horror, sold in Times Square in the early fifties. The back story I uncovered involves the Mob, showgirls, neo-Nazi Jewish juvenile delinquents, inspired by Shusters art, known as the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, the famed anti-comic book crusader Dr. Frederic Wertham, Senate investigations, cops on payola, the books being banned by the Supreme Court, teenage girls being horse-whipped in the park, two murders, and dare I say MORE?