The Man of Steel’s costume, despite what you might think, has come a long way since Joe Shuster first introduced him to us in Action Comics #1. It actually evolved in a very short time, but evolve it did.
If you know the background of the development of Superman, then you know that he began—sort of—as the featured villain in a Jerry Siegel story for which Shuster drew illustrations. In it, the ‘superman’ has psionic powers, for lack of a better term, instead of mostly physical ones, and, of course, he’s bald. For whatever reason, either Shuster, Siegal or both thought that a good way of indicating villainy was to depict a character as bald, which will cost Luthor his locks (yes, he had them, and, no, there was no ‘Lex’ when the character was first introduced) very soon. After deciding a heroic superman might see better, the character’s appearance underwent various and sundry transformations as Siegal kept pitching the character, but when he and Shuster reunited (after an understandable spat, since Siegal had tried to shop Superman around with other, better known artists), and got an offer to publish a story, they decided on this:
What’s the first thing I noticed when I read this comic? No boots! Or boots colored the same as his tights, anyway. Superman appears to be wearing a footed onesie with red trunks pulled over it, but if you look carefully, you can see what appears to be some sort of high sandal straps wrapping around his calves. I’m assuming those straps were meant as a nod to Hercules, since his and Superman’s powers are pretty much the same at this point. (and although I may be the first to make the costume link, I’m certainly not the first to make the comparison: See Action #1)
From the same page:
The ‘S’ on Superman’s chest is a small triangle and completely golden with a red ‘S.’ In bigger panels of later comics some red can be seen, but not much, and sometimes the emblem will appear completely golden. The yoke of Superman’s shirt is rounded, too, and from his front, you can’t see where his cape attaches. Finally:
There’s no ‘S’ on his cape at all.
That’s pretty much it. Superman already sports his familiar golden belt and red trunks (most of the time. Haha!), and the colors are the same, but I admit that when I first read these stories (back when I bought a giant-sized anniversary edition of the first Action comics), I was a bit surprised.
On the cover, which Shuster drew earlier than he did the first story in Action, Superman has boots instead o the sandal-things (or booties. For cryin’ out loud, Joe!), and they are red, not blue, although I think I can see the strap lines, too. Possibly Shuster made the footwear blue in the comic to slightly simplify his work? (Or whoever was the colorist did; I can’t find a credit anywhere save for the cover, where it’s Jack Adler of Green Lantern (Silver Age] and other fame.)
Also, the ‘S’ is definitely red. It is often yellow and the emblem a simple triangle in the comics, again, most likely, to make the task of drawing and coloring the character more simple, but here Superman proudly bears a wide golden shield with a big red ‘S’ on it, a harbinger of things to come.
Indeed, changes would be coming soon, but not too soon. In fact, in Action #3, “Superman Battles Death Underground,” a story about exposing a skinflint mine operator in which our hero poses as an immigrant miner, Superman doesn’t even wear his costume. Hard to believe now, I know, but it makes sense in the climate of comics at the time. The other pages of Action Comics were filled with hardboiled characters of various stripes who all operated in everyday clothes, except for Zatara the Master Magician (one of several characters so billed in Detective Comics, Inc.’s and other companies’ stables, although Zatara would endure, after a fashion, much longer than most), a refined type who always wore a tux and top-hat. Admittedly, since Zatara’s ‘day job’ (more like night job, as his heroics mostly occurred in broad daylight) was performing in clubs as a stage magician, such garb was part of the tools of his trade, even if he seems slightly overdressed when Zatara’s merely having lunch with friends. In any case, given the types with whom he shared the magazine, Superman dressing as a regular person probably didn’t seem out of place at all.
So… Superman can’t fly and doesn’t wear his costume. I can’t help thinking that Jon Peters would be so very happy!
In Action #6 we first see Superman wearing proper boots within a comic:
And, though difficult to see (sorry for the bad scan), the ‘S’ on his chest is definitely red. After this, sometimes the colorist would forget or not bother because of tight angles, but overall, the ‘S’ will remain red.
The chest emblem is also larger, although still a simple triangle instead of the more familiar stylized pentagon. Also, the cape is attached to the neck of Superman’s shirt at the front instead of somewhere in the back. although this will revert to the older way in the next issue. Ironically, this image is not of Superman, but an actor pretending to be him as part of a scam. That guy’s handler must’ve been on the ball, since he put his protégé in a costume Superman hadn’t even been wearing yet!
In Action #18 Superman’s cape is now attached to the edges of his shirt in the front the familiar manner (he must’ve liked the look) and will remain that way. The yoke of his shirt is now more of a slight curve than an arc, too. That pesky ‘S’ is still so small, though!
In Superman #4 (Yes, our hero is now popular enough to get his own bimonthly magazine with three stories or more of his own while still keeping the star spot in Action), we see the golden ‘S’ emblem on his cape for the first time (it will be red and gold, too, from time to time until someone, probably management, finally settled on gold), although we still have ‘triangle S’ on his chest. The cape emblem and the more elaborate cape flow were both the work of Paul Cassidy, whom Shuster hired to do inking and detail work as Shuster’s workload increased. The work below is of another artist, Leo Nowak, who followed Cassidy’s lead on both:
And finally, in Superman #5 (and at some point thereabouts in Action, too) we see a full-sized stylized ‘S’ emblem on his chest, also the contribution of Cassidy. Cassidy was also responsible for the making permanent the ‘modern’ look of attaching Superman’s cape to the sides of the front of his shirt neck. which you can also clearly see below in this panel, penciled and inked by Cassidy:
I must confess: I love seeing that big, stylized red ‘S’ at last! Thank you, Paul!
The tops of Superman’s boots now angle up from the back of his calves and end, not with a point on his shin, but with a small indent, and they are double-stitched at the top, too, as you can see below in these panels penciled by Wayne Boring and inked by Paul Lauretta.
Superman’s boots will retain this design even up until today.
And that, as they say, is that, except that by now Joe Shuster, as you can see, had several other assistants helping him draw, ink, and color the stories, among them Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, and Wayne Boring, who would soon concentrate on the new Superman daily newspaper strip. Instead of working for Detective Comics, Inc., though, although that would gradually change, at first these fellows worked directly for Joe Shuster in what would be called the Shuster Shop. For details on these artists and others in the Shuster Shop, look here.
I do not claim ownership of any of the partial image representations posted here.