It’s time for comic book fans to play the role of hero.
Spearheaded by author (and occasional comics writer) Brad Meltzer, the
Siegel and Shuster Society is kicking off an auction, the proceeds of
which will repair the childhood home of Superman co-creator Jerry
Siegel. The auction can be found at www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com and will run through the month of September.
The house, where Siegel lived as a teen, was where he and his friend
Joe Shuster first came up with the idea for the Man of Steel. Meltzer
toured the home, located in a Cleveland neighborhood, while researching
his latest novel, The Book of Lies, and was shocked at its condition.
“I visited the house for the first time when I was researching the book, and went with [Cleveland Plain Dealer
reporter and regular Newsarama contributor] Mike Sangiacomo,” Meltzer tells Newsarama. “My goal was to physically see the room where this kid shot up in
bed in the middle of the night and had this idea for a bulletproof man.
I went there expecting that I would find a nice little piece of
Americana, and it would look like a Norman Rockwell painting, and maybe
there would be a flag and an apple pie.”
What Meltzer did find was a rundown house in one of the city’s rougher
neighborhoods, a place where adjacent boarded up houses have signs on
them that say ‘NO COPPER PIPING INSIDE – PVC ONLY’ in order to prevent
people from breaking in a literally tearing the buildings apart while
looking for copper pipe to sell at the scrap yards.
“When I got to the house, I almost fell over when I saw the state of
repair it was in,” Meltzer says. “Mike and I were both blown away. We
talked our way inside and you could literally look through the ceiling
and see the baseboards that were underneath the plaster – there were
giant holes in the walls, stairs where you felt like your foot was
going to go through with the next step. The nicest couple in the world
live there, but they can’t repair this place. It’s an old house that
needs lots of work. It clearly has major amounts of water damage coming
down from the roof that’s wrecking what’s inside.”
For Meltzer and Sangiacomo, the condition of the house was too much.
“The house where Google was created is preserved for its historical
importance,” Meltzer says. “The idea that the house where Superman was
created is falling apart? That’s just horrible.
“I know that light bulbs went on in both mine and Mike’s heads, and we
were both determined to not have that be the case. If Superman teaches
us anything, it’s to take care of people that are in need. While I was
there, I tried to see what condition Joe Shuster’s old house was in,
but it was already gone. It was so devastated that they tore it down.
That was what really did it for me – I thought that if we don’t help to
save this house, it may not be this year, it may not be next year, but
this house won’t be here for my kids, or anybody’s kids to see, and
that seemed wrong to me.
“The politicians of Cleveland have let this house rot. They put
millions of dollars into the Rock and Roll hall of fame, and more power
to them – they should do that, but they haven’t put a single dollar
towards fixing this house, or even put a plaque there.”
That said, there currently is
a plaque in the house, paid for by Meltzer and Alex Ross. Ross created
the art for the plaque, which was presented to the couple that has
lived in the house for the past 20 years.
So while he was still researching and writing The Book of Lies,
Meltzer started making phone calls. “The name ‘The Siegel and Shuster
Society,’ came up, and we all realized that was what it had to be, and
from there, the mission was clear. I called up [award-winning graphic
designer] Chip Kidd, who’d done some of my book covers to design
t-shirts for it, and we were moving.”
Metlzer then started tapping friends and associates in comics and entertainment, looking for items that could be auctioned.
“The first two calls I made were to George Perez and to Gene Ha, and
within a couple of days’ time, I had these two breathtaking pieces of
original artwork that Gene and George had done,” Meltzer says. “We made
more and more phone calls, and got Dave Mandell, one of the great comic
art collectors involved, and a list of pieces from the most talented
people in the industry started to grow.”
The current list includes: Stephen Colbert (VIP tickets to a show taping), Jim Lee, Brian Michael Bendis (appear in Powers), Brad Meltzer (appear in his next novel), Geoff Johns, Richard Donner (an autographed preSuperman Superman movie script), Joe Quesada, Neil Gaiman, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, Jeph Loeb (a walk-on role on NBC’s Heroes),
Murphy Anderson, Ed Brubaker (appear in his creator-owned work), John
Cassaday, Gene Ha, Greg Rucka (appear in his comics), George Perez,
Michael Turner, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Judd Winick, Frank Cho, Eric
Powell, Tim Sale, Walt Simonson (Superman and Beta Ray Bill original
art), Joe Staton, Eric Wight, Dave Mandel, Mike Mignola, Rags Morales,
Bill Morrison, Ivan Reis, John Romita Jr., Jason Palmer, Amanda Conner,
Geoff Darrow, Ron Garney, Renato Guedes, Heroes, Dave Johnson, Chris
Bachalo, Mike Bair, Allen Bellman, Dan Brereton, Ernie Chan, Travis
Charest, and Ian Churchill.
Also in the list of items being auctioned – a “Superman” t-shirt signed by Siegel himself. How?
“I called [Jerry Siegel's widow] Joanne Siegel to tell her what we were doing, and when she
heard our plans, she was very excited about it and told us that when
Jerry Siegel was older, he signed six t-shirts and left them for his
family, saying, ‘If you ever need money, sell the shirts,’ Meltzer
says. “Nobody – until now - knew about the shirts, and she sent us one
for the auction. Of all things, it’s a Superman IV: The Quest for Peace t-shirt signed by Jerry Siegel. It’s just amazing that we have something from him in the auction.”
According to Meltzer, the auctions will run for the month of September,
with 10-11 items going up for auction each week. Newsarama will preview
items that will be auctioned as well as talk to the various
contributors of the items. The Siegel and Shuster Society is a
registered 501(c)(3) charity, and all profits from both the auction and
t-shirt sales will go directly to repairing the former Siegel house.
The immediate goal of The Siegel and Shuster Society is to raise
$50,000 which will, in Meltzer’s estimate, repair the outside of the
house and weatherproof it against the elements. Monies raised after
that will be used to repair the inside of the house. “We’re fixing it
up for the family that lives there because it’s the right thing to do,”
Meltzer says. “We do have the right of first refusal to buy the house,
so that when they do sell it, we can buy it. If you ask what the big,
giant dream is, that’s something that will be decided by people far
smarter than me, but as one of the dreams though, I would love the idea
that kids from Cleveland or Michigan, or any other place could leave
school and get on a bus and go to this house and walk around and see
kids’ art all along the walls, and learn the story of how two kids from
Cleveland came up with the best idea in the whole damn world. I love
the idea that we can preserve this one place where two kids dreamed
bigger than anybody said they could dream.”
Meltzer is staying grounded throughout the process though, realizing
the place of this project and this charity within the larger picture.
“Do I think it’s as important as feeding starving children in Africa?”
the author asks, “Of course not. Do I think that saving an old house in
a terrible part of a city will change lives? No. But this stuff
matters, and how we take care of our heroes maters. How we honor what
came before us matters. To me, Superman matters.
“In the process of examining Superman’s life, I realized the Superman
is not the best part of the story. The best part of the story is Clark
Kent – the idea that any of us, in all our ordinary boringness want to
rip open our shirt and help somebody. That’s the most beautiful thing
that Superman ever gave anybody. So how could we not return the favor?”
Meltzer's The Book of Lies hits bookstores this week. Messageboard signature images for The Siegel & Shuster Society can be found above.
