Chapter 46: Oversight
"Good morning, Colin..."
Main World, Messenger Newspaper office.
"Good morning, Jack. Good morning, Harry."
Colin nodded to the two men in the office, took off his hat, and glanced at the art paper on the table covered in colorful ink. With a smile, he asked, "How is it going?"
"It's mostly done." Sitting at his workbench, Jack handed the freshly inked pages to Colin, rubbing his sore eyes as he replied, "We've cut some content from the panels to make the entire *Superman* storyline tighter. We also hired professionals to color these pieces. While this significantly increased printing costs, it also makes the entire comic look much more appealing..."
Transferring a serialized comic from a newspaper to a magazine isn't as simple as just reprinting it.
For convenience, serialized comics typically adopted the form of a comic strip, specifically the fixed four-panel format.
Now that the decision was made to move the *Superman* story to a magazine, the original comic strip format naturally had to be changed. For the past few days, Jack and Harry had been staying at the Messenger Newspaper office for the express purpose of converting the comic's content from its original strip format into a comic book layout.
Reaching out, Colin took the pages Jack handed him. He looked at the crude draft in his hands, which still smelled of ink and glue.
Flipping through the pages, Colin saw the comic's content brought to life by the coloring. Finally, his gaze settled on the top page: the cover image of Superman, recolored by an artist. He wore a blue bodysuit and a red cape, with a large "S" on the shield-shaped emblem on his chest, holding a car high above his head.
The professionals Jack and Harry had found were quite skilled, and their coloring of the comic was very faithful, essentially reproducing the image of Superman that Colin had in mind.
However, looking at the Superman on the cover, Colin felt a slight sense of incongruity, as if something was missing from the image on the page.
"What's wrong?"
Noticing the expression on Colin's face, Jack immediately asked from the side.
"Is something wrong?"
Without immediately answering, Colin flipped through the pages in his hand again, carefully examining every image of Superman. Only then, with a look of realization, did he close the draft. Pointing to Superman's crotch on the cover, he asked, "I remember that besides the blue bodysuit, Superman's design also included a pair of trunks, but the colorist doesn't seem to have drawn them on this newly colored version."
Hearing Colin's reminder, Harry quickly picked up a copy of *The Messenger* and compared its cover to the colored version in Colin's hand. Sure enough, a faint outline of a pair of trunks could be seen on Superman's crotch. However, perhaps because of the black and white printing, this outline was indistinct, leading the artist to overlook the detail during the coloring process.
"My apologies, it was my oversight."
Having made a mistake, Jack immediately apologized.
"Do we really have to keep this design? I think Superman looks perfectly fine without the trunks."
Comparing the two covers side by side, Harry offered a different opinion from beside them.
Is Superman still Superman without his red trunks?
In later generations, Superman wearing his trunks on the outside had long since become synonymous with his image.
However, whether Superman absolutely had to wear those trunks has always been a major point of contention among readers.
Not everyone liked Superman's trunks-on-the-outside design, just like Harry right now.
"That's because you're looking at a draft that was meticulously colored by an artist. Naturally, you don't see a problem with removing the trunks. However, once these comics are sent to the factory for mass printing, it'll be difficult to guarantee the colors in the final print run will maintain this quality."
Before Colin could respond to Harry's suggestion, Jack was the first to refute his friend.
During this period, printing methods were generally divided into two types: one was black and white printing, the method used by *The Messenger*, and the other was color printing. Limited by technological development and cost, color printing in this era was also called four-color printing, which used yellow, red, cyan, and black ink to color the figures.
And due to the Great Depression, factories often chose to use lower-quality paper to save money, which affected the print quality.
This practice led to one result: the finished magazines and books were often of much poorer quality than the print samples. This problem wasn't very noticeable with text, but it became particularly apparent with character images, especially after a large print run.
This is also why in early comics, colors often bled outside the character outlines.
To cope with this, artists at the time would often add shadows or blocks of color at the body's articulation points—like the waist, hands, and feet—to help readers better understand the character's pose. The red trunks on Superman were created for precisely this reason.
This way, not only could they better define the character's form and movement, but they could also avoid some unnecessary printing problems.
Prompted by Jack's reminder, Harry realized he had been taking things for granted.
Indeed, once mass printing began, Superman's entirely blue design would create a sense of incongruity, as if there was nothing at his crotch.
"I'll call the artist over immediately to revise the coloring."
Understanding this point, Harry didn't hesitate and immediately prepared to leave.
"No need for such trouble."
Reaching out to stop him, Colin casually picked up a paintbrush stained with red paint from the table and outlined the iconic red trunks on the cover's image of Superman.
"Don't forget, I'm also Superman's artist."
Putting down the paintbrush, Colin looked at the design on the page—Superman, now wearing his red trunks. Only then did he nod in satisfaction.
...
"...Later, Harry Donenfeld told me that he would occasionally think about what would have happened if he had insisted that Superman not wear those trunks. Perhaps we would have seen a completely different version of Superman. Of course, we all know that was impossible, because Collin Roper would certainly have stuck to his decision; he was always so confident and determined..."
—Excerpt from *1932: The Golden Age of Comics*
By: John Walker
(end of chapter)