I bought this amazing book because I always wanted to know whatever happened to Joe Shuster after the catastrophic lawsuit of 1948 to attempt to reclaim Superman. It was common knowledge that Siegel and Shuster lost everything, not only the lawsuit against DC Comics, but also any work from the comics industry. They fell on very hard times, and resurfaced only after the first Superman movie came out, when DC Comics paid them a modest pension till they died. I had no idea how Shuster survived during those years. It turns out he was doing fetish art collaborating with the Mob! And that's just the beginning!
"Secret Identity" tells the amazing story of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers (a group of Jewish-Hilter-hailing juvenile delinquents!) who inspired by Joe Shuster's drawings to commit horrible tortures and murders. We learn how the Mob was involved in distributing Shuster's porn in Times Square and how the police was getting paid off; how Wertham became indirectly involved with Shuster; how censorship worked against this forbidden material from New York City officials all the way up to the Supreme Court! It's one big surprise after another.
I think the images Shuster drew are at the same time a historic find (nobody till now knew what Shuster was up to after 1948), and a beautifully drawn array of eccentric sex acts, some surreal, even laughable, and some too real for comfort. What a range: whips, chains, cacti (yes, cacti!), red ants, hooded villains, alligators, girls in cages, mad pervy magicians... And so many of the characters look like Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen -every page is a startling revelation!
This fascinating book really poses the question: what was Shuster thinking? Did he have to do it? Was he into it? How did Shuster feel at being the architect of the super hero genera in comics, and also, although indirectly, the one who brought about the campaign against comics and their demise? We shall never know!
I treasure this book but I wonder if the material is still illegal? I'm hiding MY copy!