Those legendary lines originated not in the comics, but on a 1940 radio show--fifteen-minute episodes broadcast nationally three times a week on the Mutual Network. Our image of the Man of Steel with his red cape, boots, leotard, and the prominent "S" emblazoned on his chest may come from the early newspaper comic strips, comic books, animated cartoons, the 1960's musical Superman on Broadway, movies, TV cartoons, or TV series. He and colleagues Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White have become familiar friends in the fifty-eight years since the comic book's first distribution. Yet never has any of this appeared on postage stamps -- until now.

On October 2, 1995, Canada Post released a booklet of postage stamps honoring five super heroes: Superman, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Johnny Canuck, Fleur de Lys, and Captain Canuck.

For the Love of Comics

Children faithfully had read comic strips in newspapers and Sunday Supplements for years and were immediately attracted . Such "magazines" became big sellers in the United States as well as Canada. Young children enjoyed humorous comics like the Mickey Mouse series; older children preferred adventure comics, and they eagerly followed heroes like Superman, Batman and Robin, and Captain Marvel.

Prior to World War II Canadian publishers had no interest in a Canadian comic book industry or in competing against the slick American products on Canadian newsstands every month. an embargo on U.S. fictional printed matter, instituted on December 6, 1940 changed that.

To fill the breach, Toronto publisher Cyril Vaughen Bell jumped in and published the first Canadian comic book, WOW. Issue no. 1, printed in four colors, came out in the summer of 1941. The initial run of 52,000 copies took two months to produce, because Bell's presses could only print one color at a time. To speed up production, Bell Features dropped the number of colors in successive issues. By Issue No.9, everything was printed in black and white, producing a comic book genre known now as Canadian Whites.

Other Canadian Whites were published by Bell's competitors: Anglo-American Publishing Company in Toronto, Maple Leaf in Vancouver, and Superior Publishers in Toronto. Anglo-American produced a few exclusively Canadian strips, like Freelance, and redrawn strips, such as Captain Marvel. Maple Leaf published a variety of comic books, with titles like Lucky, Better Comics,andRocket. Superior offered redrawn strips from the United States.

Bell published seven Canadian monthly titles: Joke and Dizzy Don offered humor for younger children; WOW, Triumph, Active, Dime, and Commando featured adventure, including the story line of Nelvana of the Northern Lights and Johnny Canuck.