← Previous Issue
#3
Next Issue →
#5
Superman, #4

Published: Spring 1940

No Cover Image Available

Reviews

No reviews yet
Posts About This Issue

No discussions yet.

Issue Contents:

Story Featuring Superman

Credits
Story Notes

Joe Shuster hand drew Superman logos until the classic Ira Schnapp logo appears with Superman (DC, 1939 Series) #6 (September-October 1940). Joe Shuster's signature is at the bottom left corner of the cover and is usually cut off in part or in full on many copies of this issue.

Superman versus Luthor

Story Featuring Superman

"For the first time in its history, the City of Metropolis is ravaged by a terrible earthquake!"

Storyline

When Clark Kent begins to investigate a new weapon being tested by the Army that artifically causes earthquakes, little does he know that Lex Luthor is hot on the trail of securing the plans for that invention, one way or the other.

Credits
Story Notes

The first story with Luthor was in Action Comics #23 (cover date April 1940). Superman asks "Who is Luthor?" This is the second Luthor story. Luthor says "We encounter each other once more". However this issue may have gone on sale before Action Comics #23. In their copyright registration, Detective Comics, Inc. said Action Comics #23 was published Feb 23, 1940. An in-house ad said Superman #4 would go on sale Feb 15; the copyright registration said that it was published Jan 23. Officially, per DC Comics web site, Luthor's first appearance is in Action Comics #23. One panel promotional advertisement for the Spectre series in More Fun Comics (DC, 1936 series) at the end of the story, with art by Bernard Baily.

"Tommy Blake, because of his frail physique..."

Storyline

Author relates how a good breakfast and regular exercise can lead to better strength.

Credits
Luthor's Undersea City

Story Featuring Superman

"Bedlam reigns in the editorial office of the Daily Planet as a startling news flash comes over the wires...."

Storyline

Superman faces off once again with the evil Luthor, who first has tapped oil from oil wells all over the world for his purposes, then inundating the western coast of the U.S. when he raises a glass-enclosed city of ancient weird design from the murky depths.

Credits
Story Notes

One panel promo for the Sandman, appearing in Adventure Comics, is found at end of the story, with art by Creig Flessel.

Changer of Destiny
Storyline

George Rankin had invented a serum that speeded up his time rate, living 31,536,000 times faster than the rest of the world. What to everyone was a mere second was actually a year to him! But the effects of the formula would only last one year, and Rankin had something important to accomplish before that year was up.

Credits
Story Notes

At the bottom of the first column on page one is an advertisement for "The Genuine Junior Guitar for You!" and at the bottom of the last column on page two is an advertisement for "Real Live Canary for You" both from selling seeds for the Lancaster County Seed Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Information and art credits by Craig Delich.

The Economic Enemy

Story Featuring Superman

"Paul Dorgan eminent Soci-ologist is completing a book manuscript entitled 'Prosperity's Foe'."

Storyline

The suicide of the author of a manuscript, which states that sinister forces seek to retard this nation's return to prosperity, prods Superman to dart from place to place, averting the disasters that have been planned by these forces to disrupt vital aspects of national industries.

Credits
Story Notes

One panel ad for Batman appearing in Detective Comics appears at the end of the story, with art by Bob Kane. Superman logo is a one-off hand-drawn version by Joe Shuster, though now very close in design to the one on the cover of Superman #1.

Pioneer Into the Unknown
Storyline

Actor James Rolland, upon leaving Mammoth Studios, is approached by an inventor, who tells him that he owes everything to the actor for his invention of a giant crystal-like globe he calls the space-folder! He furthers states that Rolland will be the first person to use that invention to travel to a distant spot in the universe. Rolland steps into the globe and disappears, but, unfortunately, re-appears in the center of the sun...and perishes! As a footnote, in the future of 1982, in the Museum of Interstellar History, Rolland is honored for paving the way for interplanetary space travel.

Credits
Terror in the Trucker's Union

Story Featuring Superman

"I've a tip that there may be some excitement tonight at the truck driver's union meeting!"

Storyline

Superman pretends to join a group of racketeers who want to control the city's truck drivers' union so that they can paralyze food distribution and demand blackmail.

Credits
Superman, America's Greatest Adventure Strip Character!

Story Featuring Superman

Credits
Story Notes

Frontispiece. Paul Cassidy art credits added by Craig Delich.

Bill Dickey
Storyline

Some of the facts related in these filler include: 1) New York Yankee catcher Bill Dickey loses about 8 pounds duiring a game; 2) a law in Nebraska states it's illegal to give away a cigar; 3) actor Paul Muni was once fired by a studio because he said he didn't know how to act; and 4) an usher, devoted to the stage, donated his skull after death to be used as the skull of Yorick in the play "Hamlet".

Credits
Story Notes

Lettering credit and information by Craig Delich.

"Oil Paintings for Sale!"

Storyline

Shorty is standing outside an artist's studio and sticks his head in the window to watch him paint. When the artist leaves, Shorty goes in and eyes the picture: of a steaming turkey! When the artist returns, the turkey is missing from the picture and Shorty is licking his chops.

Credits

"The original 'Popeye'"

Storyline

Some of the facts covered in this filler include: 1) a Santa Barbara grapevine, the largest in the world, which yields ten tons of grapes per year; 2) the common slug has 30,000 teeth; 3) a Mrs. Beach walked from New York to Chicago in 42 1/2 days back in 1912; 4) the "popeyed chameleon" is capable of looking in different directions at the same time; and 5) in 1930, one-armed football player Ed Barnett caught four forward passes and intercepted three others in a game.

Credits
Story Notes

Some information added by Craig Delich.

Supermen of America
Storyline

Editor's page in which the editors tell the readers that the Great DC Comics Contest was now over, and that winners would be announced in a forth-coming issue of Action Comics. There is also a coupon for readers to join the Supermen of America Club.

Credits
Story Notes

Sequence, information and credits added by Craig Delich.

Superman Says

Story Featuring Superman

Storyline

Editor's page in which Superman recommends a reading list of many great reading books to the readers, and tells them which books will be reviewed in up-coming DC comic magazines.

Credits
Story Notes

Sequence, information and credits added by Craig Delich.

Six Big Headline Features for the 'Big Six' Comic Magazines!
Storyline

House promotional ad touting the Big Six comics published by DC: Action, Adventure, Detective, All-American, More Fun, and Flash Comics.

Story Notes

Sequence and information added by Craig Delich.

Superman Appears in Action Comics!

Story Featuring Superman

Storyline

House promotional advertisement for Superman appearing in Action Comics (DC, 1938 series).

Credits
Story Notes

Sequence, information and credits by Craig Delich. Superman figure traced or pasted up from the cover of Superman #2.

Story Notes

Inside back cover.

Ad Featuring Johnson Smith & Co. Catalog

Story Notes

Inside front cover.

Boys! I'll Help You Get a Daisy for Your Birthday
Story Notes

Back cover.