Created by Ryan Jenkins on
I am a huge Superman fan. Huge. One of my most earliest memories as a kid is running around my house in my Superman Underroos jumping off the couch and getting really pissed when I didn't fly. The way my dad tells it is that I did a great faceplant from the loveseat and had a look of utter astonishment on my face when I didn't defy Earth's gravity. There's something about the character of Superman that I guess just speaks to people. He's the great outsider who despite his ability to empower others chooses to use his force for good and protect those who can't protect themeselves even if it means personal sacrifice. And let's face it, deep inside we are creatures that have that same desire. We just don't know how at times. And even though he's 75 years old as of 2013, Superman just keeps getting the job done.
This year for my birthday my sister-in-law, Carolyn, got me the book Superman: The Unauthorized Biography by NPR host Glen Weldon. It was a complete indepth history of Superman from his literal birth from sketches by Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster, their epic failure to sell their comic, the creation of Action Comics #1, radio, TV, and film encarnations, the many comic books with multiple storylines, to his death and rebirth. Some aspects of the character I knew about and some I didn't. Overall my favorite parts of the book were the stories behind the films, most noateably the epic failure of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (it bombed thanks in part to the movie Iron Eagle stealing away a good deal of it's budget).
The book talked about all the ways that the story of Superman has been told, retold, and then retold again. DC Comics basically retells the origin story about every 20 years. So wanting to get in on the action, and having very minimal drawing skills, I chose to tell the story through a new medium... Bitstrips. Yup, those annoying one frame comics that your friends drop on Facebook. They are designed to be silly and put you and one other friend in funny, slightly juvenile, situations. So naturally I said, "OK I'm going to give this a shot." I'm going to keep the tradition of serials by doing one frame a day just like a strip in the newspapers would do.
I started by looking at the frames that were available and then kind of plotting out how I wanted to tell the story. Right away I knew that I would have to create my avatar to fit the frames, often meaning that I would have to recreate it to make other characters. I also managed to talk three of my friends into being characters when I need other comics characters. A big thanks goes to my bud Kevin, who although he cracked jokes about doing this, let me turn his avatar into a DC Comics badass.
So here it is. The Superman origin story as told through Bitstrips.
My friend Tom gave me a lot of flack about the series. And to prove I can take a joke as well as dish it out...
