Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

The Shuster Awards for Canadian comics were announced today, which were named after Canadian comic book artist, and Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. Shuster’s history just got a little more exciting with the release of Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster.

The latest book from Craig Yoe (who brought us the similarly naughty Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings) delves into the erotic artwork of Joe Shuster created when the artist was down on his luck trying to reclaim the copyright for Superman. Yoe sez:

A while back, I found a cheaply printed, vintage porno booklet in a dusty cardboard box at a rare book sale, and exclaimed to myself , “Oh, my God, Joe Shuster!” And that was just the beginning of surprises. I sold the idea to Charlie Kochman at Abrams of doing a book about the art of this incredibly rare series. I eventually tracked down the complete run at much effort and cost—16 books and more! After I got my contract, I found out a WHOLE lot more—the gripping behind-the-scenes story connected with mobsters, showgirls, the anti-comics crusader Dr. Fredric Wertham, neo-Nazi Jewish juvenile delinquents, Senate investigations, Supreme Court banning, cops on the take, flogging of young teenage girls and…MURDERS!

Holy Comics Code Authority, Batman! They certainly didn’t show this stuff in Shuster’s Heritage Minutes.

The book’s website has a slideshow of imagery and pages from the book. As does Yoe’s blog, including the brilliantly sneaky design of the book’s dustjacket flaps.