Lois and Clark. It’s a pairing held up as one of the dreamiest in all comics, the classic romance of the secret superhero and the no-nonsense reporter that loved him. The two have gone through some rough spots—but let’s not forget, in their earlier incarnations, Lois and Clark could be real douchey to each other.
These excellent snippets of comics gone by come from the new tumblr of author Tim Hanley, who set up the blog to promote his upcoming history of Lois Lane, Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet’s Ace Reporter, promising to share snippets of Lois’ history big and small in the run up to the book’s release in March.
http://www.amazon.com/Investigating-...
Hanley only began today, but already there’s some great little panels, like the one above from Action Comics #85 in 1945, featuring Lois giving Clark the sickest burn in celebration of her latest Daily Planet cover story. It was kind of justified, too—in the earliest runs of Action Comics Lois spent most of her job doing all the hard work, only to be scooped by Clark, who would use his super powers to dart back to the Daily Planet (and even earlier at the Daily Star) and write up her stories as his own.
Clark spent many years after that being a jerk to Lois, too, as this panel from 1958's Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #2 shows. The story gets even more miserable in context: After a film director refuses to cast Lois as herself in a film about Superman, Clark/Superman spends an entire day making Lois’ life miserable. He sabotages her work to anger her, breaks up with her to make her cry, and introduces her to the woman chose to play her in the film, to make her jealous... all the while secretly photographing her, so he can take the pictures to the director and convince him that Lois had the emotional range to star in a movie.
WHAT THE HELL, CLARK!? Couldn’t you have just, I dunno, asked her to act for you!?
But anyway, if you want to see more from Lois’ humongous comic book history, Hanley promises to update the blog daily with panels covering the most important (or funny) moments.
[Tumblr via Tim Hanley]
Header Image credit: Action Comics #85 (June 1945). Written by Don Cameron, art by Ed Dobrotka. Middle Image credit: Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #2 (May 1958). Written by Otto Binder, art by Kurt Schaffenberger.