On Oct. 17, 1914, Jerome "Jerry" Siegel- co-creator of the comic hero Superman - was born in Cleveland.

In 1931 Siegel met artist Joe Shuster, a classmate at Glenville High School. The following year they collaborated on a fanzine called Science Fiction. For the third issue, they created a villainous character for a story called Reign of the Superman. They later re-created Superman as a hero and put together a comic book featuring him in 1933.

They tried to sell Superman to DC Comics, which initially rejected it. However, they landed jobs at DC and created another character, called Dr. Occult.

But they didn't give up on Superman. Action Comics, a sister company of DC, agreed to feature Superman in a new comic book released in June 1938. Superman was a smash hit, and by 1941 Siegel and Shuster were making $75,000 a year writing and drawing Superman stories.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8361