Thursday, February 17, 2011

Joanne Siegel 1917-2011


Above: photo of Joanne Siegel and Joe Shuster's drawing of Lois Lane. “Joe might have taken a few liberties,” comments Ms. Siegel's daughter, Laura Siegel Larson.

Joanne Siegel, the first model for Lois Lane, died on February 12th. She was 93.

Ms. Siegel was the wife of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. Back in 1935 --

"... [S]he placed a brief ad in the classified section of The Plain Dealer, declaring herself available for modeling work and confessing that she had no experience. Most of the responses to the ad were requests for dates, but one at least seemed serious, and she presented herself to Shuster and Siegel, who were then developing Superman."
She would become an advocate -- not only for Jerry and Joe, who sold Superman to National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics) for a pittance -- but for creators' rights for all.

“My dad always said he wrote Lois with my mom’s personality in mind," adds Laura Siegel Larson.

Much more here: Joanne Siegel obituary in the NY Times by Bruce Weber.

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