Influences
The story was an influence on Alan Moore when creating Watchmen. Moore has said, "We wanted to take Superduperman 180 degrees — dramatic, instead of comedic," but it also influenced the art: "I think that we probably settled upon the kind of Wally Wood 'Superduperman' style. You know, super-heroics, lots of details, heavy blacks, of a distinctive style." When asked about the influence of Superfolks on his work like the earlier Marvelman, Moore said, "I’d still say that Harvey Kurtzman’s Superduperman probably had the preliminary influence." He went into more detail in Kimota! the Miracleman Companion:
| “ | I remember being so knocked out by the "Superduperman" story that I immediately began thinking - I was 11, remember, so this would have been purely a comics strip for my own fun - but I thought maybe I could do a parody story about Marvelman. This thing is fair game to my 11-year-old mind. I wanted to do a super-hero parody story that was as funny as "Superduperman", but I thought it would be better if I did it about an English superhero." | ” |
The story would also influence John Shelton Lawrence. As a child he dressed as a superhero and got himself into trouble but "is understanding of superpowers matured, however, when he read Mad Magazine's' "Superduperman" in the early 1950s. That teenage skepticism grew into a philosophical teaching career, resulting in his current position as a professor of philosophy, emeritus, at Morningside College in Iowa. With Robert Jewert, he developed his suspicion that America's righteous stance in the world often projects the story of the selfless crusader who can cleanly uses superpowers to rescue the innocent." These ideas would be expanded in their books The American Monomyth (1977), The Myth of the American Superhero (2002), and Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism (2003).
n 1956, Ernie Kovacs did a Superclod sketch parody that had some similarities to Kurtzman's version; Kovacs was also a contributor to Mad Magazine.
Don Glut made, and starred in, a Superduperman fan film in 1963.
Read more about this topic: Superduperman
Famous quotes containing the word influences:
“However diligent she may be, however dedicated, no mother can escape the larger influences of culture, biology, fate . . . until we can actually live in a society where mothers and children genuinely matter, ours is an essentially powerless responsibility. Mothers carry out most of the work orders, but most of the rules governing our lives are shaped by outside influences.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“I am fooling only myself when I say my mother exists now only in the photograph on my bulletin board or in the outline of my hand or in the armful of memories I still hold tight. She lives on in everything I do. Her presence influenced who I was, and her absence influences who I am. Our lives are shaped as much by those who leave us as they are by those who stay. Loss is our legacy. Insight is our gift. Memory is our guide.”
—Hope Edelman (20th century)
“Whoever influences the child’s life ought to try to give him a positive view of himself and of his world. The child’s future happiness and his ability to cope with life and relate to others will depend on it.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)