By Dennis Sadowski
Superman, the superhero from Krypton dreamed up by two kids from Cleveland in 1933, has enthralled audiences throughout the decades in comic books, on television and radio, on Broadway and in Hollywood blockbusters that have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars.
It’s easy to get excited by Kal-El, aka the Man of Steel, who arrived from a dying planet, gaining super powers beyond belief, and supported “Truth, Justice and the American Way.”
This summer’s blockbuster film “Superman” by director James Gunn continues the franchise’s mega-popular run. The Warner Bros. film has grossed more than $550 million in box office sales worldwide in the month since its release, according to Box Office Mojo.
Let’s say Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, is not about to disappear anytime soon.
It’s not just popular entertainment where Superman fans exist.
Across the stamp collecting world Superman has appeared on stamps since the 1990s, illustrating the international appeal of the crime-fighting sensation.
Two European postal agencies issued stamps timed to the release of this summer’s movie.
The mountainous microstate of San Marino developed a souvenir sheet that was released June 17. It features a pair of 2.45-euro stamps. One depicts the iconic diamond-shaped S shield on a blue background and the other shows Superman with the lower half of his body extending into the sheet’s selvage.
Poste San Marino reports that 20,000 copies of the sheet were printed. It can be ordered online at www.dfn.sm/en/superman.html.
Portugal’s postal authority released a booklet pane of six first-class postage stamps showing the evolution of Superman since his debut in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938. The agency also offers a first day cover and prestige booklet printed in Portuguese and English that tells the superhero’s origin story.
Other countries have honored Superman on stamps going back nearly 30 years. Canada, the United Kingdom and the English Channel island of Jersey, Madagascar and the United States have issued versions of stamps either individually or in groups.
The U.S. Postal Service has showcased Superman three times, the first coming in 1998 in a pane of 15 in the Celebrate the Century series recalling highlights of the 1930s. The 32-cent shows a classic drawing of the Krypton native with the text “Superman arrives.”
Two other stamps appeared on a pane of 20 stamps from 2006 depicting superheroes and comic book covers of the DC universe. One stamp shows Clark Kent changing into his Superman suit and the other reproduces the cover of the comic book Superman No. 11 from 1941.
Canada Post twice has focused on Superman on its stamps. He appeared in a 1998 booklet of 10 stamps depicting five Canadian superheroes. Then in 2013, our northern neighbors commemorated the 75th anniversary of Superman’s appearance with a souvenir sheet, a booklet of five non-denominated first-class stamps and a separate first-class coil.
The newer issue shows Superman from his origin to contemporary times performing super feats. The central image of the coil shows the stylized S shield beneath the button-down shirt of alter ego Clark Kent.
The booklet from 27 years ago includes a set of 45-cent stamps illustrating comic book covers includes one of Superman. The others show Canadian heroes Johnny Canuck, Nelvana, Captain Canuck and Fleur de Lys.
Jersey Post’s stamps coincided with the release of the film “Man of Steel” in 2013. Five stamps paying domestic and international postal rates show scenes from the movie. Each stamp featured different production techniques including thermography, glow-in-the-dark ink and embedded granite dust representing his exploded home planet.
A separate souvenir sheet of a different design featured three-dimensional plastic affixed over the stamp image.
Superman stamps are part of the wide-ranging topical collecting field of superheroes on stamps from postal agencies around the world. Such stamps and related first day covers offer a fun and inexpensive way to expand one’s collecting interests and perhaps even to fantasize about a sci-fi world in which superheroes, Earthborn and otherworldly, exist.
Club meeting
The monthly meeting of the Black River Stamp Club takes place at 5 p.m., Aug. 20 at the Lorain Public Library’s North Ridgeville Branch. The club continues to prepare for its 41st show on Nov. 22 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Elyria. Anyone interested in stamps and postal history is welcome.
Dennis Sadowski can be reached at sedowski.dennis@gmail.com.