Joseph Shuster ( ; July 10, 1914 – July 30, 1992) was a Canadian-American comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with Jerry Siegel, in Action Comics #1 (cover-dated June 1938).
Shuster was involved in a number of legal battles over ownership of the Superman character. His comic book career after Superman was relatively unsuccessful, and by the mid-1970s, Shuster had left the field completely due to partial blindness.
He and Siegel were inducted into both the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2005, the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association instituted the Joe Shuster Awards, named to honor the Canada-born artist.
Early life and career
Joseph Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Jewish family. His father, Julius Shuster (originally Shusterowich), an immigrant from Rotterdam, had a tailor shop in Toronto's garment district. His mother, Ida (Katharske), had come from Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine). His family, including his sister, Jean, lived on Bathurst, Oxford, and Borden Streets. In 1922 Julius Shuster was listed as living at 48 Major Street, and in 1923 and 1924 at 101 Oxford Street. Joe attended Ryerson and Lansdowne Public Schools (now Ryerson Community School and Lord Lansdowne Junior Public School with the Toronto District School Board). He also had a brother named Frank.
As a youngster, Shuster worked as a newspaper boy for the Toronto Daily Star. In a 1992 interview, in which he used the fledgling publisher's future name, he said the two sample strips were not the ones eventually published: