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Joanne Siegel Passes Away. But who is she? You might amazed.

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:26 pm
by Tawmis
http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/the-woman-behi ... dies--2372

Here's some super-sad news: Lois Lane has died. The woman who inspired the character from the "Superman" comic, Joanne Siegel, was 93. Her husband, Jerome Siegel, modeled Lois Lane after the woman who eventually became his wife.
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The Cleveland native met the Man of Steel co-creator Siegel and his partner Joe Shuster when she was just 15 or 16. The teen had placed a classified ad in the local paper offering her services as a model. Shuster answered the ad, and the sketches he made were the basis of iconic Lois Lane.

The love interest of Superman eventually became the real-life love interest of Siegel. She was introduced to Siegel by Shuster in the 1930s, but the two didn't marry until 1948, when Siegel's divorce to wife Bella Siegel was finalized.

"Superman," introduced as a DC comic book in 1938, became one of the best-known superheroes of all time, but the writers were not credited. In 1978, with the Warner Brothers movie about to come out, DC finally added the co-creators' names to every Superman story and agreed to pay a lifetime stipend.

After Jerome Siegel died in 1999, the Siegel and Shuster families filed for partial ownership of the character from Warner Brothers. Joanne Siegel could not leap tall buildings in a single bound, but she would end up doing something more important: preserving the legacy of the Superman creators.

Brad Ricca, who teaches a comic book class at Case Western University, described her determination for justice this way: "Siegel would call DC Comics in New York and say, 'You need to help these people who made you all millionaires.'" The professor added, "Kind of like Lois Lane, she just wouldn't give up."

In 2008, a ruling gave the families a right to a large share of "Superman," but details are still being worked out.

All that, and looks, too: An expert on Siegel tweeted, "Just heard Joanne Siegel passed away. Lois Lane herself. One of the most beautiful people I ever met."

Re: Joanne Siegel Passes Away. But who is she? You might ama

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:40 pm
by DeadPoolX
Huh. When I saw the last name I knew who it was before I even read the post. Then again, I'm a comic book geek and the name "Siegel" has meaning to me. For most people, the response would probably be: "Who?"

Anyway... now both creators of Superman and the inspiration for Lois Lane are dead. Too bad real life isn't like a comic book, where death is merely a setback (and designed to increase sales).

Re: Joanne Siegel Passes Away. But who is she? You might ama

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:05 pm
by Tawmis
I knew that you'd know. :)

Re: Joanne Siegel Passes Away. But who is she? You might ama

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:12 pm
by AndreaDraco
I know that I didn't know. Still, it was a nice story. I didn't know any of it. It's sweet.

Re: Joanne Siegel Passes Away. But who is she? You might ama

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:21 pm
by gumby
I also recognized the name, except I had no idea that Jerry Siegel was a co-creator (or had forgotten). The last time I think I saw the name was on an issue of the Superman reboot in the 90's.