Smallville Question

[Red Oak Kid]

OK, take a look at the cover of Superboy 30.

Does anyone know if that is supposed to be Smallville? I thought Smallville was somewhere in the midwest. This cover looks like New York Harbor.

And what are all those planes doing?

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/614/400/614_4_030.jpg

[Cei-U!]

OK, take a look at the cover of Superboy 30.

Does anyone know if that is supposed to be Smallville? I thought Smallville was somewhere in the midwest. This cover looks like New York Harbor.

And what are all those planes doing?

Contrary to popular belief, Smallville was portrayed in the first 15-20 years of the "Superboy" series as a small Eastern town not far from the "big city" of Metropolis. I'm currently reading the late '50s Adventure Comics and they portray Smallville this way. (Several stories of that era place it near Midvale, where Supergirl lived when she first came to Earth.) The idea that it Smallville is in the midwest was a much later development, though I haven't been able to pin it down so far. It may even originate with the '78 Superman movie but I won't swear to it. Maybe Mark Waid knows.

Cei-U!
I summon the Earth-1 atlas!

[MWGallaher]

I can't believe I've never seen that cover before...that makes (at least) TWO covers based on that old Mort Weisinger-edited SF pulp..the more famous version being the Jimmy Olsen "Turtle Man" issue!

[Red Oak Kid]

I can't believe I've never seen that cover before...that makes (at least) TWO covers based on that old Mort Weisinger-edited SF pulp..the more famous version being the Jimmy Olsen "Turtle Man" issue!

That is EXACTLY the same reaction I had yesterday when I saw it.

I've been playing the GTCC game for years now and have looked at the Superboy gallery at GCD numerous times, yet yesterday was the first time this cover registered in my brain.

[Lone Ranger]

According to Wikipedia, Smallville's placement in Kansas did begin in the movies, as Kurt mentioned.

It also states that an Amazing World of DC placed it in Maryland just a few years prior to the release of the first movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallville

[Kan-Man]

Being a native New Yorker, those buildings in the foreground look an awful like similar structures in Brooklyn near the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. I wouldn't be surprised if the artist used them as a point of reference (although the bridge itself is fairly generic looking).

[Gary DJ]

There was an article in the book, The People's Almanac (1975) titled "The People Who Never Were -- Yet Live Today." It included biographies of Superman, Wonder Woman, Scrooge McDuck, Tarzan of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes and the Lone Ranger. It placed Smallville in Illinois, although I haven't seen any DC publications that mentioned that. Google "Smallville, Illinois" and you'll see a lot of links to trivia lists, but none that site an ultimate source or original date establishing Illinois as the home state.

[Sir Tim Drake]

There was an article in the book, The People's Almanac (1975) titled "The People Who Never Were -- Yet Live Today." It included biographies of Superman, Wonder Woman, Scrooge McDuck, Tarzan of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes and the Lone Ranger. It placed Smallville in Illinois, although I haven't seen any DC publications that mentioned that. Google "Smallville, Illinois" and you'll see a lot of links to trivia lists, but none that site an ultimate source or original date establishing Illinois as the home state.

Heh. It would be interesting to compare that biography of Scrooge McDuck to the one that Don Rosa did. :)

[Tadhg]

There was an article in the book, The People's Almanac (1975) titled "The People Who Never Were -- Yet Live Today." It included biographies of Superman, Wonder Woman, Scrooge McDuck, Tarzan of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes and the Lone Ranger. It placed Smallville in Illinois, although I haven't seen any DC publications that mentioned that. Google "Smallville, Illinois" and you'll see a lot of links to trivia lists, but none that site an ultimate source or original date establishing Illinois as the home state.

I wonder if the Almanac got confused because Metropolis, IL is the "home of Superman"