Superman #7
Superman #7 (cover-dated November–December 1940) holds a permanent place in DC history as the first comic-book appearance of Perry White, the gruff, dedicated editor who would anchor the Daily Planet's supporting cast for more than eight decades. His arrival also quietly retired the newspaper's previous editor, George Taylor, and cemented the Daily Planet name as the definitive home of Clark Kent and Lois Lane — a transition that had begun in the newspaper strips and radio serial but was now fixed in the comics themselves. By this issue the cover was already promoting Superman as the 'World's Greatest Adventure Strip Character,' a reflection of how rapidly the character had gone from debut to cultural institution in just over two years.
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The issue was written by Jerry Siegel with pencils and cover art by Joe Shuster and Wayne Boring — Boring had joined Shuster's Cleveland studio in 1940 and was becoming an increasingly important presence on the art. Whitney Ellsworth served as executive editor and Murray Boltinoff as in-house editor, with Ellsworth's tenure at DC coinciding with a broader push to standardize and soften the Superman franchise. Perry White himself was not invented for the comic page: he had debuted in the very second episode of the Adventures of Superman radio serial in February 1940, voiced by Julian Noa, and his migration to the printed page in this issue was part of a deliberate cross-media synchronization — notably, the issue even contained an advertisement for the radio show alongside White's print debut.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First comic-book appearance of Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet, who had originated on the Adventures of Superman radio serial in February 1940 (episode: 'Clark Kent, Reporter').
- Perry White appears in all four of the issue's Superman stories, debuting in the lead story 'The Three Kingpins of Crime,' where he dispatches Clark Kent and Lois Lane to interview star prosecutor George Lash.
- The issue effectively replaces previous Daily Planet editor George Taylor with Perry White, without any in-story explanation — a quiet but permanent retcon that reshaped the Superman supporting cast.
- Written by Jerry Siegel; pencils and cover art by Joe Shuster and Wayne Boring; executive editor Whitney Ellsworth; in-house editor Murray Boltinoff.
- By this issue, Superman's own title was billing him on the cover as the 'World's Greatest Adventure Strip Character,' a marketing superlative that reflected the character's extraordinary early commercial momentum.
- The issue contains four Superman stories: 'The Three Kingpins of Crime,' 'The Gay City Plague,' 'Bert Runyan's Campaign,' and 'The Black Gang' — all featuring the newly introduced Perry White alongside Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
- The issue is included in DC's Archive Editions reprint program; Superman Vol. 1 Archives Vol. 4 (covering Superman #6–7) was published in February 2008.
Cast · 26 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Rinaldo, a Gypsy Prince, had heard stories that his adoptive parent had stashed a fortune in gold away in the gypsy caravan, but he had always denied it. However, one night Rinaldo found his adoptive father dead, with a note in his hand stating that the young man should safely store away a fortune in gems that were his, unknowing that the gypsy chief's son was the murderer.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).