Data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under Creative Commons license.

Issue Details

Issue #13
Published November-December 1941
Cover Price 0.10
Pages 68
Editing Whitney Ellsworth; [Murray Boltinoff; Mort Weisinger]

Cover Details

Characters Superman; the Nazis
Genre superhero
Pencils Fred Ray
Inks Fred Ray
Letters typeset
Reprinted in Superman Archives (DC, 1989 series) #4 (1994)

13 page Superman story "The Machinations of The Light"

Characters Superman [Clark Kent]; Perry White; Lois Lane; Senator Tom Billingsley; The Light [Lex Luthor] (villain)
Synopsis Superman must battle Lex Luthor who is disguised as The Light, a criminal who kidnaps prominent men from many different fields, hypnotizes them with colored lights, and makes them do his bidding.
Genre superhero
Script Jerry Siegel (signed)
Pencils Joe Shuster (layouts)(signed); Leo Nowak (finishes) [as Joe Shuster] (signed)
Inks Leo Nowak [as Joe Shuster] (signed)
Notes Joe Shuster not listed in credits in Superman Archives #4. The story title in the Archives is "The Light".
Reprinted in Superman Archives (DC, 1989 series) #4 (1994); in Superman from the Thirties to the Seventies (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1971 series) #nn (1971); in Superman from the Thirties to the Eighties (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1983 series) #nn (1983)

13 page Superman story "Superman versus The Archer"

Characters Superman [Clark Kent]; Jimmy Olsen (name Jimmy revealed); Lois Lane; Perry White; Sgt. Casey; Thomas Gayford (death); Amos Kendrick; The Archer [Quigley] (villain, intro)
Synopsis A new villain hits the front pages of Metropolis' newspapers, a villain who prefers hunting human beings for profit rather than animals, and when Perry White cannot locate Lois or Clark to cover the story, a young office boy at the Daily Planet takes on the job himself --- and gets his first by-line!
Genre superhero
Script Jerry Siegel (signed)
Pencils Leo Nowak [ghosting for Joe Shuster]
Inks Leo Nowak [ghosting for Joe Shuster]
Notes Jimmy Olsen is blonde-haired in this story; last name Olsen not used until issue #15. This is Jimmy's first definite appearance in a comic book. First named appearance was on the Superman radio program. The Archive title for this story is "The Archer".
Reprinted in Superman from the Thirties to the Seventies (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1971) #nn; in Superman from the Thirties to the Eighties (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1983) #nn; in Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, The (DC, 1987 series) #nn; in Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, The (DC, 1989 series) #nn; in Superman Archives (DC, 1989 series) #4 (1994)

1 page Good Books and Movies filler "untitled"

Synopsis Books reviewed include "Lost Legion" by Armstrong Sperry and Walt Disney's "The Reluctant Dragon."
Genre review
Script Josette Frank (signed)
Letters typeset
Notes This filler is NOT featured in the Archive.

Half page Laff Lines filler "Is Mr. Rogers Expecting You?"

Genre humor
Notes This filler is NOT found in the Archive.

13 page Superman story "Baby on the Doorstep"

Characters Superman [Clark Kent]; Lois Lane; Bob Pierson (a baby, intro); Clara Pierson (his mother); Leila and other un-named enemy agents (villains, intro)
Synopsis Clark Kent receives a note to go to a certain address to pick up a baby and to care for it for a few days. But when attempts are made to kidnap the child, Superman intervenes and discovers that the mother was trying to protect the child from enemy agents who believed she knew the secret of her late husband's war-time invention.
Genre superhero
Script Jerry Siegel (signed)
Pencils Leo Nowak [ghosting for Joe Shuster]
Inks Leo Nowak [ghosting for Joe Shuster]
Notes Story title taken from the Archive.
Reprinted in Superman (DC, 1939 series) #253 (June 1972); in Superman Archives (DC, 1989 series) #4 (1994)

2 page text story "Sailor's Shawl"

Genre adventure
Script Gardner F. Fox (signed)
Pencils Cliff Young (signed)
Inks Cliff Young (signed)
Letters typeset

2 page Jerry the Jitterbug filler "not the type of car for college"

Characters Jerry the Jitterbug
Genre humor
Script Henry Boltinoff (signed)
Pencils Henry Boltinoff (signed)
Inks Henry Boltinoff (signed)
Letters Henry Boltinoff

13 page Superman story "The City Beneath the Earth"

Characters Superman [Clark Kent]; Perry White; Lois Lane; Tulan (intro); Kyack (villain, intro, death)
Synopsis Superman discovers an underground civilization beneath Metropolis that has been using a ray apparatus to destroy buildings in Metropolis and elsewhere. He meets with Kyack and learns that this civilization once populated the Earth before the ice age, and the glaciers forced them underground, where they built their new civilization. Now they are planning an invasion of the Earth's surface and restore the rule they once had over it.
Genre superhero
Script Jerry Siegel (signed)
Pencils John Sikela [ghosting for Joe Shuster]
Inks John Sikela [ghosting for Joe Shuster]
Notes Story title taken from the Archive.
Reprinted in Superman Archives (DC, 1989 series) #4 (1994)