Superman Merchandise (Spring 2018)

This Superman Clock is surely one that will stick out in the room. It is a dark blue color on the outside portion of the circle with a red accent on the inside edge of the circle. The hand of the clock is black meanwhile the second counting hand is a dark red. The clock itself doesn’t have any numbers on the interior where the normal 1-12 numbers are usually at. There is a giant Superman logo right in the middle of the clock where the hands turn. Behind the logo is a blue and white pattern that almost looks like paint splatter or an explosion. This clock was produced and published in the year 2004 by DC Comics. It was made in China by the Vandor company. I selected this item because of how bright and colorful this clock is. Most clocks are a very dull black and white. I think the intended audience/consumer this product would be a big fan of Superman or possibly younger kids.

This item pertains to Superman because it is a direct merchandise item. I think Superman is all around us. This clock proves this to us that Superman can be around in many ways with today’s times. Superman is all over the internet as well as the background to our computers or cell phones.  I believe this clock shows us just how popular Superman was, and still is. If companies are making clocks with Superman Logos on them, it must be a big deal. People can now be reminded of Superman every time they want to know what time it is. This revealed to me that Superman is one of the best-known Superhero’s and will be remembered forever as one of the greats.

In the year of 2006, the movie Superman Returns aired in theaters. It had a production budget of 270 million dollars and has been able to accumulate close to 400 million dollars worldwide. Since the date that it aired, it has become one of the most well-known and easily recognized movies within the Superman series. Despite the movie serving as a sequel to the original Superman movies 1-4, it remains the most referenced Superman movie of the current generation.

Once the movie Superman Returns was announced, production of advertisements of the movie commenced included movie poster. Movie poster serve as both merchandise to collectors and fans while in addition serving to promote the release of the movie. Multiple posters were created to promote the movie including the one pictured. The poster pictured includes Superman hovering above the earth, floating in earth’s atmosphere. His cape is flowing back with his head tilted forward. Below the image of Superman is the title of the movie, Superman Returns.

This particular artifact can be seen outside of the elevator as you enter the floor of the Pop Culture Library at the Jerome Library at Bowling Green State University. ¹ This artifact is significant to University given that it is signed by actress and BGSU alumni, Eva Marie Saint. Within the movie Superman Returns, Eva Marie Saint plays the role of Martha Kent, Clark Kent’s mother. You can find the signature of Eva Marie Saint in the bottom left hand corner of the poster.

For this digital gallery, and online portion of this class, I decided to use the Monogram International Inc. white Superman mug. This mug is white with a blue background, and the red and yellow Superman logo on top. I chose this item rather than any of the other Superman memorabilia that is held in the Popular Culture Library because as an avid coffee drinker, this item just spoke to me. This mug is 40 years old, and is still in excellent condition. I think the intended audience/consumer of this product is the parents of young children who love Superman. The children are looking up to their parents, and when they sit down for breakfast, and see that their mother or father is using a mug with the Superman logo, it creates a bond with the child and the parent that shows validation of their likes and dislikes. Superman was also a hero, and someone kids could look up to and use as a role model. This mug relates to the topic of superman because it encourages the average person to be the best person they can be by living the American dream. The American dream when Superman started coming out was to have breakfast while reading the morning newspaper, and drinking a cup of coffee. This mug is a statement piece because it allows the consumer to fit in and be "normal" by being included in the daily routine. This mug also shows that they can put the Superman logo on anything and people would buy it. Although when first produced, the mug was probably not seen as a collectable item. When Superman became as large of a franchise as it is, the little things are the things that are collected and traded for large sums of money. While this mug is probably not worth that much money, I'm sure many people would be willing to buy it just to have those old memories from when these mugs were first produced.

The item that I selected for my Superman digital gallery essay was The Great Superman Book (The Complete Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes; Vol. 3) which was released in 1973 and was written by Michael Fleischer and published by Random House Value publishing staff. The reason I selected this item is because I think that it would be very interesting to research a book that was based on a comic book. The intended audience for this artifact would be any Superman fan that wanted to grow their knowledge about Superman. I could also see a very knowledgeable Superman purchasing this product to have an item to quickly reference to check if they ever have any information. Growing up as a baseball fan I remember my family members always commenting how easy I was to shop for because they would just by some sort of baseball related item and call it a day.  This is where I see this item being purchased the most for a young boy or girl who is a Superman fan boy or girl and one of their family members needs a quick gift. This item revealed to me what type of people Superman and all comic book fans are. They are people that do not want to be left in the dark so to say. They want to have all their questions answered and not have any unanswered questions about their favorite characters. A good example of this is with Infinity Wars the latest Avengers movie coming out one of my teammates was watching videos before he watched the movie to make sure he was all caught up with the different characters in the movie and wanted to know all the background information before watching the movie. This is the same with the Superman encyclopedia as people will use it to make sure he has all necessary information.

I felt that this was a very successful semester for me and my group in the class. My group members were very easy to communicate with a I enjoyed working with all of them during the semester. If I had to grade everyone in my group I would give everyone an A for the semester. I also found the staff members at the Browne Popular Culture Library to be very helpful through out the semester. They made the information and archives very accessible I felt and were always able to answer any questions that I had during the semester. I was not sure what to expect when I enrolled in this class at the start of this semester. I am happy that I took this class and felt that it was a very positive experience for me. I was not a very big fan of comic books and honestly had never read one cover to cover before this class. I do not see myself reading any books in the future but I definitely appreciate them more and have a good level of respect for the people that enjoy them. I understand how comic books came into existence and how they were a great distraction for Americans dating all the way back to the great depression. My favorite thing about this class was learning all the different thoughts that go into creating a comic book.  Such as how it was so shocking to see a character killed off and not come back to life or how Superman played a role in America and the post war culture.