Book: "With Thanks To Superman"

Today, I finished reading Brian McKernan's new book, With Thanks To Superman (The Parrville Press, ISBN: 979-8-218-05811-1). Actually, the full title is With Thanks To Superman: 40 Years of Interviews, Reports, and Observations. That is exactly what the book contains.

As the introduction of the book states: Just what the world needs right now: Another Superman book. But this one's different.

Let's start with the cover. It has author McKernan with a Superman statue with an outer space background. The face on the Superman figure looks more like Mr. Spock from Star Trek (the ears even look kind of pointy due to the lighting) than Superman. So if one wonders what Leonard Nimoy would look like as Superman, this'll give one a good idea. 

As I said, the book is quite a bit different than other Superman books. It is essentially a fan's "memoirs" of being a Superman fan who attended celebrations, seminars and conducted interviews with stars such as Christopher Reeve, Gerard Christopher and Bob Holiday and collected some Man of Steel related memorabilia. 

Above, yours truly after finishing the book.

In case one has lived in a vacuum over the past 40 years, Christopher Reeve appeared as Superman in four feature movies, Gerard Christopher appeared as Superboy in a syndicated television series and Bob Holiday appeared as Superman in a Broadway musical. 

The book takes a look at several incarnations of Superman (or Superboy) over the years. Along with those, it also looks at how Superman appeared in advertising. The music of Superman gets spotlighted.

The "Golden Anniversary of Superman" in 1988 gets a chapter as does the CBS television special celebrating that anniversary. (I wasn't happy with that special as it was too campy.)

Events celebrating the Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves includes one for the premiere of the show by Nick At Night as well as the 2014 Superman Celebration that included a plaque dedication in Tarzana and a big luncheon in Los Angeles among others. (Yours truly appears in text and photo on pages 146-147.)

The book also focuses on prominent fans who have promoted Superman over the years such as Jim Hambrick, Jim Nolt, Jim Bowers, Fred Shay and others. 

With Thanks To Superman is an enjoyable read for fellow Superman fans. Yes, it's another Superman book, but it is different than the others and would fit in quite nicely with the others in one's collection.

My grade: A.

With Thanks To Superman is available at Amazon ($15.00 paperback).