comics 9: Superman is real?

'About a decade ago, Alvin Schwartz, who wrote Superman comic strips in the 1940s and ‘50s, published one of the great Odd Books of our time. In An Unlikely Prophet, reissued in paperback this spring, Schwartz writes that Superman is real. He is a tulpa, a Tibetan word for a being brought to life through thought and willpower. Schwartz also says a Hawaiian kahuna told him that Superman once traveled 2,000 years back in time to keep the island chain from being destroyed by volcanic activity. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t, but it does sound like a job for Superman – all in a day’s work for a guy who can squeeze coal into diamonds. Schwartz then tells of his own encounter with Superman in a New York taxi, when he learned firsthand that Superman’s cape is, in fact, more than mere fabric.(From Wired: "The Myth of Superman" by Gaiman and Rogers)'

Could it be that Superman and John Constantine have more than comic books in common? Constantine's creator, Alan Moore, has claimed to have met Constantine in real life on more than one occasion. This, if it is true, goes some way to support Grant Morrison's view of comics as hyper-sigils, fictional characters as sentient.

So be kind to your comic books. And all your books. And your DVDs. And each other. Thanks.