Supercomix! A History
of Comic Book reprints
in South Africa
by George van der Riet
M
y father (Michael) thrilled to the Superman serials shown in cinemas in South Africa in the
1940s and 1950s. We have old 16mm films of him
emulating the Man of Steel in his Superman costume
at the time. Flash forward to 1979 when I was a
youngster and thrilled to the spectacle of Christopher
Reeve as Superman on the big screen! My father introduced me to the joy of comic books and collecting,
and I had a similar Superman costume in 1979.
Throughout the 1940s American comic books were
popular worldwide. They reached the shores of South
Africa in small numbers. When the government
changed in 1948 – they introduced censorship laws,
which significantly reduced the availability of superhero comics. At the time all imported magazines
would be scrutinised by the censors. In the early
1950s mainly Classics Illustrated and humour titles
were sold in South Africa.
The first line of DC Comics reprints by Zebra Publications started in September 1954. Five titles were
produced - each ran for only seven issues. The titles
in English were: Action Comics, Superman and
World's Finest Comics. The titles in Afrikaans were
Mantelman (Batman) and Kongo Koot (Congo Bill).
Colour covers, with black & white interior.
Zebra Publications Superman # 2 (1954)
Cover and house ad (in 1954 the publisher thought
only boys would be interested in
reading comic books!)
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