Superman Celebration

The second weekend of June is when the town of Metropolis Illinois holds its annual Superman Celebration. In 1972 the Illinois senate declared Metropolis the hometown of Superman and since that time the Superman theme has only grown.

This year I was pleased to see the unveiling of the statue to Noel Neil, who played Lois Lane on the Superman tv show in the 1950's beginning in the second season. In the very early 1980's my family had a large antenna on our house that got a few channels, and one of those channels showed the original Superman, followed by The Lone Ranger very early in the morning. I loved both of those shows! Neil's Lois Lane was fun to watch and looking back on old episodes I am glad they portrayed a woman in a better light than some other classic TV fare. Here's the statue that they unveiled on June 11th:

This was the first time my schedule would let me make it to the Superman Celebration and it was certainly an interesting experience. The whole thing was an amalgamation of a convention and a street carnival. On one hand you had your die-hard comic book fans, your Superman movie fans, roving young ruffians(i.e. "jaded" tweens), and families with kids. These are some very different groups to have come together in one place, but there was something there to appeal to everyone.

The highlight for me was meeting the likes of Carmine Infantino, Ilya Salkind, and Dave Beaty, the latter of whom is an artist working on DC'S Brightest Day storyline.

From the cast of Smallville we had Laura Vandervoort and Sam Witwer. I actually know Sam Witwer best from Dexter and The Force Unleashed (an excellent game).

All in all it was a fun time. The hardcore amongst us recognized each other and I got into some spirited conversations about DC comics. I was also told several times I should have been dressed as Hit Girl since I have purple hair.

Finally, if you missed the Celebration there is still plenty of fun geeky stuff that make the town worth seeing. Not only do you have the giant Superman statue, but there are some photo-ops around the square as well. In addition the Superman Museum is well worth it. The entrance to it is a store full of DC goodies including many action figures.

Go here to view more photos from the Chronic Geek Flickr.