- This video is sponsored
by CuriosityStream. Get access to my streaming
video service, Nebula, when you sign up for CuriosityStream using the link in the description. (plastic crinkling) Ow, thorns! It's a little full but
we're gonna keep going. Okay. Ow. I mean, that's kinda cute, right? If you had to think of an
iconic comic book couple, what's the first one that comes to mind? Peter Parker and Mary Jane? May Parker and Doctor Octopus? I see the chemistry there. How about the time that
Supergirl's horse turned human and they made out? That's real. That's not going to be in the
"Superpets" movie, I hope. I mean, I've heard of horse girls, but... That's the end of that joke. I didn't want to write anymore. Obviously the real answer
is Superman and Lois Lane. Everyone knows Superman and Lois Lane. They've had multiple
shows about these two. One of which is ongoing and
doesn't feature Dean Cain, so it's objectively better. A version of Lois Lane has appeared in virtually every iteration of Superman. From movies, to other
movies, to better movies, shows, cartoons, musicals. - Let go of me! - Radio programs, serials, and this interesting tie-in
medium called comic books. That one's new to me, folks. That was a joke, okay? I know that comic books came before all of those other things. Comics are old. They were invented in the
80s when Watchmen came out. My point is, all the way
back in "Action Comics #1", the first appearance of Superman and the birth of the superhero boom, Lois Lane was there. And through nearly a century
of stories, including the 60s when things got real
upsetting in hindsight, Clark Kent and Lois Lane
continue to represent in many people's minds the
quintessential comic book couple. But what if I told you that the story behind the
creation of Lois Lane is filled not with love, but tragedy and heartbreak. Budding romance, second
chances, taboo sexual art, and lifelong friendships
burned to the ground. For you see, much like Clark
Kent wanting desperately for Lois to notice him while she's more interested in Superman, this video is the story of how Superman's own
creators were involved in a love triangle,
vying for the attention of their own real-life Lois Lane. And folks, this is a juicy one. (upbeat music) How are you doing, you wonderful nerds? Scott here, and happy Valentine's Day! Or Palentine's Day. Or Galentine's Day. Or whatever you celebrate,
if you celebrate anything. If you don't, Happy Day. Happy Day to you. So the last time I made a
Valentine's Day video was back in 2014 when I talked
about Marvel's character Starfox or Eros. A video that deservedly
got almost no views because no one cared about that character until extremely recently. Shoutout to everyone
who's been following me since my dorm room days. Anyway, due to a weird contract
that I signed with YouTube that allowed me to become a
notable comic book YouTuber despite never actually talking
about modern comic books, I have to make a Valentine's
Day video every eight years. And this is that one. Also, this is an onion. I'm going to place it right there. And it's going to make
sense in like 20 minutes. So, during the 1930s,
young pals Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had been
workshopping their idea for a colorful, costumed superman and they named him Superman. They were really stuck on this character and they kept making revisions to him and his supporting cast and
his whole world and canon, hoping that someday a
publisher would take a chance on their hero. Taking a page from films
and serials at the time like 1935's "Front Page Woman", Siegel and Shuster introduced
a reporter character into Superman's mythos. Specifically, this reporter was a woman. At this point in history, women reporters were super uncommon. And a large part of that was
just because women having jobs, in general, was uncommon in the 30s. I believe women made
up less than a quarter of the workforce back then, and any jobs that they
did have rarely provided any opportunity for
advancement up the ladder. They were expected to
marry a man and have kids and then leave their jobs
to become a housewife. In fact, in "Front Page Woman", that film I mentioned earlier, the entire plot is how a guy
reporter named Curt Devlin, which might be the most
unattractive name, end of sentence. Like no shade to any other
Curt Devlins out there in my audience, but I don't
know, it just doesn't feel good to say coming out of my mouth. Curt Devlin. Curt Devlin. I don't like it. Anyway, so Curt Devlin wants
to marry Ellen Garfield, but she won't do it until he admits that she is just as good
a reporter as he is. - Well, I want to prove I
can be as good a reporter as- - Now look, we could get one
of those studio properties with a fireplace, and
what else would you want? Are you listening to me? - [Scott] Now, even though
Curt sabotages her career, like a good prospective husband would do. - I don't know what to say. - Well, I do. You're fired! - Ellen still lands the
scoop of the century. Curt has to admit that
Ellen is a good reporter, and she finally agrees to marry him, becoming Ellen Devlin, presumably. Pretty bad deal for Ellen, if you ask me. In "Investigating Lois Lane" by Tim Hanley where I'm getting a lot of
information for this video, thank you Tim, he notes that, quote, "At most major newspapers in the 1930s, "when a female reporter got engaged, "it was assumed that
she would soon be moving "onto housewifery, "she wasn't fired as much as
everyone, herself included, "just knew that she was now
done in the newspaper business." Meaning, Curt Devlin just
took out his biggest rival by marrying her and ensuring
she will no longer work as a reporter. Do you see why we hate Curt Devlin? - [Curt] How are you gonna get home? - The subway's still running. - Not to where you can go,
as far as I'm concerned. - There was also Torchy Blane, a character from a series of films that ran from 1937 to 1939. She was described as a lady bloodhound with a nose for news, but
even she gets proposed to at the end of her first
film "Smart Blonde". As if women get to do one cool thing before a guy swoops in and
says, "Dang, that was awesome! "Now give it all up
and raise my children?" That wasn't a question, I don't know why I
phrased it as a question. You will do this now. The reason why I spent a full
page of this script talking about women in the 30s
having a bad time is to provide appropriate context. For, you see, this new reporter character that Siegel and Shuster
added to their Superman comic did not, at the start anyway,
have any romantic attachments. She wasn't married or engaged or really interested in anyone. Right? Like, the first panel she appears in is with Clark Kent asking her
on a date and she says fine, but she's absolutely not into it. It's just a pity thing, and
she's clearly not having fun. When someone else cuts in
and wants to dance with her, she slaps the guy and
leaves the date alone, unimpressed with anyone. The only relationship that
she cares about is between her and her future Pulitzer. 'Cause like later when she meets Superman, she doesn't immediately
fall in love with him, she brings the story
to her newspaper editor and is like "We gotta run this
story, it's gonna be huge." Which I think is awesome. These decisions made the
character more independent and a little more unique
compared to Torchy Blane who, by the way, was one of
the more obvious inspirations for the character. Jerry Siegel would say later in life that the name Lane actually came from one of the actresses
who played Torchy, Lola Lane. However, Lola wouldn't play Torchy Blane until the film "Torchy Blane in Panama" which came out a month after "Action Comics #1" was published. So some historians think that Siegel is just
misremembering his timeline. However, Lois didn't have a last name in "Action Comics #1". She was just Lois. It wasn't until "Action Comics #2" when she was given the surname Lane, which, to be fair, would
still be cutting it very close to the premiere of the Torchy Blane movie, but also movie trailers existed back then. You're watching the trailer right now. All that to say, it is very possible that Siegel knew in advance
that Lola Lane was going to be playing Torchy Blane and surnamed his dame Lane all the same. Lane. Blane. Lane. Nude Tayne.
- Nude Tayne. - The onion is still here, by the way. Hasn't come into play just
yet, but give it time. So now we've got the last name Lane, but where did Lois come from? So to get the perfect first
name for Superman's companion, Jerry Siegel turned to his past. And it wasn't a hard decision. He chose to immortalize the name of his high school crush, Lois Amster, creating the character
officially named Lois Lane. Now, for what it's worth, Lois Amster had no idea
that Jerry Siegel did that. Lois Amster also didn't really
know who Jerry Siegel was, this boy who had a crush on her. According to "Super Boys" by Brad Ricca, later in life, Amster was asked if she remembered Jerry Siegel
when they were in high school and she just said, "Um, was he the guy "who stared at me a whole bunch?" My man published a love poem to her in their high school newspaper, and it made zero impression on her. He named a now-iconic character after her, and Lois was like, "I think he wore pajamas
to school sometimes?" Absolutely brutal for Jerry
Siegel, but the good news is that he would eventually
find love later in his life. The bad news is that
love that he would find, well, that would cost him, and it would cost him his
lifelong childhood friendship with other Superman
co-creator Joe Shuster. (claps) Oh, that's right. It is time for some drama. It is time to spill some
comic book history tea. (kettle whistling) Speaking of! (water splashing) Teatime! So, in a previous video, I asked you all to send
me tea to my PO box, and so many of you did
that I sorta lost track of who sent what. Except for the person who sent me this T. You know who you are. And I gotta say, that's pretty funny. I did get a good chuckle out of that. But I thought it would be fun to make fan-mailed tea time a
part of my videos from now on. Very Kat Blaque "True Tea"-esque. So thank you to whoever
sent me Valerian Nights, that's what I'm gonna be
drinking in this video. It smells like coconut, which is great because
we're about to get coconuts. Not really, I just needed
a segue back to the video. Also, Emily came home and
fixed the flowers behind me and then also told me to stop buying her the biggest bouquet I can find every year. We had to split it up
into two different vases. That's only half the flowers
that were in there earlier. Anyway, I think that
means I'm just gonna have to find her a bigger bouquet next year. So after the name of
Lois Lane was settled on by writer Jerry Siegel, artist Joe Shuster had to find some way to craft her appearance. Smash cut to across town, still in Ohio. I don't even think I mentioned that they were in Ohio at this point. They're all in Ohio. A young woman named Jolan
Kovacs was getting home from school. Kovacs had three younger sisters and money was tight in their household. And she hoped that she
could support her family or at least help support it
by landing a big modeling gig. To help break into this new career, she put an ad in the newspaper
offering her services as a model looking for
really any kind of work. Most of the letters that she
got in response to this ad were from men asking for dates as if it was like an early
version of a Tinder bio. I'm trying to swipe
right on this newspaper but it's not working. Thankfully, near the bottom of the pile, she spies one letter from an
artist looking for a model to stand in as artistic
reference for his cartoon strip. Now, this sounds like a
legitimate foot in the door for a new modeling career. Kovacs writes back to the artist and they set up a
meeting a few weeks later at his apartment. She's nervous. She almost doesn't go. But she does show up at the
artist's door and announces, "I'm the model that Mr.
Shuster is expecting." And of course Joe Shuster
ushers Jolan Kovacs into his apartment. They start talking,
they really hit it off, forming what would be a lifelong
friendship in that moment. She's striking poses as
if she's a professional but it's her first gig, and he's trying not to
blush as he's telling her all about this silly
little Superman character that he's working on with his buddy Jerry. Instantly struck by her
looks, Joe Shuster knew that this was the right person off of which to model
Lois Lane's appearance. One notable decision was
to make Lois a brunette. Portrayals of reporters
and other newspaperwomen at the time were almost entirely blonde. But Kovacs was not, and
Shuster couldn't help but incorporate her darker
hair into his characters. Even when he wasn't drawing Lois Lane, any woman he drew effectively
was a Lois Lane wannabe. Now, to be fair, this was partly because Shuster wasn't
the most talented artist in the world, so once he
learned how to draw one person, it was just sort of easier
to recycle it a whole bunch. But also it was because he
was entranced by Kovacs. One session of Shuster
sketching Kovacs became a handful of sessions sketching her, and eventually that turned
into a couple of dates between the two of them. (burps) Now I'm going to spare
you the research that I did to find out if a man in his
twenties dating a high schooler was against some kind of law and just tell you that America was and is absolutely buck wild. I hate it here. We're not going to think
about it, all right? My search history has already
put me on some kind of list. I've started getting
libertarian campaign emails. Alas, any budding romance that was there between Joe and Jolan didn't last long. Kovacs soon left Cleveland, hoping to get bigger modeling jobs. She thanks both Joe and Jerry for offering her her first modeling job, giving her the confidence that
she could make it her career. Jolan packs her bags for Chicago. The Big Bean. Joe begs her to stay, but
they both know that she can't. It was a tearful goodbye for everyone. I mean, she was fond of both
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, and always wrote letters to them urging them to keep pursuing
their Superman character even though no publisher
wanted to touch it. And as we know, in 1938, one publisher did finally take a chance on the Man of Steel in "Action Comics #1", and it was at least in part thanks to Jolan Kovacs lending
her appearance for Lois Lane and encouraging Siegel and
Shuster to not give up. But our story doesn't end there. Kovacs and Shuster stayed in touch well after the unprecedented
success of Superman. A lot happened in the decade since the two had briefly dated. Jolan had moved all over the country looking for modeling work. She changed her professional
name to Joanne Carter and traveled from Boston to New York, and even landing in California for a bit where she built ships for World War II. It was there that she even
got married for a time, but it didn't last too long. Shuster, meanwhile, had
seen success with Superman, but he wasn't seeing any of the money that went along with that. He and Siegel sold the
character to the publisher that would later be known as DC Comics. Whoa, I spilled everywhere. I talk with my hands way too much for someone who's holding
a mug full of liquid. Hot liquid. So yeah, they sold
Superman to DC for $130, which with inflation would
be around $2,500 today. Considering how much
Superman was bringing in and how much Superman
continues to bring in for DC, they definitely got a raw deal there. So Siegel and Shuster sued DC Comics for the rights and
royalties of the character, but the parties settled out
of court for around $94,000 or about $1.1 million today. I promise this is important. Superman was now officially
property of DC Comics, but at least Siegel and
Shuster got a better payday out of their work. There would be other
lawsuits in the future and more money given to
them and their families, but this was about as big of a win they could expect at the time. So all of this context
sets up the next big part of our story. The juiciest part of this story. The part filled with drama
and betrayal and heartbreak. On April 1, 1948, there was
going to be a cartoonist's ball held in New York City. I didn't know they held
balls for cartoonists. If it were me, I'd be a little suspicious, especially because it was
being held on April Fools Day. You show up and it's just
a bunch of jocks there, ready to pants you and do all
the classic things they do to nerds in movies. Oh, you created Superman? Dork! But Shuster needed a date for
this fancy, formal occasion. Lucky for him, his old fling
Jolan Kovacs was in town. And lucky for her,
Shuster suddenly was flush with a ton of money from a lawsuit, and he was ready to flex. Shuster invited Kovacs to the
ball and she happily accepted. He was excited to rekindle an old flame. You know, after losing Superman, perhaps he could finally
settle down with his Lois Lane. He even rented Kovacs a ball gown. Yeah, that's right, he rented it. Look, he may have been paid the equivalent of a million dollars
from a DC Comics lawsuit, but he had to split that money
presumably with Jerry Siegel, so can't flex too hard. Speaking of Jerry Siegel, he was also at this
party, presumably alone. But he didn't leave alone. Yeah, that's right! Jolan Kovacs, Lois Lane, came
to this cartoonist's ball with one Superman co-creator, Joe Shuster, and left with the other Superman
co-creater, Jerry Siegel. Which must have made it real awkward when Joe had to return the
ball gown that he rented. And that's already plenty juicy, but do you wanna know the wildest part? Siegel, at the time,
was married, with a kid! Sorry, that was confusing. He wasn't married to a kid. He was married to his wife
and together they had a kid. Just wanted to clarify because we've already
touched on some dicey stuff in this video and I'm trying really hard not to be demonetized in this video. But we're going to test YouTube's limits in like two minutes. Yes, much like Clark Kent
trying to go out with Lois while she's more infatuated with Superman, Joe Shuster took Jolan Kovacs on a date, and then Jerry Siegel
flew in and took her home, I guess to his wife? Probably didn't go over great. Siegel's wife filed for divorce
just three months later, citing, quote, "gross neglect
of duty and extreme cruelty," end quote, which I guess
Siegel didn't fight? He fully agreed to her terms and also gave her full
custody of their son, as if he was calling his
entire marriage a mulligan and wanted to start
from scratch with Jolan. Now, obviously I don't
have much more details on their divorce, so I
don't know the whole story. Maybe it was just a bad relationship that they both wanted out of. I don't really know. But what I do know is that
three months after the divorce, Jerry Siegel and Jolan
Kovacs were married. An absolute whirlwind romance. Just six short months from the time that he hijacked his friend's
date at the cartoonist's ball to the two of them
becoming husband and wife. And how must Joe Shuster
have felt about this? Well, again, this may be conjecture, but my guess is not great! Siegel and Shuster, childhood friends, artistic collaborators,
co-creators of the most popular and recognizable superhero on the planet, stopped talking to each other for decades after this incident. Friends to enemies to lovers? No. Oh, hey, I think the onion has
something to say about this. (suspenseful music) All right, we'll check back later. At this time, even though Joe Shuster was no longer drawing Lois Lane for DC Comics, he continued to draw Jolan
Kovacs throughout the 1950s. Not in kid-friendly superhero comics, but in magazines aimed more at adults. Hey, thank you to everyone
who supports me on Patreon because now there's definitely no way that this video will ever
be monetized on YouTube. We'll see, though! So, in the 1950s, Joe
Shuster was looking for work. That lawsuit money could
only really last him so long, plus he just liked to draw. But even though he co-created the most popular superhero of all time, he couldn't find any new work in comics. The only place he was able
to get illustration work was for the kink magazine "Nights of Horror" which featured torture
and bondage illustrations. And if you're interested, a lot of his drawings are featured and collected in "Secret
Identity" by Craig Yoe. Almost dropped the book just then. And to be honest, this is some of Shuster's
best artistic work. The comics he worked on in
the past often felt rushed with very little detail. He was also still young
in his illustrative career back when he was drawing Superman. And you can tell that a
combination of decades of practice and not as rushed deadlines led to his fetish art being leaps
above his Superman comics. Leaps over tall buildings above. (audience laughs) Thank you. Thanks so much. Yeah. I'm really only able to
show the tamest stuff here. I've marked all the safe for
video pages with sticky notes. But the art in this book goes hard. Even if you're not into this genre, I hope you can at least
appreciate the skill and effort that went into these. Also, just want to put it out there, if you're going to write a
comment under this video, please no kink-shaming anyone, okay? That's not my intention for anything, I don't want that to be any of
your intentions for anything. You know, a lot of the commentary
surrounding this artwork, including in this book, talk about how Joe Shuster
drawing these images is somehow an imperfection
or flaw in his character. But like, you know, people
like making sexy drawings and as long as it's
between consenting adults, then it's all good. Now to be fair, a handful of
these scenarios don't appear to be happening consensually between all the people
involved, so that's not great. And for one reason or another, Joe Shuster didn't even
want his name attached to this artwork. Nobody knew that he drew
these at all until Craig Yoe, the author of this book,
discovered these magazines in 1989 and instantly knew the linework
was by Joe Shuster's hand. You could still tell, however, that Joe was really
only comfortable drawing just a handful of people. A lot of his male characters
in these scenarios looked a lot like Superman or Lex
Luthor or even Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy, no, don't do drugs! I was saving those! But nearly all of
Shuster's female characters in this magazine looked like
carbon copies of Lois Lane. Some people believe that
this was Joe Shuster's way of secretly getting back at DC Comics for taking his characters, right? Like, he'd draw someone who
looks eerily like Superman in a compromising position
as a little joke to himself. The Man of Tomorrow? More like, The Man
Who'll Be Sore Tomorrow! But Tim Hanley believes that
the overwhelming fixation on Lois Lane more than any
other character ties back to her real-life visual inspiration, Joe Shuster's unrequited
love for Jolan Kovacs, the woman he could never get over. If only I knew what that
little guy was thinking. Joe Shuster died, as far
as I know, single, in 1992, which was the same year I was born. A life for a life, Joe. (slurping tea) I have a confession to make. I have been trying to
make this video for years. Every Valentine's Day, I always circle back to this video idea, but for one reason or another, I've never done it until right now. And to be honest, I'm glad
that it took me this long. If I made this video back
when I was in college, I would have ended the video
just a couple moments ago where I talked about how Joe
Shuster died being single. I would have said, "Oh,
isn't it heartbreaking "that Joe Shuster never got to be "with the woman that he longed for? "Isn't it awful that his
friend stole the girl "that he pined over?" But, it's only a tragic,
heartbreaking story if you look at it only
from Joe's perspective. And to be honest, that's the perspective I would have fixated on years ago because that's the situation
I always found myself in. I mean, I looked like this back then. Of course I wasn't hooking
up with my crushes. Some of them were
already in relationships, but I had friends who nudged
me to try and date them anyway. Thankfully, I had better
friends who told me, "Hey, maybe don't do that." You gotta think about it from the other person's
perspective, right? If I were to try and pursue someone who was already in a happy,
committed relationship with someone else, then
I would be the asshole. If someone were to try
and flirt with Emily, then, well, that's actually
not a great example because people do flirt with Emily and I think it's really
funny and I encourage her to flirt back and try to
get free drinks out of it. But we're drifting from the point. Something that made Superman stand apart from the other proto-superheroes
in newspaper comic strips was that when he wasn't fighting crime, he donned a disguise as a meek Clark Kent. Clark wasn't as bold
or daring as Superman. He even wore glasses that obscured the way
that people viewed him, obscured his true self from the world. And no doubt this is how two nerdy boys from Cleveland felt about themselves. Yes, they look like dorks on
the outside to some people, I think they're actually very handsome, but their own personal Lois Lanes would be way more attracted to
them if only they knew that underneath it all,
they were actually cool, like Superman. But their crushes never
gave them a fair chance, so obviously we hate them
and they should feel bad. If it's not obvious, this
is a really unhealthy way of viewing relationships in
general and women in particular. I mean, imagine the story of
Joe Shuster and Jolan Kovacs from Jolan's perspective. A good friend invited
her out to a nice party where she reconnected with a charming guy who swept her off her feet and
became the love of her life. I think it's easy to see a
story about a love triangle and focus on the one person
who walked away unhappy, but don't lose sight of the two people who found lifelong love. Don't make them out to be the bad guys. Tim Hanley, again,
thanks for the info, Tim, framed this entire
story around Joe Shuster and that's why I did too for this video. But, I mean, why? This book isn't a
biography of Joe Shuster. It's a history and analysis
of the character Lois Lane. Now I get if you want to focus this story around one of Superman's co-creators, but why wasn't this story written about from Jerry Siegel's perspective? Why not tell the story of
two people finding love rather than one person feeling scorned? Same reason I titled this
video the way that I did. The drama is juicy! Superman's co-creators
fighting over the woman who inspired Lois Lane? It's inherently interesting. And in my original tweet
I sent out back in 2017 about wanting to make this video, I even said that the story
of Lois Lane is the story of Joe Shuster's depressing love life. No, it's not. But aside from the problem
of only seeing this scenario through Shuster's eyes
and feeling bad for him for getting friendzoned, you know, a concept that doesn't exist because nobody owes you a relationship for being nice to them,
there's also the little detail of how Joe Shuster's unrequited love for Jolan Kovacs could
totally be hyperbolized or even entirely made up. (onion thuds) Oh, I get it now! You see, onions, they're like ogres. They taste bad raw. No, they have layers. Just like this story has tons
of layers of assumptions. So to start, did Joe Shuster
stop speaking with Jerry Siegel because Jerry married his crush, or were there other factors at play? The two of them had just gone through a huge lawsuit together. Maybe that stirred up
some strong emotions. They had also launched a
new project called Funnyman that flopped hard,
implying that the success of Superman may have been a one-off fluke, not the result of their combined talent. That probably hurt their
friendship a little bit. Heck, we don't even know
if Joe invited Jolan to the cartoonist's
ball as a romantic date or just as a friendly companion. It's fully possible that he was happy seeing
Kovacs leave with Siegel, as the two clearly made a great pairing. And that probably made
returning the rental gown a lot less awkward. Also why are we assuming that just because Joe Shuster
didn't find long-term marriage that he was unhappy? Some people don't want romantic
or sexual relationships. Shoutout to my ace fans! Heck, sometimes people in
general don't want marriage or kids. Even more heck, it's
possible that Joe Shuster was just a super private person and didn't disclose his
personal relationships with folks in his later years. I'm never going to tell
you when I'm married or if I have kids. Maybe I already am married. Maybe I already have kids. A whole bunch of them like the parents from
"Cheaper by the Dozen" who can't stop touching each other. You ever wonder why it takes
me months to work on videos? It's because I have
ADHD and no one told me. According to Joe Shuster's sister, Joe was actually a short king who was constantly dating
tall, beautiful models throughout his life. He even did get married, albeit for just a brief period of time, to a showgirl from Las Vegas. So it's just weird to
me to tell this story as if his last date with
Jolan Kovacs was the last time he ever could have possibly
found love and he didn't and he's been tormented by it ever since until the day that he died. If you've peeled back
the layers of this story, the only thing that should
really bring a tear to your eye is the fact you've been messing
with an onion for this long. Yes, Siegel and Shuster did
stop talking for like 25 years but at the end of their
lives, all three of them, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Jolan Kovacs, they were all friends. I guess my overall point that
I'm trying to make here is that Valentine's Day can bring
out a lot of good feelings in people, and a lot of
cynical feelings in others. I think we can all kinda relate to this. It's almost like a perfect
analogy for Valentine's Day. You have Starfox, who's like
one of those annoying people in a couple who can't stop
talking about love or whatever and then Hulk is like
not having any of it, doesn't really care about Valentine's Day, wants everyone to shut up about it. I mean, this is only the
third year of my entire life that I've ever celebrated Valentine's Day with another person. And the other two years
were with the same person. It's the other two years
that we've been dating. Or maybe we're married, you don't know. But I think telling the
story of Jolan Kovacs from the sole perspective of Joe Shuster, or telling the story of Lois Amster from the sole perspective of Jerry Siegel just feels unnecessarily bitter to me. So, I lied to you at
the start of this video. I said that the story behind the creation of Lois Lane is filled not with love, but with tragedy and heartbreak. But the truth is, the tragedy and heartbreak
are merely hypothetical. The love in this story, however, the romance and lifelong
friendships, that was very real. Happy Day to you all! (upbeat music) Oh, also, if you were
wondering what happened to "Nights of Horror",
the fetish magazine, white supremacy ruined it. And violent classism. And Nazis, because of course. And Fredric Wertham, yeah, threw his hat into
the ring as well, why not? But all of that is a
story for another time. Perhaps my next Valentine's Day video. See you in eight years! However, that video, and
potentially even this video, could get demonetized on YouTube, which is why my creator
friends and I teamed up to create our very own platform where we don't have to
worry about algorithms or demonetization. It's called Nebula and we're thrilled to be
partnering with CuriosityStream. Hi, I've somehow fallen into a volcano and Nebula is a place where
creators are actually allowed to be creative, posting
our videos ad-free, sometimes extended
versions with more content, and experimenting with different topics and video formats that
might not work on YouTube. Nebula has tons of YouTube's
top educational creators, my favorites like Legal Eagle,
Patrick Willems, SarahZ, NandoVMovies, Laura Crone,
and genuinely so many more. Including me. Look, I'm on there right now! What does this have to
do with CuriosityStream? Well, since CuriosityStream
is the number one place for thousands of documentaries and nonfiction titles on the internet, they obviously love educational content and supporting educational creators. So we worked out a deal where you if you sign
up with the link below, not only do you get
access to CuriosityStream, but you'll also get Nebula for free. Not a free trial, you dunce. You will get all of Nebula for free as long as you're a
CuriosityStream member. I'm sorry I called you
a dunce, that was mean. For you wonderful nerds, CuriosityStream is offering a discount of 26% off of their annual plan. That is less than $15 a year for both CuriosityStream and Nebula. It's simply the best deal in streaming for any curious learner. If you liked this video, for instance, talking about the history and inspirations behind art and artists,
there's a great docuseries on CuriosityStream called
"Behind The Artist", which takes a deeper
look at iconic artists like Roy Lichtenstein's pop-art inspired by American comic books. You like comic books. So click or tap the link below today to get both CuriosityStream and Nebula for just $14.79 per year, that is 26% off. Once again, click the
link in the description or go to CuriosityStream.com/NerdSync. Clicking that link really
does help out my channel, and allows me to make videos like this. If you're new here, these are the kinds of
videos that I like to make. Sometimes we learn a
little bit about the world. Sometimes we learn a
little bit about ourselves. And if that sounds good to you, then please subscribe and
turn on the notifications. I promise I don't post a lot. My fans can assure you of that. If you're feeling extra generous, please support me on Patreon. I would love to hit
1,000 patrons this year with names like A Filthy
Casual, Aaron Young, Amanda Trisdale, BKBW, C. McCartney Smith, Cristoffer Lange,
DeCassowary, Edwin Latorre, Eric Ketchum, Eric Tortora
Pato, Everett Parrott, Jacob Rundell, Jonathan and Megan Pierson, Jonathan Lonowski, Maher Saadaldeen, Miresa Wilson, Pete Temple, SilvahDonut, and the rest of the wonderful
nerds who support me over at Patreon.com/NerdSync. Link is in the description. Please watch more of my
videos if you have time. Thank you very much. Once again, my name is Scott, reminding you to explore your favorite art through curiosity and vulnerability. See ya. (upbeat music)
