The K-Metal from Krypton or What’s in a Name?

When Jerry Siegel wrote his K-Metal story in 1940, he did not give it a title. Each page of surviving artwork is merely labeled “Superman” across the top, in pencil.

When we started our reconstruction efforts back in 2003, we gave the story the name, “The SECRET of the K-METAL“:

A couple of years into the project, I happened to come across and read the 2005 book, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book.  In it, the name “K-Metal from Krypton” is assigned to the story and in good faith we adopted it, replacing our own name.

But in expanding that original and restored 1940 K-Metal comic book with the addition of
a prequel and a sequel, forming a complete epic trilogy, it then became necessary to name that trilogy.

In 1980, when George Lucas released The Empire Strikes Back (the sequel to his 1977 film Star Wars), “Star Wars” was removed as the name of the first film and instead became the name of the entire series of movies.  That first film, formerly “Star Wars,” was retroactively renamed “A New Hope” and given an episode number: IV.  Star Wars now being Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

In the tradition of this approach, we have reverted our story formerly known as “The K-Metal from Krypton” back to our historically inspired, original name, "The Secret of the K-Metal" and given it an episode number: Two.  “The K-Metal from Krypton!” now being "The K-Metal from Krypton Part Two: The Secret of the K-Metal"

The name “The K-Metal from Krypton” we now use for our entire trilogy (and possible continuing series past that, although we make no promises at this point.)

The terms "K-Metal" and "The Secret of the K-Metal" first appear in the novella, The Copper-Clad World, by Harl Vincent.  Published in the September, 1931 issue of Astounding Stories magazine, this outer-space adventure focuses on a “mysterious energizing metal” of unknown origin, and takes place on a copper-clad world; colored green due to the plethora of oxidized copper.  The destruction of this green world is the result of an insidious plot involving the K-Metal.

There is only one survivor of this world’s doom, who escapes to the planet Earth.

Jerry Siegel was about to turn 17 years old when this issue was published, and it is entirely possible he read it while in high school and it was one of the many influences in his creation of the K-Metal from Krypton.