The AFU and Urban Legend Archive Misc imitating superman Select a topic - - - - - - - - Home Searches AFU FAQ - - - - - - - - AFU Animals Books Celebrities Classic Collegiate Death Disney Drugs Food GIF Language Legal Medical Misc Movies Politics Products Religion Science Sex Songs TV - - - - - - - - Other sites

From: meltdown@u.washington.edu (Ulo Melton)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Boy trying to fly "like Superman" redux
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 07:38:56 GMT

Simon Slavin gave us a good one:

>From time to time in this group I've seen mention of a UL about
>a small boy trying to fly. The UL usually records the boy as
>wrapping some sort of cloth around himself in imitation of
>Superman's cloak and jumping off of a roof or out of a window.
>Such stories generally end in immature-male-zygote/ground impact
>events involving a broken limb or knocked-out teeth.

[here there be snippage]

>Dr. Wertham published a book sometime around 1950 called
>_Seduction of the Innocent_ which set out to demonstrate the
>unredeemable vileness of comic books.

An understatement. From a quick scan, it looks like the _Reefer Madness_ of comics.

># Perhaps his most famous finding was that Batman was having
># a homosexual relationship with his sidekick Robin.
># [...]
># he claimed that delinquents took their ideas from crime
># comics, that a girl who exposed herself sexually to men did
># so because of the comics she read, and that a boy who had
># leapt from a roof was trying to fly "like Superman".

>It may be that Wertham's book is the origin of the UL.
>Does anyone have a copy of Dr. Wertham's book or more details
>about the 'flying boy' case study ?

I don't have a copy on the shelves at home, but, since I love nothing better than a vintage vector, it was worth a quick trip to the library. Here you go:

In California a very handsome six-year-old boy on his way home from school one day trudged to the top of a steep cliff. An ardent comic-book reader, he had translated his reading into practice and made for himself a flying cape or magic cloak. Taking a brisk run he jumped off the cliff to fly as his comic-book heroes did. Seriously injured, he told his mother, "Mama, I almost did fly!" A few days later he died from the injuries he had received. [1]

I've no idea how long (or even if) the story was circulating before Wertham published it, but I don't doubt his book went a long way toward spreading it.

You'll notice there are no names or dates, and the location is no more specific than "California". But, for those inclined to doubt the story's voracity, we have this author's note:

ONLY THE COMIC-BOOK CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK ARE FICTITIOUS. ALL THE OTHERS ARE REAL.

Ulo "what more do you _want_?" Melton

[1] _Seduction of the Innocent_, by Frederic Wertham. Copyright 1953, 1954. Library of Congress Number 54-5890. (Title page note: "Part of the marterial in this book appeared in somewhat different form in the _Ladies' Home Journal_ under the title of 'What Parents Don't Know About Comic Books.'")