This is the second or third time I’ve seen that site linked here. Are these for real? I’m not a comic book aficianado by any stretch of the imagination.
Yes, they’re real, although in many of the cases the cover is a shocker meant to sell the book rather than an accurate depiction of the contents within.
Wow. Thanks for the explanation.
Damn. Just…Damn.
Was Crack given to Comic book writers back then as part of their pay?
Nope, it was just their editor’s way of making them suffer. The idea being that you knew Supes wasn’t a dick, so you had to pick up the magazine to find out what was going on. The editor’s would come up with the cover first and then force the writers to figure out what the hell was going on.
Did the link change or something? What was so offensive about it?
Oooh, there’s more than one page.
Okay, it makes sense now.
We were at war with Japan at the time. “Slapping” them is putting it mildly (and “Jap” was standard on the front page headlines of most newspapers).
Although the Fleischer Bros. created some of the best animated shorts ever in their Superman films, the crew that continued the series with such installments as Japoteurs and Eleventh Hour had a difficult time not pandering to the more offensive sensibilities of the post-Pearl Harbor years.
You can watch Eleventh Hour on the Internet; given that we were at war with Japan, it’s not all that offensive.
Link no longer goes to the pic the OP thinks he has linked to.
“Jap” was also in use in ads at the time.
I’ll give you that (going from memory) they don’t resort to the worst type of caricaturing that other animated pieces from the time did, but there’s still something a little strange about Supes essentially being a terrorist (even if it’s for the Allies).
Racial slurs aside, I like this Supes much better than the wussy goody two-shoes I’m used to seeing. . . 
I have a DVD around somewhere with a number of these Superman animated shorts. This one in question bothered me, and not for the racial overtones of some of the others, or for Superman being a terrorist. In it, Superman ruins ships in a Japanese drydock, and sabotages other work.
But he’s freakin’ SUPERMAN. Why’s he messing around in secret instead of, you know, raising the flag atop Mt Suribachi?
A saboteur. He’s going after military targets and manufacturing plants. A terrorist targets people; a saboteur targets machinery.
Yes, fair enough. Completely passable in the historical context but still a bit alien to the TJ&TAW guy I’m used to.