Model, Folk Figure. Born Jolan Kovacs, she was the inspiration for the character of Lois Lane in the original "Superman" comics. As a teenager in the late 1930's, she answered an ad for an "artist's model". She met "Superman" creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, who explained the Lois Lane character to her and sketched her likeness. A decade later, they met Jolan again in New York, where she was working as an artist's model under the name Joanne Carter. She took the name Joanne Siegel after she married Jerry Siegel in 1948. After "Superman: The Movie" was released in 1978, DC Comics gave both Siegel and Shuster lifelong stipends. Following the death of Jerry Siegel in 1996, the remaining Superman heirs filed for partial ownership of the character. Much of her life was devoted to trying to reclaim the original Superman copyright that Shuster and her husband sold to Detective Comics in 1937. In 2008, a federal judge restored Siegel's co-authorship share of the original Superman copyrights. The amount of money due to the Siegel family was still being adjudicated at the time of Mrs. Siegel's death.
Model, Folk Figure. Born Jolan Kovacs, she was the inspiration for the character of Lois Lane in the original "Superman" comics. As a teenager in the late 1930's, she answered an ad for an "artist's model". She met "Superman" creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, who explained the Lois Lane character to her and sketched her likeness. A decade later, they met Jolan again in New York, where she was working as an artist's model under the name Joanne Carter. She took the name Joanne Siegel after she married Jerry Siegel in 1948. After "Superman: The Movie" was released in 1978, DC Comics gave both Siegel and Shuster lifelong stipends. Following the death of Jerry Siegel in 1996, the remaining Superman heirs filed for partial ownership of the character. Much of her life was devoted to trying to reclaim the original Superman copyright that Shuster and her husband sold to Detective Comics in 1937. In 2008, a federal judge restored Siegel's co-authorship share of the original Superman copyrights. The amount of money due to the Siegel family was still being adjudicated at the time of Mrs. Siegel's death.
Bio by: Robert Patterson
Family Members
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