Superman: Wow, Clark Kent Sure Has Won a Lot of Awards!

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Aug 12, 2019

In their latest look at recurring plot points, CSBG spotlights a number of reporting awards that Clark Kent has won over the years.

In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.

Today, we celebrate one of the greatest unethical journalists in comics! Clark Kent, the guy who reports on stories about himself, has received a number of awards over the years. Here are five of them!

Trophy for Prize Reporting

In Superman #64 (by Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye), the story is kicked off by Clark Kent and Lois Lane both winning the trophy for prize reporting. The award also gives them honorary professorships for a semester...

Of course, hilarity then ensued.

The Reporters Award

In Action Comics #193 (by Al Plastino and an unknown writer), Superman gains the Midas touch and it causes all sorts of problems, especially since he has transformed Clark Kent's typewriter into gold and how could that be if the only person in that room was Clark Kent and, you know, not Superman? Lois Lane sure wants to know...

Luckily for Clark, he actually won the Reporters Award, which just happens to be a Golden Typewriter!

So he was able to convince Lois that that was why his typewriter turned to gold!

Reporter of the Year

In Action Comics #250 (by Bill Finger, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye), Clark Kent wins the Reporter of the Year, which makes him a minor celebrity...

However, that newfound celebrity leads to a reporter trying to take Clark down by proving that he is Superman!

The National Publishers Award

In Superman #171 (by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan and George Klein), Clark is under a Mxyzptlk spell that makes all figures of speech that Clark uses become actual literal, so when Clark mentions that he is walking on air after winning the award, he literally begins to walk on air...

So the story is all about him getting through those wacky scenarios.

The Superman Award

Finally, in Action Comics #367 (by Otto Binder, Curt Swan and George Klein), Clark Kent wins the Superman Award!

It's TECHNICALLY not a reporting award, but he won it FOR his reporting, so I think it counts. The trick, then, is how to get "Clark Kent" there to accept the award from Superman...