One of the men responsible for helping to create the superhero genre as we know it would have turned 100 this week: Jerry Siegel. Born on October 17, 1914, Siegel was just a teenager when he thought up the idea of “The Superman” with his friend Joe Shuster. Though he passed away in 1996 at the age of 81, Siegel left behind some of the most influential comic book work of all time.

The original idea of “The Superman” was a band, telepathic villain – a far cry from the Superman character came to be known as. This character appeared in a short story called “The Reign of the Superman” that ran in Science Fiction, a fanzine that Siegel published in 1933. After coming up with the Kryptonian hero, Siegel and Shuster proposed the story to National Allied Publications, the precursor to DC Comics, and editor Vin Sullivan chose it for the cover of Action Comics #1.

Following the overwhelming success of Superman, Siegel later worked for Marvel Comics, Archie Comics and others under various pseudonyms. Shortly before his death he was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame.