#i love jackson guice's lois art

[sisaloofafump]

The early days of Lois’ spelling difficulties/dyslexia.

A semi-prominent characterization of Lois Lane today is her difficulty spelling. There were sparks of it in 1940 radio show—though not as a character trait and more as an occasional plot device (examples below). In the mid 90s, it began to take root in the ways we actually see it today. The first appearance I noticed is the above in The Adventures of Superman #458 from 1989 and written by George Pérez (plot) & Dan Jurgens (words & pencils). It doesn’t become a particularly common trope immediately after that, but it very slowly catches on. It’s most often used in scenes to show the humanity, flaws, and mundanity of her work in the Planet.

Action Comics #704 and #708 by David Michelinie (writer), Jackson Guice (pencils), Denis Rodier (inks), Albert De Guzman & Bill Oakley (letters) and Glenn Whitmore (colours)

The spelling difficulties are use to humanize her, but also to provide filler content. The majority of the comics' pages are dedicated to events that will later be written up by Lois and/or Clark, rather the actual writing process. Similarly, Daily Planet itself is more often shown as a place for conversation rather than work. Having Lois question her spelling (or have others provide feedback) gives insight into the actual day-to-day work—consistently alluding to other projects and workings that don't take centre stage. Plus, it shows the process, rather than just telling us the end result. For contrast, Clark is apparently an accomplished novelist in this era, but we never see him writing or thinking about it. We only learn that a book has been published during one background scene in a store.

-------

As promised, here are some examples from the Golden Age. You can see how even though Lois is asking for spelling help, it's not necessarily because she typically has issues spelling. In the first one, her guess is even right!

Even though she did have the correct spelling, she wasn't confident in it. That hesitation ended up saving her life.

Here's another example of her asking for spelling help, but not because she needs it! She's just easing Clark. I included the full scene here because football fan!Lois is eternal and I love their dynamic.