 Siegel and Shuster were, at the time, negotiating a deal with the McClure Newspaper Syndicate for Superman.In early January 1938, Siegel had a three-way telephone conversation with Liebowitz and an employee of McClure named Max Gaines.Gaines informed Siegel that McClure had rejected Superman, and asked if he could forward their Superman strips to Liebowitz so that Liebowitz could consider them for "Action Comics".