SDCC — 2022! (Part 2)
SDCC — 2022! (Part 1)
So good to see San Diego Comic Con as close to a “regular” event as possible…It’s been much too long!
Part two tomorrow!
J.H. Williams III — I Knew Him When
Son of Superman (Graphic Novel), January 2000
Here’s a beautiful Superman page by the super-talented J.H. Williams, inked by his long-time collaborator Mick Gray. It’s an “Elseworlds” (imaginary, out of continuity) story when DC still published those.
Original art pages are artifacts of course, and fortunately, and this one relies on traditional inking methods, lettering and sound effects as opposed to digital enhancements to provide the final result.
I love Williams’ note to Gray in the top margin, explaining how he envisions the final look of the page. (It’s interesting that the colorist chose to reduce the dynamic splash effect in the water in the second panel. To each his own, I guess.)
Thaboom indeed!
Pete Poplaski — Atomic Age
Superman — Atomic Age Sundays Volume 3, December 2017
As described in a earlier post, Pete provided all the terrific covers for our DC superhero strip reprints for The Library of American Comics.
Pictured is a typical great example where Pete emulates legendary artist Wayne Boring — with some Curt Swan thrown in for good measure.
Oversized — and beautiful.
Fun Facts: (From the marketing copy):
Written by Alvin Schwartz and Bill FInger and Illustrated by Wayne Boring
The Man of Steel stars in thirteen classic adventures as the 1950s “Atomic Age” comes to a close. Some of the stories are original to the newspaper strip, while others were alternate versions of tales that were simultaneously published in the regular comic books. One of the featured adaptations is “Superman Versus the Futuremen,” written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger, which retells Superman’s origin. This concluding volume of Superman’s Atomic Age Sundays reprints all strips July 1, 1956 to October 11, 1959.
Wayne Boring — Final Milestone
Superman #200, October 1967
This art is from Wayne Boring’s final new story for DC comics for more than 20 years.
Boring, one of Superman’s truly legendary artists, was part of a group of creators that asked for pay rate increases, benefits and other employment improvements. So, naturally, DC fired them all.
It’s an oddball imaginary story with the end spoiler right there on the (Curt Swan) cover for kids like me to see. I had only been reading Superman comics for a short while, but I knew his Kryptonian origin by heart from TV and other media. So, I was intrigued by this alternative vision of The Superman legend.
I acquired this page whenI first started collecting art again about 15 years ago, and I haven’t seen one since.
Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson — Superman In Space
Action Comics #407, December 1971
I rarely get into bidding wars over a specific piece of art. As a well-know art dealer intones: “There’s always more art.”
This time, though, I got carried away.
Superman in space. Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. Superman in every panel. A title page. An original Superman logo. And my peak era of buying comics from newsstands (late Silver Age, early Bronze age) without the benefit of comics conventions.
That is a lot of checkboxes. So, like I said, I got carried away.
Overpaid — but worth it.
Plus — and I love this — it has a Looney Tunes type joke in the monolugue. He made a wrong left turn a million miles ago? Seriously?
John Byrne — Look up…
Action #592, September 1987
John Byrne provides a terrific page from about the halfway point in his re-boot run of Superman.
(And no mainstream character was more in need of a reboot in the mid-80s than Superman.)
John of course provided nearly everything here: Story, script, pencils and inks. Keith Williams adds the background inks on buildings and such.
Byrne? Superman in every panel? That’s a keeper.
Steve Rude — Holding Things Up
Superman Commission, 1988
One part Joe Shuster. One part Alex Toth. One part Jack Kirby.
All parts Steve Rude.
And I can’t (or won’t) get flowery about a classic Superman image — from the era when “The Dude” first started working with mainstream publishers. (World’s Finest)
Simply a classic. Period.
See you next week with our continuing summer tribute to the Man of Steel.
Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund— Infinite Supermen
Countdown #40, September 2007
Dan Jurgens drawing Superman? Excellent.
Dan Jurgens drawing seven different Supermen on one splash page? Absolutely terrific.
I’ve lost the thread on the DC multiverse. Is it infinite these days or finite? Do all versions exist simultaneously, or at different points in the timeline?
It doesn’t really matter. As a long-ago former CEO of mine would say, this kind of pondering can make you reach for the Excedrin.
(And, trust me on this, he had the largest bottle of Excedrin I’ve have seen to this day. It must have been a special order. But, as always, we digress.)
Fun fact: In Dan’s and inker Norm Rapmund’s original art, the Superman just to the left of “our” Superman, looks a bit like Jimmy Olsen to me. The coloring clearly modified the face in the published version.
Chris Sprouse & Karl Story — Truth, Justice And…
Adventures of Superman #7, January 2014
….Happy Independence Day!
DC changed “The American Way” tagline a while ago, and I get that. Superman, more than 80 years after his debut, is an an international icon.
But Superman, like July 4th and summer, will always go together in my mind — I’m pretty sure some silver age Superman comics are the first ones I ever read with the help of my Aunt at the age of five on a July 4th family vacation. And the rest, as they say (ad nauseam, actually), is history.
This iconic Superman image is a “blue-line”: Karl inked the a scan of Chris’ pencils to save some time as deadline rapidly approached. (The print schedule is more powerful than a locomotive OR Superman. Trust me on this.) And I absolutely don’t care. It’s the printed cover, and, like I said, iconic.
More Superman posts during July. Stay tuned.
