Ah, superheroes on a rooftop. Perched on a gargoyle… or other ornamental edifice. At night. In the rain. Or snow. I promise an entire post on the subject in the future.
In the meantime, we have this great cover by Will Conrad, who most definitely has a penchant for rain-soaked superheroes. Terrific mood and detail, some of which is obscured by the coloring of the published cover. (See below.)
Spidey takes a cue from his pal Captain America and shatters some (a lot, actually) glass in this dynamic splash from Steve McNiven.
It’s from the second issue of the Brand New Day storyline, the controversial reboot in which the world has forgotten Spidey’s secret identity, and he himself has forgotten his marriage to MJ. Following the Mephisto-led events of “One More Day.”
Of course, some version of this storyline is now destined for the MCU — and, as noted previously, I still think Mephisto (or Nightmare) is secretly behind much of the events of Spidey 3, Doctor Strange 2 and the Vision and Scarlett Witch TV series.
Apparently, I’m determined to stick with that crazy idea until at least phase 7.
Here’s a key splash page from Marvel’s Civil War. Captain America has convinced Peter that the resistance is on the “right” side of this epic crossover conflict.
When the conversation is over in this tie-in , Garney treats us to an epic splash of Spidey swinging into action.
Cynthia Martin flashes back to the first appearance of the Vulture form Amazing Spider-Man #2 with with this great opening splash page from 1988.
This August of course is a big milestone for everyone’s favor web slinger. He turns 60 this month with the anniversary of his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15.
We previously celebrated this anniversary with some great Spider-Man pages, and coming up are a few more to add into the mix to round out the month of August.
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.)
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.
Pete hand colors copies of his original art, and those color guides are then handed off to the digital colorist who completes the work for publication.Meanwhile, over in the comics, Superman reminds us to read all his adventures.
