All Star Superman

 I still consider this a "newer" comic book series - even though we are rapidly approaching its 20th anniversary!  This series was an instant classic and won multiple Eisner awards including Best New Series.  Written by Grant Morrison, with art by Frank Quitely, the series harkened back to Superman's Golden Age.  There was an overarching story arc, but each issue was distinctly different and a lot of fun.  I bought a page early on - right after it was published (see here), but sold it way too soon.  I was so happy to finally find a replacement (wasn't happy about the new prices!).  Anyway, this is a great page and it features just about the entire cast - Superman, Lois, Jimmy Olson, Perry, Cat Grant, and blowhard Steve Lombard.  Unlike most comic books, these pages were done in pencil only by Quitely.  It's really hard to scan these but the art is just amazing!  (click for larger image)

World's Finest 263

(click for larger image)  Once upon a time in comics, writers and editors created alluring covers to entice readers into buying each comic book.  The covers typically depicted a scene within the book - a scene that was usually outrageous, shocking, or unbelievable.  Sometimes it appeared the heroes faced an impossible doom. Sometimes it even implied that a hero would die!  The potential reader couldn't help but think "I need to see how this turns out!"  In fact, it was common knowledge that some of these outlandish covers were created first, and the writer was simply told to write a story around it.  This system resulted in a lot of interesting and unbelievable ideas.  But it was also a lot of fun.  Unless of course the scene depicted on the cover never actually happened in the book, which was sometimes the case.  Or, it was tweaked slightly within the story giving the heroes an out.  In those cases, the reader faced bitter disappointment.

This system lasted for decades, but began to decline in the early 1990's.  The new trend was to have covers that were more vague, and more iconic.  The covers rarely had anything to do with the actual story and one felt that the covers became interchangeable - any Superman cover could be swapped with any other Superman cover and it wouldn't affect the story a bit.  This new method is what we have today; long gone are the days of those eye catching covers with their impossible dilemma's.  Instead we have depictions of our heroes looking strong, brave, iconic.

When I first started reading comics, the old system was in place.  It was always fun to see how these stories would resolve themselves.  Well, not always fun - some stories were pretty terrible.  But I read them anyway to satisfy my curiosity.  Another disappointing aspect, which is still with us today, is the fact that the cover artists were not always the artists hired to draw the interiors.  So even if you had a beautifully drawn cover, you might not have a beautifully drawn comic book.  That actually happened a lot.  So these covers were really special to me because they showcased the better artists working at the time.  For DC, that meant people like Neal Adams, Rich Buckler, Ross Andru, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and George Perez.  More often than not, these artists works were greatly improved by the inking of one of DC's all time greats, Dick Giordano.

Even though the stories were not always the greatest, I still have quite a bit of nostalgia for many of the covers from those days.  I was lucky to find a couple of my favorites.  One is the cover to Word's Finest 260 by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano (seen here).  The second is this one, World's Finest 263 by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.  Did you know Batman and Superman had sons?  Neither did I until I picked up this comic!  Too bad their existence meant the world would be doomed! (see, now you'll have to buy the comic to find out what happens!). Or if you want to cheat, click HERE (pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Dick Giordano)

Superman 13 Cover

Anyone who has read my blog knows what a huge fan I am of the comic work of John Byrne.  If it's not already the consensus, he will go down in history as one of the greatest comic creators of all time.  He had phenomenal success with his work on The X-men, Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, She-Hulk, Avengers, and Superman, to name but a few.  It should be noted that Byrne was almost always the writer and penciler on most of these titles (and sometimes inker and letterer!).  I first saw his work in X-Men 123, which my high school art instructor had in his classroom for some reason.  I was blown away by the art.  Not long after, I immersed myself in the world of comic books.  At that point, Byrne was writing and drawing both the Fantastic Four, and his own creation, Alpha Flight.  He instantly became my favorite writer and artist.

When I first started collecting comic art, I wanted Byrne Fantastic Four art above all else (you can read all about my hunt for that stuff here on my blog).  Over the years I was able to acquire some great Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight art.  A few years ago however, I re-read (again) Byrne's Superman run.  Boy was it fun!  I remember vividly when he moved to DC and took over their biggest character.  He did not disappoint.  I quickly decided that I would like a nice Superman cover for my collection.  I'd seen a few change hands, and I knew there were some good ones floating around.  I recalled seeing one cover sell on ebay for what would now be considered a very modest price - I regretted not getting it.  Saw another for sale on a website, but somehow just missed it.  Finally, I was able to find this one.  It's got a great, large shot of Superman on the cover.  When I got it, it didn't have any of the logos so I added them myself.  Typically, I would put the logos on an overlay as to not disturb the original art, but this time I applied them directly to the art.  I think it came out great.  The cover looks twice as good as it did before! (click for larger image)

John Byrne Superman 5 Page

(click for larger image)  Really excited about this one!  Back in 1986 John Byrne was the king of comics.  He had just completed a successful stint on the Fantastic Four over at Marvel Comics, his long-time employer.  He had written and drawn a whopping 60+ consecutive issues on the title!  Not only that, but he also launched his own series, Alpha Flight, through Marvel and both wrote and drew that title as well.  Just as Byrne was finishing up the Fantastic Four, the big brains at DC approached and said they had an idea to "re-boot" their most iconic character - Superman.

Byrne was given a lot of leeway, and like his previous books at Marvel, he would both write and draw the new series.  First up was "Man of Steel", a six-issue limited series that would retell the origin of Krypton's most famous son, as well as "clean up" some of his complex history.  It was a smash success, and slated for follow up were the newly minted Superman book (starting with issue # 1), and a run on the Action Comics title - the birth place of Superman way back in issue # 1 in 1938.  This re-launch met with a lot of "hoopla" and it was all over the news and press at the time.  In 1988, Byrne would even illustrate the Man of Steel for the cover of Time Magazine.

Anyone who has ever read my blog will know of my high regard for both the Fantastic Four series and the Alpha Flight series.  My sole desire as a new collector of original comic art was to acquire a nice example from the Fantastic Four.  I have chronicled my pursuit of these pages both in my blog and in articles during my tenure as a contributor to the CFA-APA (links on right ->).  In the back of my mind, I had also wanted to get a nice Superman example, and actually owned some minor pages which I eventually parted with.

After re-reading Byrne's Superman work recently, I was compelled to finally pick up a nice example.  I don't think I could have done much better than this page.  Not only does it have Clark Kent changing into Superman and flying up from the Daily Planet, but it has a last panel that could be a poster or comic book cover.  Very iconic!  You might be scratching your head and wondering why the stubble - older readers will recall the popularity of the t.v. series Miami Vice.  Everybody had stubble in the late 80's!  The other thing I really like about this page is the inks.  Byrne inking himself is my favorite and I own no other examples.  The only inker who, in my mind, comes close to making Byrne's pencils look the way they are supposed to look is Karl Kesel.  He did a great job on this series.

World's Finest 258 Page

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2010!!

More nostalgia from my early days of comic reading (1979). This was one of the few stories that stood out to me from way back then - likely due to the fact that it was scripted by the great Denny O'Neill. It features two of my favorite DC artists of that time - Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (pencils), and Dick Giordano (inks), and the cover is a classic done by Neal Adams, which depicts the action in panel one (click for larger image)

Morrison - Quitely All Star Superman 07, Page 21

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2010!

For the last few years I've been saying that we're in a second "Golden Age" of comics. The quality of writing and art in many titles is as good or better than anything previously produced in the history of the medium. Some of the standouts have been - The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris, 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, Astonishing X-Men by Josh Whedon and John Cassaday, and Alan Moore's ABC line of comics - Tom Strong (art by Chris Sprouse), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (art by Kevin O'Neill), to name just a few.

My most recent favorite has been Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's new Superman series. Morrison seems to be harkening back to the Man of Steel's Silver Age, where anything could happen in any given issue. And that's the fun of it - no worrying about continuity, and no need to be a Superman historian. You can just jump right in and enjoy the fun. I've taken a strong liking to Quitely's work too. My first exposure to his work didn't really impress me, but after reading this series, I'm finally beginning to see the light (it might help that he's not being inked by anyone - the pencils are scanned directly and colored). I picked up this page at San Diego Comicon in 2008, and I'd love a bunch more! I've added word balloons using Photoshop to make it more readable (click for larger image).

Worlds Finest 260

This piece is the bastard child of my collection. Well, not really, but it is certainly the odd-ball. Most of my collection focuses on my nostalgia for comics from the 1980's. This piece is more like a throwback to the late 70's (even though the issue was released in January 1980), and represents to me, all the great cover artists working for DC at that time. My favorites from that period are Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Rich Buckler, Ross Andru, and Neal Adams. More often than not, these guys were paired with super-inker Dick Giordano, resulting in some classic covers from that period.

The other thing this cover reminds me of, is sitting around with my cousin Frank and discovering, for the first time, the wonderful world of comics. His collection of mostly DC titles was my real first exposure to the medium, and even though the stories from this period aren't significant to me, the art sure left and impression and is probably one of the reasons I became an artist myself. (Pencils by Rich Buckler, inks by Dick Giordano. Click for larger image).