HAPPY SUPERMAN DAY!

 

HAPPY SUPERMAN DAY!

I love Superman. Plain and simple. And this is a day when we celebrate all things Superman and my way of celebrating is to share my 10 favorite Superman comics-related images.

This image is by artist Frank Quitely from ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #1

This image is by Alex Ross and was used as an extra piece of art included in the KINGDOM COME collected edtion by Graffiti Designs.

This piece is by Berni(e) Wrightson and was included with color in SUPERMAN #400 in 1984. The black-and-white plate shown here was part of an 11”x17” portfolio that was released to coincide with SUPERMAN #400 celebration and included 17 plates each by a different artists.

This piece by George Pérez was created as part of the Superman 50th Anniversary celebration. It was a limited run of 2500 signed and numbered 18”x24” prints. My copy, scanned here, is one of the 125 signed and numbered “Artist Proof” editions.

This 1985 cover by George Pérez is one of the single most iconic cover images ever and fully captures the utter and total grief of Superman over the loss of his last living relative from the planet Krypton.

This is believed to be the very first painting ever done of Superman c. 1941 and is by artist H.J. Ward. Commissioned by Superman’s publisher at the time, Harry Donenfeld, it hung in his office for years afterwards.

Cover credit for this on the DC database is Bob Oksner. It really looks to me like a Curt Swan & Bob Oksner collaboration, but I’ll concede to the website’s credit on this. Maybe Swan gave Oksner a loose layout or something.

This one is definitely a Curt Swan & Bob Oksner collaboration. Most people prefer Murphy Anderson’s inks with Swan but I’m one who prefers Oksner.

This is my favorite single drawing of Superman done by John Byrne. This one was inked by the great Terry Austin and was included in THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE back in 1980, a full 6 years before he took on the MAN OF STEEL reboot of Superman for DC Comics.

And finally, this ACTION COMICS #485 cover from 1978 by Neal Adams which reprinted SUPERMAN #233 from 1971. The original iconic Adams cover was way less dynamic than this new one.

This is an honorable mention. Alex Ross painted an imaginary picture here in which the George Reeves Superman form the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN TV series of the 1950s comes face to face with Christopher Reeve’s SUPERMAN from 1978.

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