No Better Cause

This is one of the drawings that I bought from Gil Kane himself, at the time he was creating a lot of Superman material for DC. It's an iconic pose, with iconic power auras like Kane was prone to draw at the time. This and some other stuff I've been hoarding for years is coming up for auction at Heritage Auctions. I'm loathe to let them go, but I have no better cause than to help our daughter to continue her college education.

Gil Kane — Superman — 1980s

K-Reek

These two images tumbled out together from a partial spill of my image morgue — a splendid example of my little world laughing at itself.

 Curt Swan —Superman — 1970s

Robert Crumb — self-portrait — 1989

Underground World

This is gorgeous art deco storyboard art for one of the animated Superman films of the '40s. If comics could be illustrated this way, I think comic books would make their way to more people. In fact, really, why not comic books that are more 'illustrated' than 'cartooned'?

I love that throne!

Animation story board art — The Underground World — 1943

Check Out What You've Been Missing

Remember when Superman was a fairly light-hearted guy? I haven't seen the reboot, maybe he's a jolly old soul these days? I miss the late silver, early bronze Man of Steel.

Gil Kane — DC house ad

Difficult and Dangerous Times

Also in days gone by, Clark Kent, bless his heart, wasn't too concerned in his editorial about separation of church and state and comic books.

1940s

Ten Cent Adventure

Speaking of Superman, and the golden age, this is one of my favorite of his covers, especially of recent years. You never saw anything quite this dynamic in the golden age, yet it is fully evocative of those years. I think because the design is reminiscent of those great Fleischer animated shorts of the '40s and the stark logotype evokes a NY World's Fair Deco style. If more modern comics were like this, I'd be buying more modern comics.

Scott McDaniel/Andy Owens

Superman-The Ten Cent Adventure — 2003

So Much Fun!

The Golden Age of Comics is so much fun to look at, and this item is icing on the cake. The 1942 novelization of Superman by George Lowther helped to solidify the legend, including a description of Krypton in detail, re-naming Kal's parents as Jor-el and Lara (previously Jor-L and Lora) and so forth.

The illustrations are golden, by Joe Shuster—the original Superman artist, showing depth and vitality. The paintings are vibrant and the sketches are beautiful gesture drawings, full of spontaneous action. This book is just so much fun to look at!

Joe Shuster — illustrator throughout

Jor-el placed his infant son into the model of the Space Ship.

The steel bullet went hurtling into space

The anvil in his hand was like a feather.

Superman brought the old man to the surface.

Leering down at Kent were skeleton faces of a skeleton crew.

Superman caught the white-hot shell in his bare hands.

Superman felt the steel-like muscles of his shoulder

sink into the metal.

Superman forced his shoulders between the twin propellers.

Speed and power were behind the fist that landed

on the skeleton's jaw.

Then Superman saw the convoy.

Cerebral Quality

I like the cerebral quality of this cover (no punching), the very cool chair and the huge monitor—before its time.

Garcia Lopez/Dick Giordano — Superman #391 — January 1984

Nembo Kid

Super stuff from 1962 . . .

From the Ah, If Only Dept.

These 2 pages, drawn by Curt Swan, helped usher the Silver Age of DC into the Bronze Age. There's a lot of nostalgia for Gold and Silver Ages, but a lot of that stuff was pretty lame and silly. The Bronze Age of the super heroes was pretty good stuff, still a little silly, but not so obviously.

Ah, if only I could go back to '71, the things I'd do differently. For one thing I would appreciate that time more than I did the first time around. Also I'd spend a little more dough, collecting stuff—and hanging on to it!

Bust of Schwartz

"Superheroes contemplating a bust of Schwartz",

as carved by Joe Kubert.

(original caption)

BlackBriar Thorn

After the golden age, Joe Kubert rarely did superhero stories (other than Hawkman, and even those were few). So it was a treat to see him take on Superman, even though his rendering of the Man of Steel probably didn't fit the proscribed DC standard—but who could complain . . . it was Kubert!