Superman's 75th: Cartoon Art Museum Exhibit part 2

Happy Father's Day! Let's continue checking out the Superman Exhibit at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum!

Also I apologize in advance if some of my pictures are too blurry! My daughter was very excited to see the giant Superman mural she would keep bouncing up and down in her baby bjorn when I was there! That and museum lights and reflection off the glass... yada yada yada... Anyway...

I got to see some more Curt Swan Superman art in the exhibit:

Action Comics cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson

 Apparently, the owner of this next piece, David Mendel wrote the 'Bizarro Jerry' episode on Sienfeld as well. That Bizaaro pose always struct me as so odd, but I think that's the whole point!

Superman Cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

Action Comics cover by Neal Adams. I like seeing the pasted up original.

This next one is such a great illustration of the Clark-into-Superman Sequence. I never knew about Cardy until maybe 8 years ago, but I've become a huge fan of his art ever since. His Aquaman stuff was actually what caught my eye first, but I was glad to have been able to see his Superman work.

A Nick Cardy Action Comics cover.

Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson on an Advernture Comics' cover.

I think I am in the minority of missing word balloons on comic book covers. They just seem like a lot of fun. I'll have to make a note of that and try to work it into my future comic book covers.

Neal Adams depicting the battle for the championship of the Universe!

Gil Kane cover for Superman #386.

 SIDEBAR: (This following cover is NOT at the gallery!) I am actually not a Gil Kane fan (gasp!) but I really do respect his work. However, one of my earliest Superman stories was actually drawn by him. It was in Action comics 554 with a story by Marv Wolfman that was a tribute to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Not at the museum, but this issue was one of my first few
Superman comics when I was a kid. This was my first exposure to Gil Kane.
I have absolutely no idea where this issue is now. 

I saw this next cover at the museum, but for some odd reason, I must've forgotten to take a picture of it! Anyhow, I pulled this from the museum's site, and is probably a much better image that what I would've taken anyway!

Great looking Neal Adams cover. Waitaminit! That background is a picture!

Adams actually cut the silhouette out of the cover 's background
then placed his drawing behind the picture. It was neat to see the little
'tricks' artists would do for the art.

A great cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson for part two
of Alan Moore's "Whatever happenned to the man of tomorrow".

That cover above is for the second part of what could be one of the best Superman Stories written (and of course it's from Alan Moore!). Better in my book than All-Star Superman. Yup, that's right Grant Morrison lovers! I just said that!

This next set of art is what really sucked me into the world of Superman. While I've read and already enjoyed Superman prior to his reboot after Crisis at the hands of John Byrne, it's this run that I truly started getting into consistently collecting Superman in a regular fashion. And this time-period (and especially after Byrne) is still one of my favorite Superman runs.

It was probably a mix of me having better access to Superman books in a regular sequential order. See in the Philippines imported comic books that just came out were expensive and sold in specialty shops. But in magazine racks at the local bookstores they were cheaper. But they were usually much older titles and in no particular order. After the Man of Steel launched, shortly after my family moved to Hong Kong and the convenience stores there had a regular monthly supply of Superman and Batman comics (and some marvel books too). So by then I was able to follow the long sweeping story arcs.

Anyhow, let's look at more art!

Man of Steel #1

Man of Steel #2

Man of Steel #2 cover detail. I always
loved the spotted black inkwork under the car.

Man of Steel # 3 (sorry it's blurry!)

Man of Steel #3 detail

I always loved that John Byrne made the world's finest team uneasy of each other but still worked as a team. He really freshened up their dynamic doing this. They're 'best friends' again nowadays, but I think I don't mind whichever case; gotta keep mixing it up so it doesn't get stale right?

Man of Steel #4
John Byrne totally remixes Luthor as a big shot corporate
raider. I thought that was pretty awesome. The real shocker
about the cover? He's got hair! (gasp!)

Bizaaro is re-introduced in Man of Steel #5

Man of Steel #6

Clark's awesome tweed jacket always wowed the detail-oriented
impressionable youngster I was back then. I still like it!

Detail of the pin-up above.

Supes getting smacked out of a bank by Metallo in Superman #1

 John Byrne was a big influence on me then. I was never really into Marvel books so I had no idea of the good work he was doing there before (his fantastic four and Alpha Flight runs, anyone?), so he totally blew my mind when I was reading Superman. I was so googly-eyed over his art that I almost didn't take notice of the other artist that was drawing the other superman book. Almost!

Jerry Odway pin up.

I remember seeing this cover and I didn't have reference to the
crazy Silver age Jimmy Olsen stories at the time. So in my head I was thinking,
'this is going to be dumb'. But I found it a lot of fun to read! I may have to try
to find a copy of the collected editions of this run in the 90's...

detail from the cover above.

Jerry Ordway was handling the art over at the other Superman book and maybe not immediately, but as I kept seeing his work back then, I grew to love it. As I age, as my tastes change, I find I'm not as gigantic a John Byrne fan like before. However! I become more and more of a Jerry Ordway fan as time goes by! I remember absolutely falling in love with his Cat Grant drawings when I was a teenager (she's not real, dude!) and was always impressed by his draftsmanship and just how real his people were. And of course I was blown away like everyone was with his comic book adaptation of the Tim Burton Batman movie!

Swoon! I think this may have been the exact panel that I got a
teenaged crush on Jerry Ordway's Catherine Grant!

This is the page where that panel up top
came from. It was a story about the four armed terror.
It's REALLY blurry, but I just added it as context.

Some more Jon Bogdanove artwork was there too.

Jon Bogdanove does some amazing swipes from  a lot of
Superman artists through the years.

Detail from the Bogdanove piece.

Another close up of the piece. Great stuff!

He did another piece but this time with Batman artists.
Sadly this photo is really blurry! Sorry!

An Alex Ross piece from the Doomsday and Beyond novel.

Detail from Alex Ross' Gouache piece.

Jackson Guice cover for Action Comics. I liked his stuff then,
and he's still really kicking butt with his work currently.
His Winter Soldier stuff  looks fantastic!

 I saw this Kevin Nowlan inked piece in the show, and I was a total nerd about it and kept taking pictures and looking at it. Mr. Nowlan's work never ceases to amaze me!

Kevin Nowlan inks over Dan Jurgens

The brushwork he used to depict lighting looked great.

The Nowlan hatchwork is always awesome to see.

Jon Bogdanove art again for DC's retroactive series.

Another Bogdanove Retroactive piece.

Alan Davis and Mark farmer art for Superboy's Legion #2.
I am always a fan of their work, but I don't think I ever read this issue.

A blurry J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray piece
from the Son of Superman Graphic novel. I think I read this awhile
back but I can't remember the story very well.

Kurt Schaffenberger and Bob Smith cover for Super Friends # 44.
That's a crazy fight going on right there!

Mike Sekowsky and Jack Abel interiors for Adventure comics # 404.

Yay! A Kieth Giffen sighting! The only Giffen drawn Superman story
I had was "Caitiff the last Vampire" in Action Comics. Anybody rememebr that??

Sorry some of this blurry. I liked Chris Batista's work when I saw it in Steel.
Creepy Composite Superman!

 The next pieces' title cards said they didn't know who the artist was for them, however it's been speculated that it was done by Dick Giordano. We didn't have Wonder Bread in the PHilippines or Hong Kong, so yeah, I definitely never saw these!

Wonder Bread Trading Card art.

Wonder Bread Trading Card art.

Changing while talking to Morgan Edge by Curt Swan and Dave Hunt.
Morgan Edge: "Kent? Why did your voice just drop an octave??"

Ed Hannigan and Klaus Janson cover for World's Finest.
The enemies were called Null and Void! I couldn't pass up taking
a picture of that!

a blurry double page spread form Joe Stanton and Ian Gibson form Millenium # 8.
I didn't really enjoy that mini series too much, but I remember liking this double page spread.

And last but certainly not the least, a sketch from Joe Shuster! Thank you very much to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for creating a great hero that I still get to enjoy even 75 years after they created him. Here's to the creators of the first and the best superhero of them all!

Superman Sketch by Joe Shuster.

Now go to the Cartoon Art Museum and see these pieces for yourself!

Superman's 75th: Cartoon Art Museum Exhibit part 1

My Superman 75th anniversary celebration continues!

This past weekend I took my daughter to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco and looked at the Superman exhibit they had up there. I took a ton of photos to share with you all, but no flash photography was allowed so some of the photos may be a bit blurry and out of focus. Also, there isn't much to an order to the way I shot these photos, so bear with me!

The main Superman Exhibit's room at the Cartoon Art Museum in SF.

Also, I had my 10 month daughter strapped onto me with a baby Bjorn, so it was tough to take a steady picture! She actually kept bouncing up and down whenever the large Superman mural was in her eyesight! She wanted to keep touching the mural and had a lot of fun seeing the bold colors on it.

Pretty awesome reproduction of the classic Superman pose.

My baby would be very vocal and wanted me to keep
bringing her back so she could touch the mural! Sniff! I'm so proud!

The exhibit has original artwork from quite a few points in Superman's comic book history. And it's interesting to see who the artists were that generated some images that I recognize from even before I was reading Superman comics. One of whom was Fred Ray.

Art by Fred Ray.

Art by Fred Ray.  

Art by Fred Ray.

I always thought Joe Shuster drew the images above, but that's what I get for not knowing my Superman artists well enough! Next up was artist Jon Bogdanove's pieces. He does a few homage drawings in these pieces, and they look really excellent.

Sketch detail from the image above. Looks great!

Curt Swan/George Klein inspired turnarounds for the 50th anniversary statue.

Sorry this is a little blurry!

The next three pieces were a treat to see as I've never seen Curt Swan originals before. I know quite a few people don't like Swan's work because it isn't dynamic, but the man sure can draw! I always have fond memories of when he and Elliot S. Maggin wrote Superman stories. I honestly haven't read that much, but those stories have stuck in my head to this day. I'll try to review them in a future blog post!

I think this is a Curt Swan piece, I can't remember what the title card for it said.

I do miss these "dun-dun-duuun" covers!

This next artist, I didn't think I'd see in a Superman exhibit, but was very pleasantly surprised when I did. I guess it makes sense since Kirby did have a few Superman related runs when he was at DC. I even rememeber seeing him draw that DC Super Powers book way back when. I'm a kirby fan, but when he paired up with Superman, it just didn't seem... 'right'. The Jimmy Olsen stuff however seemed right up his alley! And come to think of it all of his other creations at DC were just fantastic!

A page by the king, Jack Kirby.

 In the room next to the main one, there was movie and TV related paraphernelia.

Brandon Routh's costume in Superman Returns.

I never got into Smallville (gasp), but I believe this was from the show.

I think these were from Smallville too.

Poster from the 1978 Christopher Reeve
movie. I was 2 years old when it came out!

Man of Steel Production art by Peter Rubin

The next pieces were fun to see as they were when I was really getting into and reading a lot of Superman comics (John Byrne reboot, death of superman and afterwards). So this batch of art was a real treat to see. I actually still regard the Return of Superman (not so much the death) as one of my all time favorite 'mega-events'. This was in a section of Mike Carlin's collection.

Denis Rodier's painted cover for the memorial edition of Newstime.

Jerry Ordway original art along with a print version.
I think I may still have this issue somewhere in the Philippines.
Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite! Clark Kent proposes to Lois Lane!

A better shot of the original inks.

A Jerry Ordway Guache painting entitled "Superman for Earth".

Detail of Superman's face, Sorry it's blurry.

Mike Carlin did a thumbnail for the cover proposal of this issue.
Lex Luthor 'tee-hee-ing' on the bottom right panel is pretty hilarious.

Kerry Gammil and Dennis Janke's black and white piece.

And the final cover. I remember the "Hostile Takeover"
backups that feature Lex Luthor too. If I remember right,
it's about what he does while he's not messing with Superman.

Gouache painting by Eric Peterson for the Man of Steel
Platinum Trading Card collection. Mike Carlin narrowly avoids
getting a car smashed on him in this take on the classic cover for Action Comics #1

Another Kerry Gammil/Dennis Janke cover. I don't remember this issue,
but I do remember the "Time and Time Again" story arc fondly. Getting
an excuse to put modern day Superman into World War 2 was pretty cool.

Superman punches Doomsday in the face! Jon Bogdanove
really knows how to deliver some action packed sequences.

Death of Superman poster by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding.

 Here's another artist I didn't think I'd see at the exhibit. I don't think I actually read this issue, but I do vaguely rememeber Walt Simonson drawing some Superman while he was at DC too...

Walt Simonson page from The Legacy of Superman #1.

A Tom Grummet and Doug Hazelwood original from
Adventures of Superman #500. Another page I don't rememeber...
Am I going to have to buy that Death of Superman Omnibus to refresh my memory now?? 

Jackson Guice's cover sketch. I loved seeing this.

A blurry detail of the sketch.

The final inks.

Woo! Okay, that's quite a bit of photos to chew on! Let's take a break for now... I'll post up the rest of my photos (and I have a LOT more of them!) from the exhibit next time! The Neverending Battle continues!