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!