Story recap pages from Marvel and DC Comics, from 1960s to 2018

Recap pages! Those introductory splash pages that try to summarize the continuing story for a new reader.

In earlier eras, comics were bound to a single story per issue, often there were 2 or 3 short tales per comic. When comic book stories became more serialized, editors were always afraid a new reader would be lost and stop buying that comic. In the modern era where a story arc goes over 6 issues minimum this has gone away. Starting in the Silver Age there have been a number of ways to catch the reader up on a story.

Stan Lee tried to do it in captions or thought balloons in Amazing Spider-Man 33 (1965, concluding chapter of the Master Planner story, see image on top of this post) and here with Amazing Spider-Man 109 (1972, second part of a story involving Flash Thompson). The captions have arrows showing you how to read them.

Jim Starlin used a new character called Sphinxor to retell the lengthy history of Adam Warlock in several pages of Strange Tales 179 (1975) - the first issue of his Warlock opus. Each issue of Strange Tales would have a dense recap page, which probably drove Starlin crazy to have to include.

In the late 1990s almost every Marvel Comic had a "Previously in..." page, sometimes on the inside front cover: Avengers v3 2 (1998). These were done using text and taking captions of artwork from previous issues.

Dark Knight over Metropolis, a DC story arc which crossed over between Action Comics, Superman and Adventures of Superman, each issue had a splash page with a dossier of memos explaining the story thus far. This was taken from Action Comics 654 (1990).

In Brian Bendis Action Comics he started off the first few stories with an image of papers/notes on the desk of a different character. This worked as both a recap and an insight to the particular character. It also has inside jokes and hints of things to come. This was taken from Action Comics 1002 (2018). This image is what prompted me to write this article - as I re-read the 1990s Action run I realized this new recap page had some elements in common with the old one.

Nuff Said!

Superman 13 (2019) cover progression by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado

The upcoming to cover to Superman 13, shipping in July 2019, has an iconic cover by Ivan Reis and inker Joe Prado. The colors are by Alex Sinclair.

The image relates to the "Unity" storyline where Superman is leading an intergalactic band through the galaxy. I am sure this somehow culminates in the birth of the United Federation of Planets, leading to the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future.

Joe Prado shared some behind the scenes look at the inking of this page, which he does on blue line paper. First he starts with the main character of Superman...

Then he goes crazy inking the miscellaneous background characters. Notice that Superman himself does not have all the black ink inside his chest / arms yet.

...and finally there is the fully inked page with the planet / outer soace in the background, the black areas fully inked inside Superman. It pops and creates a depth of field in black and white, even more so in color!

These guys are some of my favorite artists at DC and they have been working there over a decade! Nuff Said.

Adam Hughes brilliant covers for Superman

Adam Hughes has always been a craftsman and one of the clever designers of comics covers for the past decade or so. He's great at drawing women but even in his convention sketches he has a sense of whimsy. Starting in 2018 with the latest relaunch of Superman he has done some spectacular work with the character.

This cover to Superman 1 was a doozy - with Superman completely bursting out of a telephone box to save the day. Of course there are no more public telephone boxes, at least in my area of the world. I loved this image so much I use it as a watch face on my Apple Watch.

The cover to Superman 2, when I first saw it, took me a while to grok completely. Your attention first goes to Lois throwing up her hands, then to the bullet, and Superman's blurred figure in the foreground gives you a great impression of his super-speed. Faster than a speeding bullet!

Superman 3 cover was Adam Hughes' take and on the shirt reveal for the chest emblem. Since that had been done a hundred times before (most notably on the Man of Steel 1 cover by John Byrne), Hughes decided to take it back a few more seconds to the removal of the tie. Thanks to modern techniques we can see the S symbol below his white shirt.

Well this is also a daring and unexpected cover because Superman is so tiny and barely recognizable at the top. It's a glorious image of the Daily Planet at sunrise or sunset. I think mark chiarello, the Senior VP Art Director at DC Comics (who was sadly lost that position recently), deserves credit for the success of these variant covers. By removing the logo entirely such a design is possible. And you can see what Hughes was going for, capturing Superman to match the classic motto: Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Now if Superman 4 cover was successful because of no logo, the one to Superman 5 did have it, as a faint as a dark shadow on a moonless night. This cover was an homage to a Golden Age cover...

...Superman 32 from 1945, by Wayne Boring. There are even coffee mugs with this Boring cover, which I found while Googling for it.

Superman 6, probably my least favorite out of this set, but still humorous, showing bullets bouncing off his head and body. I don't connect with it that well because he looks a bit goofy, his hair looks funny, and why is he wincing? Also I wish we saw the bullets instead of the star effects.

After issue 6, DC & AH! took a break. Superman 7 variant was by David Finch, issue 8 was by Rob Liefield. I believe he starts again after that, I have seen images and they are very good. I will follow up later with a future post. Nuff Said!

Superman by Chris Samnee

Beautifully executed drawing of Superman by Chris Samnee in 2013, love the colors and perspective here...

Nuff Said!

Action Comics 419 Cover by Neal Adams: Superman streaking into the sky! (Updated Oct 2017)

I am a Neal Adams fan as I am sure many of you are. I love his Superman covers, he did dozens from the late 60s to the early 70s. My favorite cover is a 100 page Super Spectacular that I wrote about here, but a close second is this Action Comics cover.

Action Comics 419, drawn by Neal Adams, inked by Murphy Anderson, and some collage work by Jack Adler using a real photo. It's a super (pun intended) cover showcasing the classic Man of Steel. The image of Superman has been lifted off this cover and used in all kinds of merchandising. I believe this issue of Action Comics is the first one edited by Julius Schwartz, who took over from Murray Boltinoff.

Update October 2017: I met Adams at a con 2 months ago & asked him about this cover. He said Jack Adler did not provide the photo background, it was Adams himself who did the collage. Also he didn’t really like Murphy Anderson’s inks, too slick in his opinion.

Here is the original art to the cover with notes to the letterer about the cover blurbs below. One interesting thing about this original art is that it is now owned by David Mandel, a veteran writer in Hollywood who has worked on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep and many other shows. He owns many other classic original art covers from the Bronze Age as well as this one.

In addition to a new editor, the letter column header also changed, showing Clark Kent changing into Superman through a phone booth (remember those?) at super speed!

How many times have you seen the image of Superman from Action Comics 419 used in merchandise? Cups? Books? I would love to know. Please leave a comment if you had ever seen this elsewhere.

Update October 2017: At the convention where I met Neal Adams, he had a huge booth with posters for sale, including this new take on the Action Comics cover, pencilled and inked by Adams. The city scape below is also redone.

Nuff Said!

Superman and Batman by Gary Frank

Gary Frank is making a big splash this year with the publication of The Doomsday Clock in late November. Here are some illustrations of the World's Finest team...

Superman, which is the classic version with the underpants on the outside of the costume!

Batman, more like the Miller Dark Knight version with the barrel chest and thick utility belt.

Batman and Catwoman together...since they are due to be married?

Nuff Said!

Otto Binder, Mort Weisinger and the Silver Age Superman

The Silver Age Superman era was crazy fun, filled with creations like Lex Luthor, Braniac, Kandor, Bizarro Superman, various flavors of Kryptonite, imaginary stories, etc. I read all these as a kid; at some point it became fashionable to dismiss all of the expanded Krypton mythology - John Byrne jettisoned all of it in his reboot. Lately I've been missing it and buying back some 80 page giants to reminisce. Every time I see one of these silver age Superman covers it pulls my heartstrings.

A lot of these innovations were the creation of Otto Binder, a science fiction writer who had worked on Captain Marvel stories before his Superman work. Binder did the same thing on Superman that he had for the Big Red Cheese: expanded the mythology of Superman and his universe.

The other famous influence on Superman's Silver Age era is the editor, Mort Weisinger. I heard stories about Weisinger's dominating editorial style. Jim Shooter wrote about his time working for Weisinger as a teenager in the 1960s. Yet at the same time, under the right circumstances, Weisinger could be generous, as in this story where he treated Shooter and his Mom on a trip in NYC. I have always wanted to know more about Weisinger and his time with Superman. He had a great influence on the series for over a decade.

Superman Forever is a podcast I just discovered, produced by Bob Fisher. Bob just produced two of the most incredible episodes on Mort Weisinger! The first episode is where Bob has a conversation with Weisinger's son, Dr Hank Weisinger. It was very insightful. They all knew how Mort could be overbearing at home, yet considerate at other times. He wasn't a tyrant all the time and loved to write and work. One of the best parts of this is how Weisinger got a lot of products for free through his article writing. But there are many other tales of the Superman comics that Hank remembers. The second episode is a conversation with Arlen Schumer, the historian who wrote the coffee table sized Silver Age of Comics book a few years ago, about the Weisinger era. Among many other topics!

I loved these 2 episodes so much I've subscribed to Bob's podcast. He has another episode dedicated to Lex Luthor's silver age trilogy involving the planet Luxor. It's quite good and making me want to buy back some silver age Superman comics. Nuff Said!

Krypto and Bizarro Number 1 by Paul Guinan

Paul Guinan on Facebook shared this wonderful illustration of Krypto meeting Bizarro!

Very cute. Notice the tail tucked between the legs. Nuff Said!

Paul Smith on Green Lantern, Mister Miracle, Legion, and more!

Recently discovered a bunch of nifty drawings on the blog of Paul M Smith...

Mister Miracle (Scott Free) with his predecessor hanging over him.

Green Lantern - looks like a Gil Kane drawing inked by PMS!

Superman in his classic glory.

Legionnaires.

The original Saturn Girl meeting her Chris Sprouse inspired clone and wondering who in the world would wear that thong costume created by Dave Cockrum!  Nuff Said.

Saturday Evening Post painted covers with Zatanna, Joker, Harley Quinn, Swamp Thing!

I recently discovered the work of a great illustrator, Juan Carlos Ruiz Burgos, and this fantastic series of Saturday Evening Post paintings that the did with DC Comics superheroes! Each one depicts characters in different eras from 1938 to 1971.

Clark Kent in the year he first appeared, 1938. Love the Siegel and Shuster sign above the shoe sign station! One kid is reading Action Comics #1 while Clark reads the Daily Planet with Superman on the front page.

Wonder Woman in 1945. Love the little girl looking up to her with a copy of Sensation Comics #1 in her hand.

Joker and Harley Quinn in 1942, looking like Bonnie and Clyde on the run. His first appearance was 2 years earlier in Batman #1, and of course Harley came much, much later. But it's fine to imagine Harley in this time period.

Catwoman getting caught on the job. Why 1989? Puzzling, but I figure that is the year the Michael Keaton Batman movie exploded into movie theaters.  The cop arresting Selina Kyle? Chief O'Hara from the Batman 66 TV show.

Zatanna with too many rabbits. Zatanna's first appearance was in Hawkman #4, 1964!

Swamp Thing - my personal favorite of this entire series! Swamp Thing first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in 1971, so there is a nod to that. It's illustrated in black and white since all the classic monster movies were filmed that way. The appearance of Swampy and Abby is most decidedly in the vein of Alan Moore's take on the characters.

Visit Ruiz Burgos' Deviant Art page or his blog for more great artwork. Nuff Said!

Superman Unchained variant covers celebrating Silver / Bronze ages

I recently picked up the Superman Unchained: Deluxe Edition hardcover, featuring Scott Snyder and Jim Lee's epic 9 issue tale. I found the main storyline to be pretty good, the best I read yet in the New 52 incarnation of Superman. It cannot compare to the best Bronze Age / post-Bronze age stories, of course, but it raised some interesting thoughts about Superman and how the U.S. military would view his role on Earth.

The 180+ page story isn't the reason to buy this volume, no, the real motivation are the backup extras! Each issue of this series had at least 8 variant covers celebrating all eras of Superman: Golden Age, Silver Age, Modern Age, New 52, etc. I had a great time looking at all of these and taking a trip down memory lane. Here are a few of my favorites.

1930s Era Superman (Triangle-S chest emblem)

Francis Manapul: this is a glorious composition, with the bi-plane above Metropolis and Superman's wonderful pose as he takes it down.

Howard Chaykin: featuring the original version of Luthor with red hair!

Silver Age Superman

Brian Bolland: glad they corralled Bolland into doing a cover for the Silver Age, his sense of humor fits right in there.

Yanick Paquette: bringing out the best in the Lois Lane drama.

Frazier Irving: The classic version of Braniac looms large in this illustration.

Bronze Age Superman

Jim Starlin: who can forget that Starlin gave Superman another worthy foe to battle.

Superman Reborn

Jon Bogdanove: featuring his creation, Steel! Looking very much like a Simonson illustration here, ironic considering that he worked with Louise Simonson.

Tom Grummett: featuring the new version of Superboy with the leather jacket and sunglasses! I can't help but miss this version and even the one that Geoff Johns did with the t-shirt and jeans (which apparently now Superman will wear).

New 52 Superman

Jim Lee: a classic Superman pose as he sheds his Clark Kent clothes to reveal the Superman costume underneath. I think it looks brilliant in black and white, lucky guys who went to ComicCon that year could buy it. How does he hide that raised collar under his shirt? :-)  Nuff Said!

Superman Unchained variant cover by José Luis García-López

After yesterday's Superman Mondo poster debacle, here is an original work by José Luis García-López.

Superman Unchained variant cover, capturing the Silver Age spirit that title used to have.  Love the phone booth, the mini-skirt and the boots.  Nuff Said!

Martin Ansin Man of Steel Poster

This weekend, Mondo will be selling a limited run of this poster by Martin Ansin for the Man of Steel movie!

If you look carefully, Superman's pose is the same as the 1939 cover to Superman #1.  Mondo's website has all the details for this Man of Steel release.  It goes on sale this Friday at midnight through the weekend.

I almost thought this poster was by Alex Ross.  Ansin's previous work on Planet of the Apes and the Flash has knocked me out.  Nuff Said!

Update:  Jason let me know that Ansin's Superman figure is a complete swipe from Alex Ross Superman painting from a number of years ago.  I knew that looked way too much like something I had seen before!  For an animated gif showing the overlay, see this page.

Brian Bolland Superman Illustrations

Brian Bolland superhero illustrations are becoming rarer to find than bald eagles...yet I found these two illustrations featuring Superman!

This one was from a Superman Annual in 1983 for the overseas market, featuring Mongul, Supergirl, J'onn J'onzz and the Spectre.  Quite a variety there!

I like this one a bit less...1990 Mullet Superman!  This was from a 1990 calendar, sold in the UK as I was led to believe.  Mullet Superman, I even had a statue with that haircut.  Sheesh!  Nuff Said.