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The definitive Superman artist is without a doubt Curt Swan (going by the majority of fans, which is old silver age and bronze age readers). He was on Superman for decades. He started in the late 40s, didn't stop working on Supes until DC Comics let him go prior to Byrne taking over the title. I have no favorite artist with Superman. While I do enjoy Shuster's look, I can't go with a favorite.
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Like many here, I can't say who is the greatest, but Byrne, Lee, Kane, Lopez, Jimenez, Alex Ross, Neal Adams are just some of my favorites.
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[QUOTE=Mace Dolex;5537747]Eduardo Barreto[/QUOTE]
[center]To the utmost, I agree. Still LOVE Barreto's [B][I]Speeding Bullets[/I][/B] (1993):
[img]https://2.bp.blogspot.com/g0hEd35qihjt-sLU-hUT-HTh25z13X9Ls4CHsvSJzRvD2VZlRakv2lQCt0v1e3jGRmR_WEK_bec=s1600[/img][/center]
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I grew up on Superman in the 1970s. It has to be Swan for me.
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Curt Swan, even though my favorite design of a certain villain comes from the Timmverse.
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[QUOTE=Cyberstrike;5713440]No love for Tim Sale?[/QUOTE]
He's alright kind of like with Frank Quitely in which they don't follow the standard style but they give their own interpretation, it's ok for when its a special storyline outside the current continuity but I don't like my Superman looking like Peter Griffin.
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I think that there's a certain artistic freedom that comes with NOT being the greatest Superman artist of ALL TIME.
There's something I love about the Frank Robbins art for Batman. It's not the greatest Batman of all time, but Frank isn't trying to render the Dark Knight for everyone. He's doing something very particular to him and that's what's great about it. He was doing the Caped Crusader at the same time that Neal Adams was believed to be the greatest Batman artist of the time. Adams being the standard meant that Robbins didn't have to be.
I'd put Tim Sale in the same boat. There were other Batman artists, other Superman artists, who were defining the characters. So Tim could just create something different from that.
I really like the Jon Bogdanove approach to Superman--it's so out there. I'm glad he had the freedom to do his own thing with the Man of Steel. Having a standard, like Curt Swan, gives the other artists something they can bounce off of--they can go in their own direction and create amazing art.
That's what I always loved about National Periodical Publications. They had so many different artists with all kinds of styles that weren't trying to fit in this narrow house style.
It would be terrible if the publisher took Frank Quitely as their standard and then demanded that every other artist do Superman in that style. It wouldn't be fair to Frank and it wouldn't be fair to the other artists. Just because an artist is great shouldn't mean they become an institution.
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What did you Superman superfans think about Carlos Pacheco interps of the MOS? I was thumbing through the Busiek run and he seemed to do a real lean, mean Supes
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[QUOTE=Stanlos;5746933]What did you Superman superfans think about Carlos Pacheco interps of the MOS? I was thumbing through the Busiek run and he seemed to do a real lean, mean Supes[/QUOTE]
I liked the Pacheco version. His Supes is very solid, but his Lois is probably a little more devisive :p
Well PKJ would throw Sampere in the mix...
[quote]What Daniel did that was so remarkable was design a Superman that could be the Superman of any era. Look at Daniel's Superman, and you BELIEVE that this is the Superman of Joe Shuster, Curt Swan, John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Frank Quitely, Ivan Reis and all the other classic versions wrapped into one design. His Superman has this imposing, unstoppable-looking frame, but with Daniel's mastery over the facial expressions, he can also look gentle, compassionate and humble while sacrificing none of his determination or strength. Daniel just GETS Superman, and it shows in every panel.[/quote]
On the other hand, what's he gonna say, the guy stinks? :p Still pretty cool how he holds his work in such high regard, and no doubt has had top notch art during this run.
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Having given this a lot of thought I have to say the top of the list would probably be Ordway. He has a very clean, realistic, style that doesn't appear to try to make Superman look like any particular actor or anything like that. If I have a quibble with him it's that he tends to go overboard with things like chins or other bulky features. But he defined the Earth 2 Superman for me and probably for most people.
Next I would have to say Jurgens. He also has a very clean, simplistic, style that works for Superman or any character. His Superman is probably the one I picture in my head. Him and Gammil are very close in look.
After that Swan is on the list just for longevity. He was very much what you would call a "journeyman" artist but he also had a very clean, realistic style and his Superman looked like a real person.
Jim Lee is great for action sequences just don't let him anywhere near costume design.
Garcia Lopez drew what is probably the hottest Lois around but his "S" symbol knocks him down the list a bit.
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I came across a cover mystery today that I can't solve. Since I didn't want to start a whole new topic just for this one thing, I thought it might be a good puzzle to post here on a thread devoted to Superman artists.
Looking online for the ACTION COMICS 285 (February 1962) cover I got this--
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/dVjYk9zk/act285cover.jpg[/img]
But in the 2003 SUPERGIRL ARCHIVES Vol. 2 (and other reprints), Supergirl has a different head--as she does on the cover for that book--
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/mDbh1DXR/SG2archives.jpg[/img]
Both covers seem to be Swan and Klein art--but where did they get the different Supergirl head for the fake ACTION 285? Do any detectives out there know where this wrong cover art came from--because I doubt they invented it just for the Archives (and subsequent reprints*). I suspect the change was done years before, for some other reprint of the cover.
*[i]edit:[/i] And here is the altered cover again in [b]ACTION COMICS[/B] 80 YEARS OF SUPERMAN: THE DELUXE EDITION (2018)--
[IMG]https://i.postimg.cc/SK97QbR9/80act285cover.jpg[/IMG]
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[QUOTE=daBronzeBomma;232619]
to
Al Plastino (1960s)
[/QUOTE]
In the sixties it was also Curt Swan:p
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My favorite would be Curt Swan. When I hear the word Superman in my head, I see a Curt Swan drawing.
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I don't know if I've mentioned him already on this thread, but Kurt S.--not Curt S.--deserves to be in the conversation. You could say he was the greatest Superman [B]family[/B] artist. At one time or another in his career he was the main artist on one of the Superman family features--just not on Superman himself exactly.
First he was the main [B]Lois Lane[/B] artist, then in 1968 he was switched over to become the main[B] Supergir[/B]l artist until he was fired in 1970 for organizing artists to protest working conditions. He was rehired a couple years later and became the artist on [B]Jimmy Olsen[/B]'s book, which later went through a title change and became [B]SUPERMAN FAMILY[/B], with Kurt being the main artist on the new stories (in addition to the reprints which often featured his work). And then when SUPERMAN FAMILY became a Dollar Comic, he was the main artist on many of the features (sadly inked by lesser artists). One of the most memorable features Kurt pencilled was [B]Mr. and Mrs. Superman[/B]. Then in 1980, when [B]THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY[/B] launched, Schaff was that book's artist.