LOOK: The Many Superman Faces of Curt Swan

[CBR News]

Check out some design sheets by legendary Superman artist Curt Swan, teaching other DC Comics artists how to depict the Man of Steel's various expressions.


Full article here.

[MajorHoy]

Wait . . . is Superman now part of the Spider-Man franchise?

[Loose Threads]

Wait . . . is Superman now part of the Spider-Man franchise?

Of course he is, did'nt you read their crossovers back in the 70s?

Both of their clones even clashed in the 90s.

The comic strip tends to reference him a bit every now and then too.

[manofsteel1979]

It's interesting that in the 50's Swan tended to portray him a little younger, in the 60's up to the mid 70's he was portrayed older, and the last one (from the later 70's early 80's I assume) portray him younger again. Great bit of history there.

[Jim Kelly]

The one at the top of the article and repeated a little further down is from SUPERMAN 245 and sees Swan inking his own pencils in 1971. The second one down is from circa 1964 and I think George Klein must have inked it even though it's signed by Swan (just going by the fluid linework which looks like Klein). The last one was in the Metropolis Edition of THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN and shows Murphy Anderson inking Swan, with Swan's rough pencils below that.

These illustrations have been shown on lots of blogs over the years (including mine). For a better examination of Curt Swan's Superman see http://dccomicsartists.com/superart/curtswan.htm from Bob Hughes, as well as his whole site: Who's Whose in the DC Universe . It's a great reference site.

You can also have a look at some of my pages. Such as: 27 Shades of Swan

[manofsteel1979]

The one at the top of the article and repeated a little further down is from SUPERMAN 245 and sees Swan inking his own pencils in 1971. The second one down is from circa 1964 and I think George Klein must have inked it even though it's signed by Swan (just going by the fluid linework which looks like Klein). The last one was in the Metropolis Edition of THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN and shows Murphy Anderson inking Swan, with Swan's rough pencils below that.

These illustrations have been shown on lots of blogs over the years (including mine). For a better examination of Curt Swan's Superman see http://dccomicsartists.com/superart/curtswan.htm from Bob Hughes, as well as his whole site: Who's Whose in the DC Universe . It's a great reference site.

You can also have a look at some of my pages. Such as: 27 Shades of Swan

Ah...thanks and I will check out your blog.

Still...no doubt Curt was THE Superman artist.

[Jim Kelly]

Superman's age changed depending on who inked Swan and when they inked Swan. George Klein gives Swan's Superman a more receding hairline, but toward the end of Klein's time at DC, he inked Swan's Superman with a fuller hairline It seems to me that when Anderson first started inking Swan stories, he made Superman look older (with more worry lines), circa 1971. Yet already here in 1973, we see Anderson giving Swan's Superman a more youthful appearance. Generally speaking, though, Swan's Superman seemed to get younger and younger as he went from the 1950s to the 1980s.

[manofsteel1979]

Superman's age changed depending on who inked Swan and when they inked Swan. George Klein gives Swan's Superman a more receding hairline, but toward the end of Klein's time at DC, he inked Swan's Superman with a fuller hairline It seems to me that when Anderson first started inking Swan stories, he made Superman look older (with more worry lines), circa 1971. Yet already here in 1973, we see Anderson giving Swan's Superman a more youthful appearance. Generally speaking, though, Swan's Superman seemed to get younger and younger as he went from the 1950s to the 1980s.

I wonder if that had anything to do with the ever younger actors portraying Superman? Reeves was in his 40's and then later Reeve was in his 20's? Or perhaps DC wanted to skew the character younger due to the post 60s mentality of not trusting anyone over 30?

[Jim Kelly]

I think some of it was an attempt to make Superman look like George Reeves. Once Julius Schwartz came on as editor (in 1971), vitually every male member of the Justice League was supposed to be eternally 29 years old. That might have been so readers could trust them.

[Jon-El]

The one at the top of the article and repeated a little further down is from SUPERMAN 245 and sees Swan inking his own pencils in 1971. The second one down is from circa 1964 and I think George Klein must have inked it even though it's signed by Swan (just going by the fluid linework which looks like Klein). The last one was in the Metropolis Edition of THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN and shows Murphy Anderson inking Swan, with Swan's rough pencils below that.

These illustrations have been shown on lots of blogs over the years (including mine). For a better examination of Curt Swan's Superman see http://dccomicsartists.com/superart/curtswan.htm from Bob Hughes, as well as his whole site: Who's Whose in the DC Universe . It's a great reference site.

You can also have a look at some of my pages. Such as: 27 Shades of Swan

Wow the 27 Shades of Swan is outstanding! I really enjoyed that. It echoed so many of my thoughts on Swan's various inkers. Roussos is my least favorite. I picked up some issues he did & my first thought was how "dry" the art looks. Just flat. Chiaramonte was inker on a lot of stories I remember so his work is very comfortable for me. His inks had a stiffness like Giordano that wasn't bad but wasn't ideal for Swan. With Hunt as inker, faces seemed to lose detail. Everyone had a baby face. I'm not crazy about Blaisdell but he did work on the Karb Brak story which is a favorite of mine. Frank Springer was a gifted artist who didn't fit Swan at all.

Now my favorites. Adkins did two arcs I loved. The one featuring Amalak & the Metallo story, both written by Pasko. Murphy Anderson's work, especially the early 70's stuff, always is polished. Can't go wrong with any stories he worked on. My favorite though is Oksner. I'm sure part of it is because he worked on the books when I first started buying comics but I just love his work! The Swan / Oksner Superman had a certain bulk. The faces looked great. Superman 300 is one example of their work but they had a great run in the mid 70's.

[Jim Kelly]

Jon-El, we must be twins! I agree with virtually everything you said.

[Jon-El]

That was my favorite time to be reading Superman. Swan was doing some of his best work & you had some issues by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez that were awesome!! Unfortunately, he was inked by Springer on some of them but they meshed better than the team of Swan & Springer.

[Jim Kelly]

That was my favorite time to be reading Superman. Swan was doing some of his best work & you had some issues by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez that were awesome!! Unfortunately, he was inked by Springer on some of them but they meshed better than the team of Swan & Springer.

When I made that list, Springer was one that I was considering putting on the list--as an example of an unfortunate collaboration. But he was only matched with Swan on two stories, so there was no point in it. It's just that those two stories happened to be part of Pasko's Amalak multi-parter, which is one of my favourites.

[Kandor Rising]

Curt Swan is underrated in today's comics scene. For years he did story after story, never missing a beat. Look at those facial expressions! Unlike Jim Lee, Swan was able to give them expressions other than constipated.

I really wish DC would put out a series of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson Superman books, like they did for artists on Batman.