*~LANE & KENT~* Clark/Superman & Lois relationship...

[Soubhagya]

By Bill Walko:



By aladdin2000:



By Rori!:



Via thehappysorceress.

First one is based Superman movie. I like it. Second is sweet. Third is cute. Somehow i am imagining this is after the marriage.

[Soubhagya]

Amazing inktober drawings by Peter Krause:





By richard.sashigane:

Thanks for sharing Jon!

[The Learner]

Source: DC Comics.

Thanks for the preview.

[Jon11]

I agree the Trinity couples are cute. Darwyn Cooke art is fantastic. The Lois and Clark kiss is epic. Even though they take so less space in the picture there is something about them. Love it!

That cover is simply Darwyn Cooke's masterpiece. The placement of every character in it is brilliant.

By Kelly Leigh Miller:



By richard.sashigane:



By Jon Pinto:

[Jon11]

Pepsi/WB's motion comic (with sound and all) to promote "Superman Returns," written by Gail Simone:







Read all the chapters (total of six) here: http://www.joantri.com/portfolio/superman/superman.html

So much better than the movie itself. And it has, like, the best Lucy Lane ever.

[Jon11]

From the unpublished story An Evening with Superman by Barry Windsor-Smith:

Among forthcoming Superman events is writer/artist Barry Windsor-Smith's large-format book, An Evening with Superman, an account of the hero's first meeting with Lois Lane. "It's a love story," says Windsor-Smith, "told in a way that will appeal to all readers, not only to comic fans. I'm excited to be overtaking exploration of a pivotal event in the story of America's most enduring icon."

Another project that Windsor-Smith is working with DC on is a Superman book. “I went to DC last year with this idea for a Superman graphic novel, in a big art book format, and Paul (Levitz) was very pleased with the concept. It was gonna be Superman in Storyteller style, i.e. a sophisticated story. No exposition. There was to be no flying, no punching, no fighting. It’s a story about two people -- when Superman meets Lois Lane. But it took seven bleedin’ months to figure out the contract, while I’m sitting poised, pencil in hand . . . you want to see it?”

With this, we look over one of the best looking Superman stories I’ve ever seen. “It’s been gathering dust for about a year. So I kept saying, look, I’m ready and I’m rolling on this thing. And they say just give us a while to work out the contract. Then they got it into their heads that I was working on the story behind the scenes before the contract was done, and they were right. I was agonizing over not working, I was bursting with inspiration and they said no, don’t work on it. Seven months later there’s a contract -- SEVEN MONTHS! By that time my energy had dissipated and my spirit had imploded. Talk about red tape, I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

The problem that threw the slow gel into the works was the fact that Superman is clearly a hugely important licensed character for DC, something that they have droves of lawyers just to protect the shiny, happy image of, and there were doubts and questions about Windsor-Smith’s approach to the old codger. Will it happen? Who knows?

“The fact is I should never have listened to ‘em, I should’ve just continued making the book behind their backs and when the bloody contract was sorted out I’d’ve had the book done. The worst that could’ve happened would be changing the occasional panel to fit their editorial [strictures]. If I’d listened to my intuition An Evening With Superman would’ve been done and published last year.” Windsor-Smith shows us pages from the first version, which he has since scrapped and redrawn. In this version, the look is very 40s. The redrawn pages reflect more timelessness, with aesthetic sensibilities drawn from every age. Lois looks like a real woman, with a lean figure and intelligent eyes. “I didn’t like the first version after a while. It was too comic book. It’s not as far away from comic books as I’d like it to be...actually, as I look at it now, I think what’s the problem? This is nice stuff. At the time I hated it. I’m not really good at drawing Superman. There are too many clichés in my head about Superman. I was trying to make him look like an alien. I’ve got to work on it more . . .”

The situation, though dragged out, is not hopeless for a Windsor-Smith Superman at a store near you. “If I can revive my interest the story is projected to be about 120 pages. This new version has more of what I want from it . . .” Indeed, one can see what the artist is going for, what with the cinematic camera tracking, the carefully placed color cues . . . in the Daily Planet offices the information normally passed on to the reader through exposition is apparent in much more subtle ways, through typographers and designers working on the headline “Flying Man Sighted,” through photos being examined by editors, until we see Perry and Lois. Here, dialogue takes over. All this without a caption. And in a unique world.

“It’s time out of time . . . we’ve got an Art Deco mechanical typewriter, a Nouveau chair. Empire style. The building is Industrial style of the 1940s . . . I’ve taken as many art and architectural styles that don’t clash and melded them all into one. Lois for instance will be using a handheld tape recorder to interview Superman, but it’s an Art Deco tape recorder. There’s a scene with a sports car, like a Mazda Miata, that almost runs over this lady carrying groceries. It resembles a Miata until you look at it twice and it’s engineered differently, and has strange Art Nouveau patterns to it. It’s all a melding.” The pages are beautiful, detailed and complex.

Windsor-Smith is more excited now, enjoying showing this work that so few have seen so far. “Here’s an example. This is Lois’s work area. She’s got these Victorian drapes hanging there, and all these sort of old fashioned frames, and yet all the framed headlines on the wall behind her are modern. All the books are heavily bound. She’s modern looking. It’s all variable. It’s meant to engender and create its own time. It’s similar to what they did in the first Batman movie, y’know, Anton Furst and Tim Burton. Now for my tastes that was a bit overdone, but it did have character and had a point to make. It’s characterization. And of course the DC editors have already started complaining.”

Well, this is curious. I really must know what about. “The first thing they complained about was my use of the word virgin. At first it was just the word itself, then they said that Lois Lane is not a virgin and I shouldn’t imply that she is. I said I’m not implying anything, a kibitzer in the office is making a joke. One of the editors actually started screaming at me over the phone. But anyway, I can’t use the word virgin. In another scene Perry is not allowed to be drinking alcohol. He’s pulling out a bottle of scotch from his desk drawer and offering a swig to Lois. Lois declines, and that’s the point behind it. In fact, the whole thing is that everybody’s got their faults. And, as the story progresses we see that even Superman has his faults, if you can call humanism a fault.”

“Lois Lane is privileged to have the very first interview with the red and blue flying man and she, along with everybody else, cannot help but regard him as a god of some kind, but Superman is really just trying to show her and the readers of The Daily Planet that as a person he is just as human as they are, you know, he’s trying to demystify himself. But in order for that premise to work, I had to show all the principle players’ faults. There’s two for Perry. First he’s an unwitting sexist, a chauvinist, and also he likes the occasional nip of scotch at the office. But now it has to be changed to Pepto Bismol. Obviously that trashes my character study of Perry White right there, and if I use only his “back-up” fault, his sexism, it can hardly be considered offensive because the boys at DC have yet to complain about it.”

This is the problem with iconic characters that serve to create much in the way of licensing and merchandising revenue for their owners. But it is true that you can have one set of books for children and one for adults, and humans can tell the difference, so I can’t help but think that this censorship is stupid.

“It is. I’m glad you understand this. I presented this story as a sophisticated work in its context and format, yet within just the first few pages the editorial hatchet is cutting out its heart.”

Windsor-Smith turns back to the art and script. “It’s Perry and one of his failings, but he’s still a good man. He says to Lois ‘A guy just flies up to your 30-story window like that. Phew!’ Lois says ‘I was stammering, Perry. I lost it.’ ‘You want a shot? Calm the nerves?’ ‘No, I’m falling apart. I need to talk to you straight, Perry.’ It’s a good scene. It shows their mutual compassion. All in one panel. But, no. I can’t do it.”

“When Superman first turns up at the Planet building, Lois loses her cool and begins to stammer badly. She’s blushing and is all but speechless. This isn’t humorous, it’s embarrassing and deeply disturbing to her because she hasn’t stammered since she was a kid. This requires insightful writing and real acting in the body language. I can pull this off, I have faith that I can do it. But restricting me to parameters of a Catholic school play is going to kill it dead.”

I make the comparison to Alex Ross and Paul Dini’s treacle Superman: Peace on Earth, presented by DC in large format. “Their Superman was obviously meant for adults, too, and was packaged for that audience and sold in the venues of that audience,” I say, “so surely your book could also be packaged and sold to adults. To top it off, this is actually an adult story that the audience would have really enjoyed, rather than the super-sweet melodramatic crud that Peace on Earth was.”

We talk about the depiction of women in comics as well, since I note that his Lois is a very real woman, with a real figure. Another realistic woman is Adastra, who in the new book, Adastra in Africa, takes the place of Storm, a character from the X-Men that appeared in two LifeDeath stories scripted by Chris Claremont . As noted earlier in this interview, then Marvel opposed the third LifeDeath, which Windsor-Smith had written, due to concerns over a perceived pro-suicide storyline, he shelved the work rather than concede to Marvel’s hypocrisy, “Every title they publish is pro-violence, and they’re trying to tell me what to do?” Ten years later he reworked the piece and a new vehicle was created for Princess Adastra of Orgasma.

Source.

[Soubhagya]

Pepsi/WB's motion comic (with sound and all) to promote "Superman Returns," written by Gail Simone:







Read all the chapters (total of six) here: http://www.joantri.com/portfolio/superman/superman.html

So much better than the movie itself. And it has, like, the best Lucy Lane ever.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

[Soubhagya]

That cover is simply Darwyn Cooke's masterpiece. The placement of every character in it is brilliant.

By Kelly Leigh Miller:



By richard.sashigane:



By Jon Pinto:

Thanks for sharing these. First one's cute. Second a bit creepy. They are investigating something. And Clark is a photographer now! Looks on both their faces are that of determination. Good to see working together. Third one is more classical. Characters from the series of films. I like it!

[Soubhagya]

From the unpublished story An Evening with Superman by Barry Windsor-Smith:











Source.

Thanks for sharing!

[Soubhagya]

And those Clois fans whose favorite female character in comics is Lois Lane can cast their votes for her in a poll 'Favorite Female Character In All Of Comicdom'.

http://community.comicbookresources....ll-of-Comicdom

[Miles To Go]

Covers for November



Action Comics#992




Superman#34



Super Sons#10

[adrikito]

And those Clois fans whose favorite female character in comics is Lois Lane can cast their votes for her in a poll 'Favorite Female Character In All Of Comicdom'.

http://community.comicbookresources....ll-of-Comicdom

OK, I will support her.

Covers for November



Action Comics#992

WOW... I like this cover in the Fortress...

[Jon11]

Superman #34 preview:

[Jon11]

Source: We Got This Covered.

[Knightsilver]

Source: We Got This Covered.

Wasn't expecting a preview this soon,not that I'm complaining. Thanks!