One of the interesting things that separates Superman from other classic literary characters is that the medium he stems from is double edged. It’s not just writers that continue the icon’s legacy, it’s artists as well. Many artists have interpreted the Man of Steel of the years, here I list my top 5 favorite…
1. Joe Shuster
Not only was Joe Shuster the original, but I honestly consider him the best. He struck a perfect balance between strength and believability, fantasy with realism. His framing is uncluttered and easy to follow. I love his subtle use of facial expressions, adding importance to those that are more exaggerated (usually reserved for people’s reactions to seeing Superman for the first time.) Call me old fashioned, but if comics were still drawn like this I’d probably read them a lot more often.
2. Alex Ross The most skilled, beautiful work in comics continually comes from Alex Ross. His paintings elevate the entire art form, giving us panel after panel of images to gaze at for hours. All of his work deserves recognition, but his Superman is especially wonderful. He gives us a real man, imperfections and all, and makes us feel his size and presence without giving him unbelievable muscles or too chiseled of a face. You believe everything in Alex Ross’s paintings and it makes the stories that much more heartfelt.
3. Max Fleischer His Superman cartoons are the straight up coolest cartoons on earth. He took a darker approach to comic art 50 years before it became “cool,” and gave us a Superman that you wanted to cheer for. It fits in perfectly with the Shuster era and adds such great physics to the character as he battles lasers, robots, and bullets.
4. Gary Frank I can’t help but love the fact that Gary Frank draws Superman to look like Christopher Reeve. For that reason alone, it makes his comics the ones that feel the most right in my mind. On top of his take on the character, he’s also probably the most skilled at facial expressions I’ve ever seen. He could tell a whole story without text, and keep the characters multi dimensional.
5. Curt Swan His Superman is probably the most famous in the comic books. I think he did an exceptional job with faces, making them defined characters, but I also think Curt Swan was the transition point into the type of comic art that I can’t stand. I feel like most artists after Swan, building on what he did, drew overly muscular heroes in overly crowded frames. That is, they tried to out-do each other and impresses artists rather than tell a story. Curt Swan shouldn’t be to blame though, I believe he struck the perfect balance between the two and his work can be enjoyed on many layers by many readers.
What do you think? Who drew YOUR Superman?