Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Ahem...this is in the mail as they say. Post your super originals here. Lets see what ya got!

(http://myspace-860.vo.llnwd.net/00337/06/85/337735860_l.jpg)

Is that from a published story?  If I didn't know better, I'd say that was a Wayne Boring Superboy-Prime story!

:s:

LOL, that was the 1st thing that thought too.

What story is that from?

I have no idea - when greatness is offered up, you just buy! :s:

Certainly looks Crisis-related, especially from what I was able to decipher from the faintly-printed reporter's dialogue:
                   
                    Astronomers have
                    detected a large cloud
                    in space heading toward
                    Earth at fantastic speed.
                    Spectroscopic analysis
                    indicates it is of a virulent
                    nature.  Calls are being
                    sent out for the Justice --

Very curious.  Is this artwork evidence that another Superboy-Prime story was cancelled in mid-production? These scenes do not match up with any of the DCCP #87 or Superman #414 stories, (note the "Page 3") though it MIGHT be possible that sequences in Superman #414 were shuffled to include an earlier Superman/Superboy-Prime panel.  On the other hand, by this point in time the antimatter wall had already reached Earth-1 (remember Supergirl rescuing the pilot during her "pep talk" with Batgirl?), and the reporter can't be from Earth-Prime.

And Wayne Boring had been let go from DC in 1967, long before the Crisis, so if it IS his artwork then that "Superboy" CAN'T be "Prime" and the "virulent space cloud" isn't antimatter but a very eerie coincidence.  Could this be a "forgotten" Earth-2 Superman / Earth-1 SuperBOY adventure that occurred long before Barry Allen met Jay Garrick?

I certainly would like to know more about this artwork.

I just sent an email to the guy I bought it from and see if he knows.
Boring did do that Secret Origin special of the golden age Superman in the mid late 80s.

It looks like a WGBS camera as well --at least Bronze Age, no?

I was checking the GCD last nite and any Boring post his departure from DC circa late 60s-early 70s was for Marvel EXCEPT for that Secret Origins ish and NO SUPERBOY in that.

So lets say its UNPUBLISHED

I think that is a GBS camera, and probably Lana Lang, with a decidedly 80's-style mane of "big hair."

This could be something DC commissioned during the Crisis era and never used, or maybe a study for a private commission around then.  Or maybe just a doodle or "tryout page" Boring did for fun or to get work from DC.

It certainly would be interesting to know for sure, but my money's on this being from the Crisis era.

Come to think of it, this would have been a great angle for the Crisis series to take.  A lot of the old-timers were still around in 1986; wouldn't it have been cool if, as realities began to merge in the wake of the fight at the dawn of time, we got panels or whole pages drawn by Boring, Dick Sprang, Curt Swan, Ramona Fradon, Nick Cardy, Mart Nodell and so on, as if the Universe was trying to "decide" what shape the new reality would take?

or it could just be a fake...  :oops:

Nope.  Ive seen other Boring sketches such as his proposal for an adaptation of the Scarlet Letter - taint a fake, McGee.

If this IS a Wayne Boring work, and if it IS depicting the Crisis, then this must be among Wayne Boring's last Superman-related drawings.  (I agree that the news camera "S" probably stands for "WGBS", and the reporter is likely Lana Lang -- signalling late Bronze Age.)

Wayne Boring died of a heart attack in 1987.  Some years prior to his death, he had semi-retired from the comics industry and worked as a daytime bank security guard.  But perhaps around 1984 he was approached by DC to do a few tryout pages?  Or was this from a cancelled Post-Crisis "flashback" story that was supposed to appear between the Crisis and the Bryne reboot?  (Unlike Supergirl and old Kal-L, Superboy-Prime WAS remembered Post-Crisis, even by the Byrne "Man of Steel".)

One wonders what the storyline was about -- could this have explained what actually happened to Superboy-Prime between the time he was sucked away by that cosmic vortex and when he finally joined the heroes during the Crisis?  Remember, he revealed that Earth-Prime was destroyed, but he never explained HOW he knew.

"Curiouser and curiouser..."

Kind of like the "recent" World's Funnest Comics, where Mxy and Bat-Mite destroy the multiverse --one of my favorite DC projects of the last 20 years.  Did anyone see Ramona Fradon's work in the Spongebob Special last year?

Bank Security Guard?  First time I've heard this sad story.  Boring was one of the greats! Iconic!

More on topic: I don't have a scan handy of my Curt Swan page featuring the Queen Bee, Zazala, the JLA, and a super-Clark Kent from Action 443 because it's framed on the wall, but this Mazzucchelli Batman page is making the rounds:

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/yours_for_12000_or_perhaps_more/

$12 grand for THAT? Maybe an Infantino Flash or Kirby FF or a Joe Shuster Supes? Then again Ive seen $15K for  new Jim Lee DC icons. Insane.

Think Ill go get a Darwyn Cooke New Fronteir page for a hundred or so. :roll:

You can find a 1984 Amazing Heroes interview with Wayne Boring at:

http://www.wayneboring.com/

(Select the interview and click the "View" button right above the mauve copyright box.)

There's some interesting insights on Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, their legal battle with DC (they also sued Boring!), and Boring's ultimate firing by Mort Weisinger.

Thanx 4 da lynx dto

Well that interview wasn't as sad as I expected.  Except for the bit about the firing.  That Weisinger!  What a jerk.