Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I like Frank's realistic approach to the design, reminds me a bit of Curt Swan's style.

Link (http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/005275009.cfm)

Very, very nice. :-)

And this from Mr Frank:


I love this guy already!  Not only is the "steroid freak" look ugly, it's also impossible.  How exactly is a man supposed to GET those ridiculously huge muscles when he can lift any weight on Earth without breaking a sweat?  I mean I work out a couple times a week and I still look like Barney Fife! Logically, Superman should be the LEAST "buff" superhero in comics. 

Anyway, nice clean, classic design with the "S" the right size, for once.  I may have to pick this up.

Sounds to me like he takes the same approach to drawing Superman as Curt Swan did. I can actually see some similarities between Frank's work and Swan's. I read the note about how he depicts Darkseid, and I have to agree ... because I follow the same philisophy. Whenever I draw Darkseid, I make him massively thick and his facial features as craggy as possible without making him look like the Fantastic Four's Thing.

Applause...

Superman is back!  Bizarro FINALLY looks like an imperfect clone of Superman, too...

He seems to get it. So it looks mighty promising to be sure.

That never made sense to me either. I remember reading some story once in which someone announces "Here comes that weakling Clark Kent", and and in the picture Clark can barely get through the doorway because his shoulders are so wide. He should have a pretty average build. (Alan Moore had Miracleman's wife wondering how he could be so strong when he had the graceful musculature of a dancer, and decided it was "all in his mind".)

Gary Frank is really an amazing artist, and the Curt Swan influence is really lovely. I wasn´t expecting that. Anyway, it´s not the first time Frank draws Superman in a monthy book, he did so int the PAD Supergirl series and that was a wonderful job as well. As for the Action Comics book, RIchard Donner´s name isn´t credited in the solicitation. Is he out already??? Anyway, the old issues with Gary Frank´s art in the Supergirl series are worth tracking down. If you hate that version of the character and Peter Dvid´s writing, for Gary Frank´s art alone.

The Sketchbook has been updated.

Link (http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/005494288.cfm)

Sounds and looks like BS marvelized 'realism' again to me.


The character has had enough of this.

Superman is supposed to look physically POWERFUL.

That is the entire point of the character's visual appearance.

His costume is a muscleman's outfit. He is a circus strongman aesthetically. His archetype is derivative of Hercules and Samson, etc.

If he doesn't have a developed physique, then he looks like an average guy. Superman is NOT supposed to be an average looking guy.

That is the exact opposite of what the character is to me.

The only problem with Reeves, really, is that he was a bit too slim. mix reeves face with a more developed physique and you get the perfect Superman.

http://superman.nu/Costumes/S.php

I agree that Frank's version of Superman may be a bit too skinny, at least in those sketches. You can't have Kal-el being less physically impressive than, say, Batman. Not sure about his Lois, either, although I do appreciate that the faces of his characters don't all look the same.

I think that Supes should look strong but not steroid-pumped. Too many artists make everyone look like  The Hulk these days. Another thing that bothers me is too much anatomy showing through skin and tights. You should NOT be able to see every vein in a character's arms through tights. I think a big part of the problem is that so many artists today learned to draw by copying comics, rather than coming at it from a commercial or fine arts drawing background (though not usually with any formal training) like so many of the Gold and Silver Age artists did.

Remember when they were kicking around the idea of haviing Nicholas Cage as Superman?

I remember thinking at the time how much sense that made, that Superman SHOULD be built like him, not some overdeveloped muscleman.



 

Is it just me, or does Franks's Superman look as though he's spoiling for a fight? In fact, he reminds me a bit of the drunken Superman in Superman III.

You know, this brings to mind an interesting question. However did Superman get his build?

There's the possibility Superman uses isometrics, pitting muscle against muscle to resist each other, a technique Charles Atlas popularized...but despite Chuck's claim to have "made a man out of Mac," isometrics are not generally as effective as weight-training, with their high-weight low-repetition, overloading muscles, and allowing recovery times.

(Doc Savage was said to have used isometric exercises to develop his physical strength, but that's really unlikely - even Charles Atlas himself used weights. Doc probably combined iso with early weight training. The "two hours of exercise he performs daily" is probably a combination of something very much like cardio, as well as his usual exercises to develop memory and his senses. Most likely the mental/senses exercises occupy more of the 2 hours than we're led to believe...very serious gymgoers, even some bodybuilders, can finish high-intensity workouts in a surprisingly short time.)

One possible explanation may be, that the longer Superman spends under a yellow sun, the more developed his muscles become. This may account for why Superman, who has spent 30 years on Earth, has a Steve Reeves/Gordon Scott build, whereas other Kryptonians who have spent far less time on a yellow sun like the Zoners, don't. As for Supergirl...Kara's been on earth for considerably less time: ten years, and also she's female and won't develop as quickly.

In THE SCIENCE OF SUPERMAN, Wolverton (and this is his speculation, not mine) guesses that Kryptonians had probably been genetically engineering their offspring for some time. That probably plays a role too. There's been some interesting work on myostatin, which inhibits muscle size. Supposedly, the production of myostatin has a genetic cause which can be turned on and off, and scientists have produced some really huge test mice.

maybe Supes does push ups inside a blackhole???

Ed Mcguinness (sp??) always drew supes so that he looked like the Hulk with a spit curl.  I guess Gary's superman is a bit to skinny but Curt Swans supes was a giant gorilla either. I always prefered the old school weight lifting guy (like wayne borings version) instead of the current oiled up body builder type (which is sorta gross)