Gary Frank sketchbook

[DBN]

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

Link

[nightwing]

Very, very nice. :-)

And this from Mr Frank:

“I don’t understand the ‘monstrously huge’ approach at all. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how big your pec is, you aren’t going to stop a bullet with it. Superman’s power doesn’t come from having a buff physique; it comes from the fact that he’s from Krypton. So it makes no sense to me that he needs to look like a steroid freak. Plus, he also has to look right as Clark.”

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.

[Bill 9000]

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.

[MatterEaterLad]

“I don’t understand the ‘monstrously huge’ approach at all. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how big your pec is, you aren’t going to stop a bullet with it. Superman’s power doesn’t come from having a buff physique; it comes from the fact that he’s from Krypton. So it makes no sense to me that he needs to look like a steroid freak. Plus, he also has to look right as Clark.”

Applause...

[davidelliott]

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

[Super Monkey]

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

[Permanus]

“I don’t understand the ‘monstrously huge’ approach at all. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how big your pec is, you aren’t going to stop a bullet with it. Superman’s power doesn’t come from having a buff physique; it comes from the fact that he’s from Krypton. So it makes no sense to me that he needs to look like a steroid freak. Plus, he also has to look right as Clark.”

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. 

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".)

[Superman Forever]

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.