Gary Frank sketchbook

[DBN]

The Sketchbook has been updated.

Link

[panthergod]

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.

[Super Monkey]

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

[Composite Superman]

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.

[AMAZO]

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.

[jamespup]

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.



 

[Permanus]

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.

[JulianPerez]

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.