Greetings, True Believers! Thought I’d toss a groovy treat your way, namely Andy Warhol’s 1981 tribute to Superman. It captures perhaps the most famous look of the Man of Steel--namely the incarnation created by that fabled entity known as Swanderson, a.k.a. Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, that delineating duo who defined DC’s Superman in the Bronze Age and beyond. Truly, theirs was a match made in comic book art heaven!
Now I know what you’re thinking: put any competent inker to work on pencils as beautiful and clear as Swan’s, and the finished result would naturally turn out glorious, right?? Well, it’s not as easy as it seems. While it’s true over the years Swan was paired with a plethora of good inkers –Stan Kaye, John Forte, Sheldon Moldoff, Mike Esposito, Dan Adkins, and others (including two I’ll name later), not all of them were able to spotlight and enhance Swan’s singular qualities. Some, alas, buried and/or distorted the simplicity and beauty of Swan’s lines.
But DC struck gold in 1962 when George Klein was paired with Swan (yep, the same George Klein who’s acknowledged to have inked Kirby on Fantastic Four #1). Klein contoured Swan’s pencils beautifully and provided a sense of structural depth that Swan’s work had sometimes lacked when embellished by other inkers. Swan-Klein became the house style for the Superman family of comics, primarily Superman, World’s Finest (Superman-Batman) and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Unfortunately in 1968 DC dismissed several veteran freelancers, including Klein—allegedly something to do with the talent asking for with unions and benefits (a subject for another time). Klein then landed the enviable assignment of inking John Buscema on the Avengers at rival Marvel. Klein did a superlative job on Big John’s pencils, too, until he passed away—far too early—in 1969. Klein’s style was never as slick or “high tech” as, say, Joe Sinnott’s, but it was just as precise and unfussy; and it perfectly suited the often frieze-like figures and scenes created by classicists like Swan and Buscema.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the guy who followed Klein as Swan’s chief Superman/Legion inker: Jack Abel. Now, Abel had a strong style; his slick line was distinctive and provided a surface polish, but did not always suggest mass or weight—and boy, did he like to add those huge eyelash fringes on the ladies! When paired with the right artist, Abel was magical (think Colan/Abel on Iron Man; they sure made Shellhead’s armor gleam, didn’t they?)…but on Swan, not so good. Abel’s overwhelming inks flattened Swan’s art, obscured its nuances, and rendered it, well, unSwan-like. Tell me, how much of Swan do you see in this panel from Adventure #370?
So you see inking Swan wasn’t always a slam dunk. Now let’s take a look at the gentleman whom many consider to be Swan’s definitive inker, Murphy Anderson. Anderson, who’d worked in comics since the Golden Age (he celebrated his 83rd birthday this past July), was a triple threat who could pencil, ink, or provide the complete package--full art. And you know, when you think back to some of the most striking covers of DC’s Silver Age, chances are he had a hand in them:
But wonderful as Anderson’s work in the decades prior to the Bronze Age was, it was almost just a warm up for his 1970s duet with Swan on Superman. Anderson's style is very similar to Klein's, but Anderson added even more depth and dimension to Swan’s work. In particular, it was Anderson’s facility for rendering textures—hair…musculature…civilian clothing…heck, even superhero spandex—that effectively removed the Superman cast from the fairy tale fantasyland they’d inhabited previously and brought them into the real world. Anderson made Swan’s perfect beings look human and relatable, instead of too idealized or statuesque. And not to be crass about it, but Anderson made the characters’ costumes looked like clothing and not body paint. Oh sure--there was a lot of (deserved) noise made about what people like O’Neil, Adams, Giordano, and a host of other Young Turks were doing to make stodgy ol’ DC hip and contemporary—but Anderson’s contributions can’t be discounted here; his inks on Swan’s work indisputably modernized the Superman family. This “new look” for DC’s flagship franchise helped propel the characters—and the company—into the 1970s and beyond; and it ensured their fame would continue far beyond Warhol’s proverbial 15 minutes!