Cover Number Two of our Sweet Sixteen is a favorite of mine because there aren't all that many like it... even though there really should be!
On the subject of "should be's", SUPERMAN should be an very inspiring character... and he most often is, but you might not draw that impression from his COVERS!
Sure, the covers for any adventure character should depict peril - as most of them do...
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...Some offer a bit of oddball fun...
...While others throw in a touch of horror...
But, in my humble opinion, there are far to few that present the (for lack of a better word) "majesty" of Superman! Offering his special type of grandeur as an inspiration for others!
I've long viewed the cover of ACTION COMICS #425 (DC Comics, Cover Date: July, 1973) as a perfect crystallization of this idea.
If NORMAN ROCKWELL ever did a cover illustration for Superman, this is what it would be like!
Performing the "Rockwellian" duties is Nick Cardy, one of DC's best artists of the Silver Age and the transition period that immediately followed.
And, "inspired all the way", we leave you with Cover #2 of our Sweet Sixteen. As for what's next, I have no idea... it'll have to come to me (and you) tomorrow!
2 comments:
Indeed, that is a great cover, Joe! You can practically hear the words: "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"
It kind of makes me wish there were more Superman covers like this one, and, by extension, that comic book creators leaned more heavily into the inspirational side of Superman. I think this would make Superman a more distinctive and more popular character. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what limited exposure to Superman I've had, I get the impression that nowadays, he's just another superhero. He doesn't really have that aura of fighting for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" anymore. And as a result, he's more of a generic symbol of the superhero genre, rather than a symbol of inspirational ideals.
Case in point is Ted Turner's use of "Superman" as a stand-in for whatever action/adventure programming Cartoon Network was airing in the 2000s. In 2009, years after he'd been forced out of AOL Time Warner, he said of CN: "If I had control of it, I'd put 'Captain Planet' on at a top time period so that kids would see the environmental superhero instead of just Superman."
Of course, by then, Superman-related content rarely aired on CN...
Anyway, getting back to the cover, it does have that Norman Rockwell/Saturday Evening Post vibe to it.
I wish Norman Rockwell had done... not a cover for "Superman" per se... but a Superman-related cover for the Saturday Evening Post. I never had this thought before reading this post, as I never associated Rockwell with Superman before... despite the fact that they are, of course, both icons of Americana!
But there you go... that's the magic of blogging: exposure to others' thoughts gives you insights you'd never have had otherwise!
I'd be remiss, of course, if I didn't wish TIAHBlog a happy anniversary... Or is that Blogiversary?
I actually did something similar at my Georgia Guidestones blog recently, to mark a decidedly less happy anniversary: the second anniversary of the destruction of the most mysterious monument in America, and one of the most unique monuments in the world. To mark that occasion, I published ten posts, each one featuring an Elberton resident's thoughts on one of the Georgia Guidestones' guidelines for humanity.
Getting back to The Issue at Hand (in more than one sense), you're outdoing yourself with these "Sixteen Covers" posts. Each one has featured several covers, plus your usual engrossing commentary, so we're getting a lot more than just Sixteen Covers.
Looking forward to seeing the rest of the posts in this series, and to many more years of TIAHBlog!
Sergio:
Thanks for those very kind words and, when you say “But there you go... that's the magic of blogging: exposure to others' thoughts gives you insights you'd never have had otherwise!”, do know that it works BOTH WAYS! “Engrossing commentary” (as you put it) begets “engrossing comments”, which is what continues to make this effort so worthwhile to me, for over SIXTEEN YEARS!
Ted Turner was a singular, transformative force in American media, to whom we all owe a debt for the many innovations he brought about… but I MUST DISAGREE with him when he says of Cartoon Network: “If I had control of it, I'd put 'Captain Planet' on at a top time period so that kids would see the environmental superhero instead of just Superman.”
OH, PLEASE… Hadn’t we already had enough of virtually EVERY ‘70s and especially ‘80s cartoon being sanitized – if not outright PERFUMED – with friendship, pro-social, team-building, and pro-environmental messaging… to the point where nothing was “just funny” anymore?!
And the generation(s) of young ones raised on this misguided mirthless-ness are the ones who shoot-up schools… not the ones who were raised on Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, and Yogi Bear!
I so pity Averi and Cici being fed a constant entertainment diet of cute characters – all with annoyingly high squeaky voices – coming together to solve problems and rescue others! There’s not much variation in the voices either. You can close your eyes and have no idea which one of those “cute-‘n’-cuter-cookie-cutter-things” is playing! You never had THAT happen with cartoons voiced by Mel Blanc and Daws Butler!
It's small wonder that, when they visit us, Averi and Cici gravitate toward (and specifically request) The Pink Panther, The Road Runner, and (oddly) Pepe Le Pew! And their loving “Yeh-Yeh” is only too happy to oblige!
Environmental awareness does have its place – an important one, actually – but it should be PART OF THE MIX, not a property’s only reason for being! Think Junior Woodchucks, and the ecologically conscious stories Casty has done with Mickey Mouse!
And yes… Superman is now “just another superhero”, decidedly second to Batman as both a character and a franchise. So many of today’s comics and their modern-day creators have “lost their way” and forgotten what made the characters great in the first place! Why strive for greatness, when you could just “put a duck in a wolverine outfit”?!
The Superman cover I posted is exactly what we need MORE of, not just in an isolated illustration, but in overall spirit!
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