During the Bronze Age DC Comics tapped longtime Aquaman artist Nick Cardy to do most of their covers giving the whole line a warm and friendly look. Cardy came up with some truly memorable images, though his style seemed less well suited to Batman who always looked a bit too chummy when Cardy drew him, at least compared to the stern image developed by Neal Adams about the same time.
But while Cardy's style might not have been ideal for Batman, it was exactly that for Superman. Cardy produced some fantastic covers for Superman and especially Action Comics. Many of these touched on the Superman mythology in a somewhat winking way, if not breaking the famous Fourth Wall, then certainly denting it.
The cover above does just that with a young boy clearly an adoring fan of the Man of Steel, so much so that he is surrounded by some somewhat generic but still oddly specific Superman books and other ancillary material.
At the same time the boy looks at the poster in his room of the Man of Tomorrow, Superman flies by his window adopting a pose very reminiscent of a classic pose used by Neal Adams on a particularly impressive cover of the comic.
That same pose is used on a record album which features some of the vintage Superman radio adventures from decades gone by. Looking at the floor of the boy's room and you can see perhaps this very album.
Another book on his floor might well be the Bonanza volume above, the only book of the correct vintage which I can locate to serve the purpose.
On the wall you can see a simplified version of this fascinating Map of Krypton.
And almost certainly this Amazing World of Superman is on the floor also.
The poster I can find no match for, the only poster of the correct vintage I've found is this zingy one with Superman expressing his desire for peace in our time, or is that victory.
Cardy drew a lot of great Superman images, some of my favorites. Here are some which push at the Fourth Wall just a bit.
Rip Off
No comments:
Post a Comment