Wednesday 21 July 2010

CURT SWAN - THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN PENCIL...

 
Copyright DC COMICS

Study that cover - doesn't SUPERMAN look as if he's actually hovering in mid-flight outside CLARK KENT's high-rise apartment?  You really do believe a man can fly!  Doesn't Clark look like he's really clinging on for dear life to avoid falling to his doom?

Artists like ALEX ROSS have accustomed us to realistic depictions of superheroes - but, back in the '60s - CURT SWAN had been there, done that, and bought the celebration mug - at time when comicbooks were regarded as kid-stuff and as far removed from realistic illustration as could be.

The cover has an almost 3D quality to it, and when I look at it, I wonder why, back in the early '80s, many then-current "new kids on the block" artists described Curt Swan's work as "boring".  I don't think it was boring - he just had an uncanny knack for making fantastic events look as if he'd glanced out of his window and recorded them on artboard as they happened.  The word I'm looking for is - real!

I remember this cover from my childhood, and the effect it had on me then.  It still has that effect today.  That takes a special kind of  talent - and talent was what Curt Swan had in spades!

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