2010 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

Superman Painting

April 19, 2010: The Case of the Missing Superman Painting

The New York Times has published an article about the search for the large Superman painting by H.J. Ward that used to hang in the offices of DC Comics, but which had long been missing... whereabouts unknown.

    It all began as Mr. Saunders prepared a biography of the illustrator who painted it, H.J. Ward, who had studied with the prolific painter N.C. Wyeth and also created portraits of the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet. Mr. Saunders knew about the Superman painting because it had been reproduced on Page 45 of "Superman: The Complete History, the Life and Times of the Man of Steel" (Chronicle, 1998). But where was the painting itself?

    Mr. Saunders said that as far as he could tell, the painting disappeared after Donenfeld retired in 1957. All that remained, he said, was a single color snapshot. He said that that photograph had served as the basis for a cover of a "limited collector's edition Superman comic" in the mid-1970s.

    "The image that existed was very low quality," he said. "I called DC and asked them and their archivist if they could help me find a high-quality original. They said the painting had been lost for over 50 years. The only thing that exists is an amateur color snapshot."

Read the complete article at the NYTimes.com to find out where the painting was finally located.



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