2011 Comic Book News Archives

December 1, 2011: The Changing Face of Superman

Superman NPR.org has published an interesting blog that looks at the way Superman's face has been drawn over the past 70+ years by different artists.

    Unlike many of his compatriots, who hide themselves behind masks of various baroque design, The Man of Steel still gazes out at the world from behind the unnervingly symmetrical, blandly handsome features of a 1930s movie idol.

    Key aspects of his visage haven't changed at all: The strong jaw, the defined cheekbones, the cleft chin. The hair, so impossibly black that early colorists had to throw in blue highlights to keep the printing processes of the day from making it look like an inky smudge, a bug squashed between the pages. And whether he grows it short, long or achy-breaky (oh, you'll see), one thing about his hairstyle remains constant: that single S-curl descending from his hairline like the tail of a lemur.

Check out the article which features drawings by Joe Shuster, Al Plastino, Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, John Byrne, Ed McGuinness and many others.

Thanks to DougEl, Jason Broyles and Jeff Taylor for bringing this to my attention.



2011 Comic News

Listed below are all the Comic News items archived for 2011.


Back to the News Archive Contents page.

Back to the Latest News page.