6th of an 8-part series. Click Here for Part 5.
Hi everyone, the Movie MILF here with the first half of Part 6 of our 8-part series on the Real Heroes of Superman... Tuesday @ 10:00PM is almost upon us, fanboys and fangirls. Have you bought your ticket yet?
Zahra and I both decided to double-team Alex Ross for today's article. I can make that joke because a) Alex's wife will probably never meet me, and b) Zahra won't get it.
If you've read any of my previous articles, you probably know that I'm a Marvel girl. Growing up with two older brothers, I used to read all of their comic books when they were finished with them, and pretty much all they bought was Marvel. In fact, I don't think I ever actually read a DC comic until The Watchmen... or The Dark Knight Returns. I don't remember which one was first.
No, my history with the Justice League was basically Saturday morning's Superfriends cartoon. I mean, I knew the basic origins and such, but I never really got into the actual comics. I loved Wonder Woman, but it was Lynda Carter's TV show of course, not the comic.
So you can imagine the absolute THRILL that went through me the day I was browsing in Barnes & Noble with my kids and came across Alex Ross' Mythology, with Superman staring me right in the face while bullets bounced off his chest. Without a moment's hesitation, I bought it. "Why are you buying that book, Mommy?" asked my 5-year-old daughter. "That's a boy book." "Oh, I just like the pictures, Sweetie," I told her. "Someday, you'll understand," I thought.
Alex Ross was born in 1970, the same year as me. There you go, by the way, for those of you who've been asking "how old is she?" He is described as a comic book "painter," not an illustrator. If you're a fan of this site, then I'm sure you are familiar with his work... he's been pigeonholed by many as the "Norman Rockwell of comic books." I guess you could say that, although I think that's a bit unfair. Lately, I think he's suffered a bit from an Alex Ross backlash, which tends to happen after receiving the kind of exposure he enjoyed around the time of Mythology's release.
But personally, I don't care about any of that fanboy whining. No, what I care about is that Alex Ross, to me, created THE definitive image of Superman.
Zahra is going to be talking about Ross' Kingdom Come in a bit, where Superman is middle-aged. Everyone I talk to always says "Ross' Superman is old!" I don't know, he doesn't look so old to me (although I'm old enough to be the mother to many of you, I'm sure.) I suppose it's all relative. No, to me, Superman looks "experienced."
Ross typically works off of a reference, whether it's a live model posing for him or a photograph of the model posing. Frank Casey is the man Ross based his paintings on for both Superman and Batman. This reference business is one of the reasons Ross comes under fire. Mythology includes some photographs of Frank, and let me tell you, the man is handsome, but he's no Superman.
And this is where Ross' work transcends the reality of the reference and moves into the hyper-real. Ross' Superman is not George Reeves, it's not Christopher Reeve, it's not the Superman from the comic books or the Superfriends... it's not even Frank Casey.
It IS Superman. THAT is what he looks like. He exists. He is, for all intent, real.
This is what appeals to me about Ross' work, and his Superman in particular. It's as if he's taken our imagination of what Superman must be and created it out of thin air. All of the "real" Supermen in the past, whether it's been the Reeves on the TV show, or Reeve in the movies, or any other flesh-and-blood incarnations of the character, have all shared one thing in common... they are just men in costumes. Don't get me wrong, I loved Christopher Reeve in Superman. But after I saw Ross' Superman, I thought "those guys were just posers."
Ross' Superman is not just a guy in a costume. He is a man. A real man. He is our ideal of what a man is and what a man looks like. And not just any man, either. I'm not talking about the Hughs or the Brads or the Harrisons of today... I'm talking the John Waynes, the Gary Coopers, the Robert Mitchums, and the Marlon Brandos of yesteryear... THOSE men. Men like our fathers, and their fathers before them. Men who did what needed to be done, and didn't ask questions or shirk responsibility. Ross' Superman is not the Superman of today... he is the Superman of 1938.
The icing on the Kryptonian cake is that sculptor Mike Hill created a wax version of Ross' Superman, based on his paintings and some photos of Frank Casey. I tried to find some images of Casey on the web, just so you could see the difference between him and the finished product, because the difference is stark. But alas, I couldn't find any, and I don't have a scanner. But you'll just have to trust me when I say it's absolutely amazing what Mike did in terms of creating a flesh-and-bone Superman. I found a link to his site where he talks about how he sculpted it here. In the meantime, feast your eyes on these amazing photos (you're welcome, ladies):
There is also a fantastic interview with Alex Ross over at IGN. Probably one of the more intimate interviews with him that I've seen. Read it for some telling insights into Ross' creative process.
Okay, next up is Zahra. Take it away, Z!
- MILF out.
Hello everyone, this is Zahra!
Being generally unfamiliar with the world of superhero comics (though I admit that these are becoming more and more interesting for me), I will be channeling my friend Sofiane (good friend, and source of all my information relating to superheroes and cult films) for some parts of the discussion. He recently lent me the DC Comics miniseries, Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and of course Alex Ross.
I thought that the miniseries was very well done, and approaches the European realism in the artwork, but there is no mistake that this is a showcase for Alex Ross's unique style.
Alex Ross had begun attracting attention for his work on Marvels, but Kingdom Come was the first substantial story that he was given where his creative talents would be needed in abundance.
The story takes place in a possible future of the DC comics world, which contains heroes such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman.
Superman as well.
In this future, the heroes we are all familiar with have aged, and their children and grandchildren have taken over with a new way of enforcing justice in the world. In this future, Superman has isolated himself from society, as a consequence of the public's desire for a "tougher" hero.
From the first page, we can see what kind of comic we could expect. We see silhouettes of angelic/demonic figures in what appears to be a major battle, and words from the Bible accompany the image. We are introduced to Norman McCay, who is a minister, and the mythological and religious introduction is thus explained as visions that haunt him, warning of an imminent crisis.
The story setup the ideal platform for emerging artist Alex Ross; the mythological and religious aspects were completely suited to his artwork, as well as the setting of an alternate world allowed him to to create something like one hundred characters, either fully invented or as evolved versions of known characters, and finally that the overall look of the comics is as though an average human being was looking up at these demi-gods, the superheroes.
Ross worked with watercolors because it allowed him to advance at a pace more appropriate for the comics world. It was very clear to me that he is a skilled painter, but that he was able to take characters formerly based in a two-dimensional world and make them three-dimensional was a truly impressive accomplishment. What is most striking about Ross's work is that he so masterfully created the majesty and awe that naturally fit with the superheroes. And the classic figure in all of this is Superman, the embodiment of everything that is heroic.
From Superman Through the Ages:
Superman's design was certainly the starting point of the entire series' look. If I wasn't as inspired by his design, the rest of the characters would have held no interest for me. Fortunately, DC allowed me to hark back to the classic Shuster-style broad body and bone structure with the wide head, short hair (a big request at the time) and a constant squint.
I was heavily influenced by the Fleischer cartoon features based on Joe Shuster's designs, with his old-fashioned 'S' logo on a black shield. This same look can be found in a few other places in the early comics themselves and always stood out to me as a dramatic way to go with the design. The stylistic change I brought to the letter is meant to show the passage of time. As it has changed since 1938, it could further transform into the simplest graphic possible.
To get to the personal roots of the character, I wanted to illustrate the farmer's son, revisited in his later years, after he had removed himself from the super-hero business for a time. His gray temples extend into his beard and long hair, betraying a sense of his surrendering to his age. While I played up the carpenter role as well for its obvious symbolism, the bare-armed, workman look for Superman is one of his earliest, coming partly from the 1942 George Lowther novel and many pre-costume drawings by Shuster.
It occured to me that it suited the character to experience as many of the humbling aspects of humanity as he could, and aging naturally would offset his more godlike attributes. My version of Superman was the most satisfying visual and emotional accomplishment of Kingdom Come to me, as he stands out as the most compelling figure I've ever illustrated.
More information regarding Alex Ross and Kingdom Come can be found at Wikipedia or by clicking on Clark below to be redirecrted to the Alex Ross website. And to MILF, have you forgotten that the expression "ménage à trois" is in French?
See you tomorrow for Part 7!
