Wednesday, May 21, 2014

"That's not my Superman" - Did I say that?


"That's not my Superman"

I've heard variations of that mentioned many times before, especially a lot recently. Whether it is his New52 interpretation (and the Earth2 version) or how he appears in the movies. Was about to say it myself today, but caught myself.

What held me back was a memory from many years ago.

I wasn't a regular Superman reader back then, but I would pick up an issue of Action Comics or his own book from time to time.

One of the books I did read every month was THE NEW TEEN TITIANS. As I was reading their most recent adventure, and all hope looked lost, I turned to the last page and there stood Superman.

(This story by Marv Wolfman stands out as it would lead in to the books first Annual.)

But wait, that didn't look like Superman to me, but he was of course. The problem being I was use to seeing the Man of Steel being drawn by the legendary Curt Swan. Though I had seen him drawn by other artists, Mr. Swan was the Superman artist to me at the time.

So here was the Man From Krypton drawn by another artist…

None other than the great George Perez.

This is a postcard image by George Perez from 1984, around the time I'm writing about.(Image borrowed from www.VaultCollectables.com)
Here was an artist my young mind thought was fantastic. He certainly drew all of The New Teen Titians in a way that I wished I could draw (and still wish I could), and then when he began CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTH, you couldn't pull me away from his pages.

But the problem was, his Superman didn't look anything like the Superman in my head. He didn't look like Curt Swan's Superman.

Any you know what, that's okay. I understood that back then, I really did.  I would later come to love not only Perez's Superman, but also the Man of Steel drawn by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, and many others.  Each had their own Superman, but did they match the Man of Steel in my mind. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But that's okay.

It goes for Batman as well. There are many great artists who have drawn the Dark Knight; but in my mind there is only one Bat artist and that's Jim Aparo.
Go find his work if you've never seen it. (Check out his Phantom Strange and Specter as well.)

As to interpretations of Superman in other media, I have to be honest; Superman just doesn't work for me on the big screen. Christopher Reeve's Superman came out when I was a kid, and as fun a story as it was; the character didn't do it for me. Reeve's Clark Kent really didn't do it for me.  (No on can explain to me why he allowed himself to be struck by the taxi when he first got to Metropolis. It is so annoying to me that it takes me out of the movie.)

That all said, my point is; find the Superman you like and continue to enjoy him. You've still got his comics in your collection, or can find reprints. But go and search out other versions of the character as well, and you will be surprised by how many of them you like as well.  No one said you had to like them all.

Monday, May 12, 2014

New Story: THE COP WHO WOULDN'T DIE

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Anyone who follows me on facebook or twitter (or Google+) will know I recently released a new story as an ebook.  I really hope to be doing this more often, but for now here's a little something about this one.

This short story was almost more fun to write than the original novel CLOCKWORK GENIE.

Though it didn't start off all that fun. I had begun by working up a sequel novel, but all the characters wanted their moment in the spot light and that resulted in distractions from the main plot of the book. So I pruned away some of those side lines and found a very beautiful flower, which I call:

THE COP WHO WOULDN'T DIE: A Clockwork Genie Story

Police Detective Whitney Manning escaped from the horrors of the crimes she witnessed nearly everyday into the fantasy worlds of her books. Then one day, fantasy became all too real when she met a girl with a power genie and her life would never be the same.

Having faced on of the most powerful beings on the planet, and survive battle with a dragon made of living stone, how can Detective Manning return to the everyday world of crime and murder?

She was off duty and wasn't supposed to be there when the bullet struck her chest. Detective Whitney Manning should be dead.

THE COP WHO WOULDN'T DIE

This is the first short story in a series of stories taking place in the world of CLOCKWORK GENIE, and eventually will all be collected in an anthology.

The next story in the series will be about the handsome homicide Detective Marcus Lambert as he discovers more of the secrets his new wife's family and the genie of the watch.

After this anthology is complete I will return to the second novel fresh.

To those who have read and enjoyed CLOCKWORK GENIE (which you can purchase at one of the links to the right), let me know which of characters from the book deserves their own short story.

Thank you all again for your support.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity