Top 5 Superman Artists

With his debut in Action Comics #1 in 1939, Superman launched the comic book superhero. During his 72 year history, the Man of Steel’s adventures have been illustrated by many of the greatest artists in the comic book industry. These men are not only great illustrators and storytellers but during their tenures as Superman artists they produced the seminal work in Superman’s ongoing battle for “Truth, Justice and the American Way!“

5 Neal Adams

Neal Adams was one of the pioneers of realism in comic book illustration. Adams exploded onto the scene in the late Silver Age and by the early 1970s he was one of the most sought after talents in the industry. His contribution to the Man of Steel are hundreds of beautiful covers for Action Comics, Superman and Superboy (not to mention Superman as part of the JLA). Unfortunately, he drew interiors for only one issue of Superman, Issue #254.

4 Joe Shuster

Joe Shuster, with writer Joel Siegel, kicked off the age of the Superheroes (which I’m happy to say is still alive and well). Compared to the art in a modern comic book, Shuster’s work appears less polished (true) and more juvenile (arguable). One thing his art has in spades is energy. Leaf through an early_ Action Comics_ or Superman comic and you can see why the Man of Steel captured the imaginations of generations of the young at heart. Joe Shuster made everyone “believe a man can fly”.

3 John Byrne

By the late 1980s, Superman was in a bit of a creative rut. Superman was seen by many fans as hopelessly out-of-date and increasingly irrelevant. He was your GRANDfather’s superhero.

After DC’s major spring cleaning event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, John Byrne was tapped to modernize the company’s flagship character. Byrne toned-down Superman’s god-level powers, scrapped some of the crazier aspects of Superman canon (such as a full spectrum of crazy kryptonite colors). His high-energy artwork (Byrne is a master of superhero battles) leapt off the page in 1986’s Man of Steel miniseries and his subsequent reboot of Action Comics and Superman.

2 Curt Swan

Curt Swan is the quintessential Superman artist of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He drew Superman in Action Comics, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Superman, and World’s Finest, and drew Superboy in Adventure Comics for over 3 decades. His swan song (sorry…this pun was too good to leave in the holster) was the “final Superman story” Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow (Superman #423 & Action Comics #583) in 1985 as DC prepared to reboot of their iconic character in Man of Steel.

1 José Luis García-López

If you own a Superman lunchbox, t-shirt, button or other piece of merch, chances are you own a piece of Garcia-Lopez’s artwork.

Besides his stints as penciller on Action Comics, Superman and Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Garcia-Lopez also defined and refined the look of the DC Universe in DC Comics Style Guide in 1982. Garcia-Lopez is the Artist’s Artist and his mark on the Man of Steel (and the wider DC Universe) endures to this day.

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