DC Comics is celebrating 80 years of Superman in 2018, and on Friday at WonderCon in Anaheim they assembled some of DC’s biggest names–Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Norm Rapmund, Dan Jurgens, Marv Wolfman, and Jason Fabok–to talk about the Man of Steel and two exciting upcoming releases to commemorate this huge milestone.
April 19th will see both Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman and Action Comics #1000 unleashed on the shelves of your local comic shop! Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman is a hardcover collection of new work, essays, and an unpublished Siegel and Shuster Superman story from comics legend Marv Wolfmans’ private collection, which he acquired in a very unusual way during a tour of the DC offices as a young boy. “Sol Harrison was wheeling a post office cart filled with never-published artwork from the 1940s, all written off. They were being wheeled to the incinerators,” Marv revealed. Harrison encouraged the kids to select pages that they wanted, and after much bargaining and trading Wolfman ended up with an unpublished 12 page Superman story which will finally see the light of day.
Action Comics #1000 will be a supersized 80 page issue including a bunch of fun stories, including Brian Michael Bendis’ first published DC Work. For Justice League artist Jason Fabok, the chance to work with Bendis on one of his favorite childhood characters was too good to miss. “Working with Brian Bendis is great, I’ve really loved his work for years,” Fabok shared. “And Superman is a great character, I’ve loved him ever since I was a little kid.”
DC publisher, Image Comics founder, and superstar artist Jim Lee was on hand, making some controversial statements about the return of Superman’s infamous red trunks! “It’s just red trunks, I’m not a trunkist, there is no anti-trunk sentiment here,” Jim laughed before threatening that “the trunks will come off again!” Though the general consensus is that fans prefer the trunks, Lee revealed that some passionate readers on Twitter had some seriously strong feelings about the return of the outside underoos, contacting the artist to say the return of the pants “is awful, this is the worst thing that ever happened to me!”
Though the panel was a celebration of Superman, it was also a celebration of comics legend Marv Wolfman, who’s about to hit 50 years at DC Comics. Wolfman will have work featured in both Action Comics #1000 and 80 Years of Superman, including scripting four unpublished Curt Swan pages which Wolfman repurposed for Action Comics‘ anniversary.
The panel ended with the creators sharing their favorite era of Superman, which for Jim Lee was the work of seminal supes artist Neal Adams. “I was more of a Neal Adams fan. He took the perfection that Curt Swan had done with Superman, but if he got punched you could see the swelling on the skin, so it just felt more real and alive. He was really the guy I was most influenced by,” Lee told the crowd.
Are you excited for the double team of Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman and Action Comics #1000? Can’t wait to read that secret classic issue of Superman? Just love Jim Lee? Let us know below!
Images: DC Comics
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