Superman by Moebius
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Elliot S! Maggin,
writer of Superman #400, notes:
Start to finish, this book has been an ambitious project. I suppose you could date its beginnings from
sometime in 1976, when Cary Bates and I collaborated
on the script of Superman #300. That was a speculative story on future
history, as this is, but this expands the scope of that speculation.
"I want to get all sorts of artists in on this,"
Julie Schwartz growled.
Julie does not talk; he growls. He growled that he wanted artists who had
never done a Superman story before, who could reinterpret Superman according
to their own peculiar styles. "Joe Orlando,"
he said, and I said now he'd be
great, and he's just down the hall. "Jack
Kirby," he said, and I said really?
You really think we can get him to do something?
"Frank Miller, Will Eisner,
Berni Wrightson,
Terry Austin, Marshall Rogers, Wendy Pini, Howard Chaykin,
Al Williamson,
Mike Kaluta,
Klaus Janson, Moebius, John Byrne,
Jack
Davis, Leonard Starr,
Brian Bolland, Walt Simonson, Mike Grell, Steve
Ditko, Jerry Robinson, Bill Sienkiewicz - plus a
literary salute from Ray Bradbury,"
he said, and I started thinking the old bugger's brain was getting buggy.
"Steranko,"
Julie said, and I laughed. Now I knew he was joking.
Never underestimate the moral power of a megalomaniacal editor with
forty years of experience behind him at badgering, buttering, and blowing off
steam. Never underestimate the emotional power of the greatest fantasy
legend the American culture has yet produced.
Julie, with some help from the talent coordinator, Sal Amendola, got them.
From the far corners of the Earth, artists of dizzying stature flocked
to add to their portfolios a contribution to the ongoing myth of Superman
and - perhaps equally impressive in the professional world in which they
live - for a chance to work with Julie Schwartz. Those who couldn't illustrate
one of the story sequences found the time to do a pin-up page.
Those who couldn't do a long story had their obliging writer supply an installment of suitable length.
My old buddy Howard Chaykin offered a breathtaking cover painting.
Steranko got so caught up in the fictional premise that he took it in his
own hands to extend it further,
adding speculation as to the twenty-first
century
disappearance of Superman to which I alluded.
This is a story I have wanted to tell for a long time. As a history buff I
have often mused on the changes, over the years, in the way we view our
own past. "Let history be the judge,"
our leaders often say, not noticing
that history does not judge with one voice. Judgements and evaluations of the
great ones among us change as surely as the fortunes of living
men and women rise and fall and rise again. So does the historic attitude
toward Superman change and flow as life flows, in the storytelling, from
the hands of one writer to another, among the pens and brushes of many artists.
That is the story I have hoped to bring to you, showing the very changes
the story talks about, through the changing hands of the artists through whose
visions my words pass.
It is a rare opportunity for a writer to work with so many of such towering
talent. I hope you find my words worthy of their storytelling.
Elliot S! Maggin
New Hampshire
February 1984
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George Reeves as Clark Kent
by Frank Miller
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Superman #400 is available in the back-issue bins of finer comic book
shops everywhere.
