Superman & the Creeper

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

Superman teams up with everyone's favorite Ditko loon, the Creeper, in this Crisis cross-over issue of DC Comics Presents (#88, Dec. 1985). Written by Steve Englehart and inked by Karl Kesel (cover inked by Giordano), this issue shows Giffen at his finest.



This art is weird, even for Giffen. Don't get me wrong... its weirdness is what I like about it. This is before the time when Giffen was accused of plagiarism by The Comics Journal. Although the Jose Munoz influence is easily evident in subsequent works such as Ambush Bug and Jonah Hex, this issue shows Giffen's perfect blend of grotesque characters, semi indecipherable backgrounds, and design conscious page compositions all in his own style... sorta. Oh, and it has the Creeper! Who doesn't like the Creeper?




Years later, Giffen would draw the Creeper's origin (Secret Origins #18, Sept. 1987), but this early version owes more to Ditko in theme than in actual rendering. In regards to Superman, love how abstract Superman is visualized when fighting the villain.






Did Giffen's silhouette of Superman come before Miller's (to be followed by Byrne, Mignola, and Art Adams)? A pedantic note, I know, but it's the sort of detail I love to geek out about. I also particularly enjoy how in the age before Batman and Supes weren't pals, there was a character that Superman openly didn't like (early Booster Gold and Ambush Bug also come to mind).

xoxoFiffe

Comments

This

[lawrence_live.insanejournal.com]

Wow, I love that silhouette!

Re: This

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, I also like how we never really see the Creeper's face.

[thanekos.insanejournal.com]

in the Jack/Clark talking panels, it kinda sounds like Jack's been talking to Vic Sage on the weekends.

up until you hit crazy people, of course.

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Nah, Vic hits crazy people.

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

Vic Sage/Jack Ryder... in Ditko's world, what's the difference? Despite Ryder having more of sense of humor, they're pretty much the same type.

As far as NEW versions of the characters, I have no idea. Creeper gets "crazier" with every passing series and now that Vic is dead, is that girl still the Question?

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

Th art work is caca-coco in a cool way. Looks like everyone can cut veggis with their noses.

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

I agree; it's so awkward and wonderful.

[thebat_man.insanejournal.com]

I love this issues! I love the conflict between Superman and the Creeper and I love Keith Giffen's art on Superman, but no, Frank Miller's Superman silhouette came first on Superman #400 in 1984.

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

Ahk! I completely forgot about this one (since it still has the rim lighting). You're right, however. I even posted the image above in my Miller retrospective a while ago: http://master-post.livejournal.com/1402.html#cutid1

Good memory! Shame on me!

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

This is pretty interesting stuff - one thing that annoys me, however, is how the Creeper's face is consistently miscolored in regular caucasian flesh tones. He doesn't HAVE regular caucasian flesh tones, dammit - that yellow isn't tights, it's his skin! I'm not sure whether it's an artistic choice or just a repeated mistake, but either way, it bugs me. (Which is a shame, because otherwise, this version of the yellow-skinned wacky man is pretty cool.)
And I love the happy yellow lightning bolt with the pink grin that they've got for the villain. I mean, I doubt that this was the effect they were going for, but that thing's ADORABLE! Lookit that big happy smile! It's all 'yaaay! I get to be evil now! And then there'll be COOKIES!'

Cutest Villain Ever

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

I know... it's a consistent mistake. Gene D'Angelo's the colorist on this issue but I doubt it was his fault. Back then the colorist's job was to pick the colors from the guide and send hand colored photocopies to the presses. It was ultimately little old ladies cutting out pieces of color film that made comics look the way they did. Hence, offset coloring and rosy faced Creepers. Those workers didn't give a damn who these characters were... they were comics for kids... get 'em out the door...HURRY!

Imagine having to color a Barry Winsor-Smith X-men comic, cutting out all those little pieces of different colored wires and rain drops and leaves.

Re: Cutest Villain Ever

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

It's the repetition that gets to me - most of those old coloring mistakes are single, solitary things, like a leg is colored red instead of yellow, that sort of thing. As it is, there's only one panel here where the Creeper;s coloring is gotten RIGHT - and there it LOOKS like a mistake.
I've got one old comic - it's in a collection, actually, a TPB of Green Lantern - where there's a truly spectacular mistake that repeats twice. All the colors are reversed! Therefore, the Green Lanterns are suddenly the RED Lanterns, with green skin, and the Guardians, instead of being blue, are suddenly bubblegum pink. It's really bizarre

Re: Cutest Villain Ever

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

That sounds great and sad. Please post if you can!

Re: Cutest Villain Ever

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Perhaps - the thing is, I had almost worked out how posting on the old board worked when it shut down, and this one is still a mystery - I'm not very experienced at such things. If I ever get around to figuring it out properly, that'll be one of the things I post.

Re: Cutest Villain Ever

[zegas.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, I've barely managed to do so myself. Insane Journal pretty much seems like a duplicate version of LJ, so that made it a lot easier to figure out.

Sigh... memories...