#wayne boring

[comic-covers]

(1947)

[tomoleary]

Michael Netzer's Portraits of the Creators Sketchbook

Gray Morrow, Lou Fine, Marshall Rogers, Wayne Boring, Norman Breyfogle, Eduardo Barreto, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Marie Severin, Dave Cockrum

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Superman - Cover art by Wayne Boring (1944)

[curtvilescomic]

Superman art paired with some of his major arrists

[cantsayidont]

August 1940. Perhaps the most important Superman story never published: In the summer of 1940, Jerry Siegel wrote a complete script for a 26-page Superman epic (the length of two normal Superman stories of this period) in which Superman is weakened by a passing meteor of radioactive metal from the destroyed planet Krypton, here called "K-Metal." That alone would have been noteworthy, but that's far from all. Later in the story, Superman reveals his true identity to the survivors of a mine cave-in, including Lois Lane!

The other three witnesses are subsequently killed, but Lois now knows the truth. She and Superman then have the following conversation:

LOIS: Now I begin to see. Your attitude of cowardliness as Clark Kent-- It was just a screen to keep the world from learning who you really are! But there's one thing I must know: Was your--er--affection for me, in your role as Clark, also a pretense? SUPERMAN: THAT was the genuine article, Lois! LOIS: How foolish you were not to let me in on the secret! You should have known you could trust me! Why-- Don't you realize-- I might even be of great help to you? SUPERMAN: You're right! There were many times when I could have used the assistance of a confederate. Why didn't I think of it before? LOIS: Then it's settled! We're to be--partners! SUPERMAN: Yes -- partners!

It isn't quite so easy, however. After returning to Metropolis, Lois tells Clark, "I just remembered how long you've secretly been laughing at me! I don't like to be laughed at, Clark Kent-- But-- I'll assist you… Only for the good of humanity, however!"

Most of the art for this story was completed, or nearly completed, by Joe Shuster's shop artists before National-DC pulled the plug. The exact reasons are now unknown, although the most likely explanation is that the story just seemed like too much of a shift in the established dynamics of the Superman strip, which was by then running in newspapers and on the radio as well as in the comics. K-Metal, renamed Kryptonite, resurfaced in a 1943 radio storyline, which borrows some elements from this script, but Kryptonite wouldn't appear in the comics until 1949, and it wouldn't be until decades later that Lois Lane really and truly learned the secret.

For background on this story, see Mark Waid's article in ALTER EGO #26 (July 2003). The Superman Through the Ages website has a nearly complete recreation of the full story, done by modern artists (in color) based on the surviving pages of original art and Siegel's script, which Waid had carefully retyped using the same kind of typewriter Siegel used.

[evilhorse]

You are growing sleepy—your will is mine!

[eliah]

[dcbinges]

Action Comics #9 (1939) by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster & Wayne Boring

[brevoorthistoryofcomics]

BHOC: THOR #280

This was one of the strangest issues of THOR that I bought as a relatively new Marvel reader, and I didn’t completely understand why for several years, until I had learned enough about the history of comics to be able to fully appreciate it. Ever since the end of his Ragnarok storyline, writer/editor Roy Thomas had been stalling the start of his Eternals saga, and this was another stall-tactic,…

[daily-bruce-wayne]

[browsethestacks]

Original Art - Superman Hand Colored Illustration (1985)

"The Secret Origin Of Superman"

Art by Wayne Boring

[comic-covers]

(1966)

[chernobog13]

Secret Origins (vol. 2) #1 (April, 1986). Written by Roy Thomas. Pencilled by Wayne Boring. Inked by Jerry Ordway. Colored by Gene D'Angelo. Lettered by David Cody Weiss.

[superman-the-secret-third-thing]

It's pretty noticeable when Shuster finished his run and Wayne Boring took over- you know what? Here's a game. Can you note the major differences between Boring and Shuster's Lois and Clark?

Wayne Boring, Action Comics #119 (1948)

Wayne Boring, Superman #53 (1948)

VS.

Joe Shuster, Superman #43 (1947)

Joe Shuster, Action Comics #99 (1946)

[p-c-ba-dcforever]

Superman vs. chains 2

[cantsayidont]

January–February 1950. Superman meets Orson Welles in the cover story of SUPERMAN #62. This is bizarre little story, because while the plot (which has Welles accidentally sent to Mars in a rocket and embroiled in a Martian plan to invade the Earth) is obviously riffing on Welles' famous 1938 Mercury Theatre radio adaptation of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, the story was also timed to promote Welles' starring role in the 1949 Gregory Ratoff movie BLACK MAGIC — based on an Alexander Dumas story, with Welles as Cagliostro — and so Welles wears his movie costume throughout. There's even a cameo by his costar, Nancy Guild.

Artist Wayne Boring doesn't do a very good Welles likeness, instead suggesting a sort of STAR TREK transporter accident fusion of Errol Flynn and Franchot Tone, but it's kind of fun in a stupid way.