Superman ‘86 to '99 Extra: Jon Bogdanove Appreciation!
Superman ‘86 to '99 Extra: Jon Bogdanove Appreciation!
I had the honor of meeting '90s Superman artist Jon Bogdanove the other day at a con, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about him. During his panel, Jon told some stories about this era of Superman comics, most of which I already knew, but some that I’d never heard. For example:
Bogdanove joined the Superman titles in 1991 when Superman: The Man of Steel started, but it turns out that DC editor Mike Carlin had been courting him since 1988. However, Jon was a such a big Superman fan (dude named his son “Kal-El”) that he felt like his art wasn’t good enough for Superman yet and waited three years before saying yes. The above pin-up is from Action #600 in 1988, so his story checks out.
The way the Superman books worked in the '90s was that the creative teams for Superman, Adventures, Action and Man of Steel would meet once a year to discuss ideas and everyone from the editor to the colorist would have a say in the stories. According to Jon, Mike Carlin’s idea behind this method was to recreate the Marvel Age of Comics from the '60s, back when Stan Lee would discuss ideas with his artists before they were written. He wanted Superman to be the Marvel-est comic ever published by DC.
Here’s a thing I did know: “Death of Superman” was born because during one of those meetings, they had decided to get Clark Kent and Lois Lane married at the end of 1992, but Warner Bros. said no (because the show Lois & Clark was about to start and they weren’t married there), so they had to start from scratch. A frustrated Jerry Ordway said “Let’s just kill him” and the others dug the idea.
And here’s a thing I DIDN’T know: According to Jon, the year-long story they’d planned that would culminate in Superman’s marriage in '92 was way, way better than the one that was eventually published in '96. Now I wanna know what that was.
Personally, I went from hating Bogdanove’s style when I was a kid because it was too weird (I was all about Dan Jurgens) to thinking he’s the best and most dynamic Superman artist of this era. The fact that there were some Superman comics by Jon Bogdanove that I’d never read was a big part of my impetus to complete the '86 to '99 period. So, it was amazing to shake hands with him (and Kal-El!) and to hear that they remembered me from a message I sent them last year about donating to their Kickstarter project, Strongman.
By the way, he’s still as great as ever: here’s a recent cover he did in the style of several classic Superman artists (including himself).
(And no, I didn’t get any comics signed by him, because I’m dumb and forgot to bring any of the dozens I have in my home.)