On the surface, the civilian identities of Bruce "Batman" Wayne and Clark "Superman" Kent both look pretty similar. They're both generically handsome white dudes with dark hair and chiseled jaws. At times, they've even imitated each other, in order to help the other maintain plausible deniability around their respective secret identities.

Comic artist Greg Capullo, who's done some critically acclaimed work on books like Batman, Spawn, and X-Force, as well as numerous hard rock and metal album covers, recently shared his personal approach to differentiating between the two characters in their civilian identities:

How I draw Clark vs Bruce 🤘🏻✏️🤘🏻 pic.twitter.com/D1olQ9bRcA

— Greg Capullo (@GregCapullo) July 15, 2020

Superman, he notes, has deeper set eyes, with a straight nose and thin lips as well as a cleft chin. Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, has more noticeable eyelids, along with a scooped nose, fuller lips, and a longer chin.

These are subtle distinctions, of course, but with enough artistic consistency, can really help to make a difference and bring these characters to life. Read the rest

Metropolis Kid by Model Decoy

I've known Doron Monk Flake and Ari Sadowitz since high school, and it's been an honor to watch their musical prowess grow and grow and grow. Their current project, Model Decoy, pumps out Prince-like post-punk jams, full of sick rock riffs and soaring jazzy vocals that bring gravitas to clever lyrics that are mostly about their favorite nerdy comic books and movies.

Their newest single, "Metropolis Kid," is a perfect example of this. It makes you want to tap your feet as you croon along with Superboy (being young Kon-El, the misfit clone of Superman and Lex Luthor, not that cranky bastard Superboy-Prime

You can find the band's back catalog on Spotify, but they just released "Metropolis Kid" and two other new songs exclusively on Bandcamp, which is waiving their fee today (March 20) so that struggling bands can get 100% of the proceeds of their music during this quarantine.

(If you're feeling generous, you can buy some tunes from my own band, the Roland High Life, too — we're not as funky as Model Decoy, but we do have some good banger about Spider-Man and, uhh, conspiracy theorists.)

Model Decoy on Bandcamp

Image: Pat Loika / Flickr (CC 2.0) Read the rest

In last week's Superman #18, the eponymous hero held a press conference to reveal his identity to the public. Comic book continuity is ever-shifting, of course, and the connection between Superman and Clark Kent has been known or exposed by other people before, just as the genie will someday be placed back in the bottle once again. In this particular context, Superman was inspired to come clean after learning about the lies and deceptions of his birth father, Jor-El (who also used to be dead, but now is not, because comics). This revelation also comes on the heels of an epic crossover that shattered the acronym-happy intelligence community of the DC Universe with some other truths and justices.

This curiously came on the heels of the Inspector General's report on the origins of the FBI investigation into the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. The results of this investigation were as much of a political Rorschach test as anything is these days. But one thing it did reinforce was the FBI's overconfidence in its own self-righteous status quo enforcement, for better and for worse.

While there was (unsurprisingly, IMHO) no political bias found in the FBI's motives, the IG report did note a handful of oversights and omissions that had been along the way—a detail that the President's stalwart defenders have eagerly jumped on. For anyone who's ever paid attention to anything the FBI has ever done, however, this all came across as the same standard over-zealous stuff the organization's also done—again, for better, and for worse. Read the rest

Superheroically named Infinite Tucker of Texas A&M University won the 400-meter hurdles at the 2019 SEC Track & Field Championships. He clearly wanted the win. Badly.

"...I saw my ma at the finish, and I jumped to give her a hug,” Tucker told ESPN. “That’s all it is.” Read the rest

You may not have noticed, what with there being a cellphone in pocket of almost all Americans, but according to CNN, there's still 100,000 payphone in the United States. This is great news for Maroon 5, superheroes looking for a place to change and 1930s detectives calling into to their office to talk to a sassy secretary.

For those of you too young to remember, before cellphones and smartphones were ubiquitous, staying in touch when you were out and about meant having to ask your bartender to use her phone or finding a payphone. Opting for the latter meant walking, maybe, a few blocks to find a bank of payphones or a phone booth. According to CNN, there were still two million payphones as late as 1999. Just under two decades later, that number has shrunk down to 100,000. As payphone became less profitable, the appeal for large telecoms to spend money on their upkeep lost its luster. Nowadays, when you see a payphone in the wild, it's likely owned by a smaller company with lower expectations of what an acceptable margin of profitability looks like.

That anyone is interested in maintaining a network of payphone in operation is a lifeline to those who can't afford to own a mobile phone, who's smartphone ran out of juice at the worst possible time and during disasters. In the wake of an major earthquake or other major regional event, cellphone networks can often lock up from too many people attempting to access the system at the same time. Read the rest

The perils of modern online life even affect the Man of Steel. Jimmy Olsen's snap run through Facebook's evil autotagging is more observant than Lois. Lots more brilliant stuff by Brakken here. Read the rest

This would have been better. (stryderHD)

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Artist, designer, and model Kay Pike transformed herself into Superman using body paint. Read the rest

George Reeves remains my fave.

Previously: The Evolution of Batman.

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This looks much more fun to me than whatever's coming next year. (YouTube)

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If we learn anything from this video, it's that road rage is incredibly embarrassing, but also that the phrase "PUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH SHUT" should live forever.

Parisian photographer Jackie Tadeoni Sacha Goldberger created this wonderful series of superheroes (and Snow White!) as subjects of Baroque Flemish portraits. Read the rest

The most valuable comic book in the world, a fine copy of Action Comics #1 (June 1938) with the debut of Superman, is up for auction on eBay in a benefit for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Here's the story of its provenance:

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Superman artist Joe Shuster would have turned 100 today. Artist Drew Friedman celebrates the occasion by unveiling a new portrait of Siegel and his partner Jerry Shuster.

My new portrait of artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel, circa 1939 in Cleveland, shortly after they signed away all the rights to their new character Superman to National/DC comics for the total sum of $130. The check they endorsed was actually for over $400, padded out with other payments due them, no doubt to make the signing more enticing.

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The original art from Action Comics number 15 sold for the price of a house at auction this week.It's interesting that the earlier covers of Action Comics either do not exist, or are stashed away somewhere and forgotten.

The earliest Superman cover art known to exist – Fred Guardineer’s action-packed tableau from 1939 of the Man of Steel from Action Comics #15 – brought $286,800 at Heritage Auctions on Feb. 22 in New York.

“Guardineer’s cover is the earliest Superman cover art in existence,” said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President at Heritage, “and an absolute treasure of comics history. A price like this shows just how much collectors covet a rarity like this.”

The Action #15 cover depicts Superman in full hero mode, saving a distressed U.S. Submarine just a few feet from a presumably bad end in the depths of the ocean, without seemingly an ounce of strain.

It was purchased by Richard Evans, of Houston, TX, who owns Bedrock City Comics Company. He has said that he plans to display the cover in his shop.

“I’m just a big fan,” he said.

Fred Guardineer Action Comics #15 Superman Cover Original Art Read the rest

Herbert Chaves, 35, continues his surgical transformation into Superman:

“I feel like a Superhero whenever I pull on the costume, but my mission is not to save the world but to help in my own small way and bring a smile to the faces of local children… I don’t have any regrets at all. People come up to me in the street all the time and want their picture taken with me… They are all really excited to see a real-life Superman in the Philippines.”

"Superman Fan Had 19 Surgeries To Look Like Clark Kent" (The Inquisitr)

  Man undergoes extensive plastic surgery to look like Superman ... Read the rest

His constant presence in pop culture is so pervasive that it's easy to forget he reached a milestone anniversary this year. One look around San Diego Comic-Con this month, and you'd have spotted the star of the show, continuing to fight for truth, justice and the American way even after 75 years. Superman is here to stay. Read the rest