The Eisner Awards of 1997

 

As I mentioned in the weekly reading of issue 51, Alan Moore won the Eisner for Best Writer for his work on From Hell and Supreme. I shouldn't get too excited about this, considering he won it based on From Hell alone the year before, but I think the Eisners were right to recognize what he was doing at Awesome, as well. I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at some of the other winners (and a few also rans) to get a good snapshot of what the comics industry looked like in 1997.

Moore beat out Kurt Busiek for Astro City and Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Neil Gaiman for The Sandman (which had finished its run) and Death: The Time of Your Life, John Ostrander for The Spectre, James Robinson for Starman and Leave It to Chance, and Mark Waid of Kingdom Come and other series.

In other awards, DC Comics was producing some of the most recognized work with Batman: Black and White and Kingdom Come picking up several awards. Kurt Busiek's brilliant Astro City was recognized as it started up its second volume. James Robinson was getting recognized for Leave it to Chance and Starman as was Mike Mignola for Hellboy: Wake the Devil.

Our good friend Todd Klein (the most honored man in Eisner history--as of 2013, he had only not won the best lettering award five times!) won best lettering, though not for his work on Supreme. Then again, he was cited for Sandman, Death, House of Secrets, The Dreaming, Batman, The Spectre and Kingdom Come, so they may have just run out of room on the award!

The Hall of Fame inductees had ties to Moore's Supreme and Awesome work as Gil Kane (who will work on Supreme and Judgment Day), Julius Schwartz (the longtime Superman editor who hired Moore to write Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow) and Curt Swan (the brilliant silver-age Superman artist) were all inducted with Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.

The full list of winners and nominees is below:

1997 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners

The nominated creators have been recognized by their peers for having produced some of the outstanding achievements in comics in 1996.
(Winners are in bold and marked with *)
 
Best Short Story

• "Gentlemanhog," Jim Woodring, Frank #1 (Fantagraphics)
• "Heroes," Archie Goodwin and Gary Gianni, Batman: Black & White #4 (DC Comics) *
• "Joy Ride," Carol Lay, Joy Ride and Other Stories (Kitchen Sink)
• "The Nearness of You," Wizard Presents Kurt Busiek's Astro City, vol. 2, #1/2 (Homage/Wizard Press)
• "Oracle-Year One: Born of Hope," John Ostrander, Kim Yale, Brian Stelfreeze, and Karl Story, Batman Chronicles #5 (DC)
• "Perpetual Mourning," Ted McKeever, Batman: Black & White #1 (DC)

Best Single Issue

• Giant THB Parade, Paul Pope (Horse Press)
• Kane #13: "Point of View," Paul Grist (Dancing Elephant Press)
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City, vol. 2, #1: "Welcome to Astro City," Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Will Blyberg (Jukebox Productions/Homage) *
• Elric #0: Neil Gaiman's "One Life Furnished in Early Moorcock," adapted by P. Craig Russell (Topps)
• Optic Nerve #3, Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Sandman #75: "The Tempest," Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess (DC/Vertigo)
• Stray Bullets #10: "Here Comes the Circus," David Lapham (El Capitan)

Best Serialized Story

• Captain America #450-453: "Man Without a Country," Mark Waid, Ron Garney, and Scott Koblish (Marvel)
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City Vol. 2, #2-3: "Everyday Life/Adventures in Other Worlds," Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Will Blyberg (Jukebox Productions/Homage)
• Starman #20-23: "Sand and Stars," James Robinson, Tony Harris, Guy Davis, and Wade von Grawbadger (DC) *
• Strangers in Paradise #10-13: "It's a Good Life" Terry Moore (Abstract Studios/Homage)
• Usagi Yojimbo #1-2: "Noodles," Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)
• Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #604-606: "The Universal Solvent," Don Rosa (Gladstone)

Best Continuing Series

• Akiko, Mark Crilley (Sirius)
• Kane, Paul Grist (Dancing Elephant Press)
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Will Blyberg (Jukebox Productions/Homage) *
• Starman, James Robinson, Tony Harris, and Wade von Grawbadger (DC)
• Strangehaven, Gary Spencer Millidge (Abiogenesis Press)
• Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore (Abstract Studios/Homage)

Best Limited Series

• Age of Reptiles: The Hunt, Ricardo Delgado (Dark Horse)
• Batman: Black and White, Mark Chiarello and Scott Peterson, eds. (DC)
• Death: The Time of Your Life, Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham, and Mark Pennington (DC/Vertigo)
• Gon, Masashi Tanaka (Paradox Press)
• Kingdom Come, Mark Waid and Alex Ross (DC) *
• The System, Peter Kuper (DC/Vertigo Verite)
• Terminal City, Dean Motter and Michael Lark (DC/Vertigo)

Best New Series

• Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller, Barry Windsor-Smith (Dark Horse)
• Coventry, Bill Willingham (Fantagraphics)
• Leave It to Chance, James Robinson and Paul Smith (Homage) *
• Nowhere, Debbie Drechsler (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Wretch, Phillip Hester and others (Caliber)

Best Comics Publication for a Younger Audience

• Akiko, Mark Crilley (Sirius)
• Leave It to Chance, James Robinson and Paul Smith (Homage) *
• Patty Cake, Scott Roberts (Permanent Press/Tapestry)
• Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe (Marvel)
• Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)
• Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, John Clark, ed. (Gladstone)

Best Humor Publication

• Empty Love Stories #2, Steve Darnall and various artists (Slave Labor)
• Joy Ride and Other Stories, Carol Lay (Kitchen Sink)
• Patty Cake, Scott Roberts (Permanent Press/Tapestry)
• Ragmop, Rob Walton (Planet Lucy)
• Sergio Aragones Destroys DC (DC) and Sergio Aragones Massacres Marvel (Marvel), Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones *

Best Anthology

• Batman: Black and White, Mark Chiarello and Scott Peterson, eds. (DC) *
• Big Book of Hoaxes, Carl Sifakis and various artists, Jim Higgins, ed. (Paradox Press)
• A Decade of Dark Horse, Randy Stradley, ed. (Dark Horse)
• Negative Burn, Joe Pruett, ed. (Caliber)
• Shi: Kaidan, Peter Guittierrez and various artists, Tony Bedard, ed. (Crusade)

Best Graphic Album-New

• Adolf: graphic novel series (vols. 2-5), Osamu Tezuka (Cadence Books)
• Batman and Captain America, John Byrne (DC/Marvel)
• Castle Waiting: The Curse of Brambly Hedge, Linda Medley (OLIO)
• Fax from Sarajevo, Joe Kubert (Dark Horse Books) *
• Marilyn: The Story of a Woman, Kathryn Hyatt (Seven Stories Press)

Best Graphic Album-Reprint

• Daddy's Girl, Debbie Drechsler (Fantagraphics)
• It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken, Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City, Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson (Jukebox Productions/Homage)
• Mr. Monster: Origins, Michael T. Gilbert (Graphitti Designs)
• Sandman: The Wake, Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli, Jon J. Muth, Charles Vess (DC/Vertigo)
• Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism, David Lapham (El Capitan) *

Best Archival Collection

• Aviation Art of Russell Keaton (Kitchen Sink)
• Blueberry Saga: Confederate Gold, Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud (Mojo Press)
• Li'l Abner, vol. 22-24, Al Capp (Kitchen Sink)
• Nine Lives to Live: A Classic Felix Celebration, Otto Mesmer (Fantagraphics)
• Tarzan: The Land That Time Forgot and The Pool of Time, Russ Manning (Dark Horse) *

Best Writer

• Kurt Busiek, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (Jukebox Productions/Homage); Untold Tales of Spider-Man (Marvel)
• Neil Gaiman, The Sandman; Death: The Time of Your Life (DC/Vertigo)
• Alan Moore, From Hell (Kitchen Sink); Supreme (Maximum Press) *
• John Ostrander, The Spectre (DC)
• James Robinson, Starman (DC); Leave It to Chance (Homage)
• Mark Waid, Flash; Impulse; Kingdom Come (DC); Captain America (Marvel)

Best Writer/Artist-Humor

• Mark Crilley, Akiko (Sirius)
• Marc Hempel, Tug & Buster (Art & Soul)
• Batton Lash, Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre (Exhibit A Press)
• Carol Lay, Joy Ride and Other Stories (Kitchen Sink)
• Don Rosa, Walt Disney's Comics & Stories; Uncle Scrooge (Gladstone) *
• Masashi Tanaka, Gon (Paradox Press)

Best Writer/Artist-Drama

• Paul Grist, Kane (Dancing Elephant Press)
• Joe Kubert, Fax from Sarajevo (Dark Horse)
• David Laphham, Stray Bullets (El Capitan)
• Mike Mignola, Hellboy: Wake the Devil (Dark Horse/Legend) *
• Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse)
• Osamu Tezuka, Adolf graphic novel series (Cadence Books)

Best Penciller

• Ron Garney, Captain America (Marvel)
• Phil Jiminez, Tempest (DC)
• Michael Lark, Terminal City (DC/Vertigo)
• Steve Rude, Nexus: Executioner's Song (Dark Horse) *

Best Inker

• Jimmy Palmiotti, Ash (Event); Vampirella Lives (Harris)
• George Perez, Teen Titans (DC)
• Joe Sinnott, Untold Tales of Spider-Man '96 (Marvel)
• Cam Smith, Supergirl (DC)
• Al Williamson, Spider-Man, Untold Tales of Spider-Man #17-18 (Marvel) *

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

• Brent Anderson/Will Blyberg, Kurt Busiek's Astro City , vol. 2 (Jukebox Productions/Homage)
• Tony Harris/Wade von Grawbadger, Starman (DC)
• Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez/Kevin Nowlan, Dr. StrangeFate (DC)
• Paul Smith, Leave It to Chance (Homage)
• Charles Vess, Book of Ballads and Sagas (Green Man Press); Sandman #75 (DC/Vertigo) *
• Aron Weisenfeld/Richard Bennett, Deathblow and Wolverine (Wildstorm/Image/Marvel)

Best Painter

• Dan Brereton, Thrillkiller (DC)
• Joseph Michael Linsner, Dawn (Sirius)
• Miguelanxo Prado, Tangents (NBM)
• Alex Ross, Kingdom Come (DC) *

Best Coloring

• Monica Bennett, Deathblow and Wolverine (Wildstorm/Image/Marvel)
• Jeromy Cox, Leave It to Chance (Homage)
• Matt Hollingsworth, Preacher; Death: The Time of Your Life (DC/Vertigo); Bloody Mary (DC/Helix); Challengers of the Unknown (DC) *
• Trish Mulvihill, Wonder Woman; Firebrand (DC); Batman and Captain America (DC/Marvel)
• Daniel Vozzo, The Invisibles; The Dreaming; The Sandman (DC/Vertigo)

Best Lettering

• Todd Klein, The Sandman,: Death: The Time of Your Life; House of Secrets; The Dreaming (DC/Vertigo); Batman; The Spectre; Kingdom Come (DC) *
• Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo; Space Usagi (Dark Horse)
• Dave Sim, Cerebus (Aardvark-Vanaheim)
• Richard Starkings and Comicraft, Batman: The Long Halloween (DC);Generation X (Marvel)
• Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Company #7 (Fantagraphics)

Best Cover Artist

• Mark Chiarello, Terminal City (DC/Vertigo)
• Tony Harris, Starman (DC)
• Michael Kaluta, Books of Magic (DC/Vertigo); Vermillion (Helix)
• Jerry Ordway, Power of Shazam (DC)
• Alex Ross, Kingdom Come (DC); Kurt Busiek's Astro City (Jukebox Productions/Homage) *
• Steve Rude, Nexus: Executioner's Song; Nexus/Madman (Dark Horse)

Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition

• Ricardo Delgado, Age of Reptiles *
• Debbie Drechsler, Daddy's Girl; Nowhere
• Jon "Bean" Hastings, Smith Brown Jones
• Batton Lash, Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre
• Gary Spencer Millidge, Strangehaven
• Rob Walton, Ragmop

Best Editor

• Tom Brevoort, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Daily Bugle
• M. M. Carwald, Amalgam line
• Andy Helfer, Gon; Big Book of Little Criminals (Paradox Press)
• Scott Peterson/Mark Chiarello, Batman: Black & White (DC)
• Joe Pruett, Negative Burn (Caliber)
• Dan Raspler, Kingdom Come; Hitman; The Spectre; Sergio Aragones Destroys the DC Universe (DC) *

Best Comics-Related Periodical

• Comics Buyer's Guide (Krause Publications)
• The Comics Journal (Fantagraphics) *
• Comic Relief (Page One)
• Jack Kirby Collector (TwoMorrows)

Best Comics-Related Book

• Alex Toth by Design, Alex Toth and Darrell McNeil (Gold Medal Productions)
• Batman Collected, Chip Kidd (Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown)
• Graphic Storytelling, Will Eisner (Poorhouse Press) *
• Great Women Superheroes, Trina Robbins (Kitchen Sink)
• National Cartoonists Society Album, 50th Anniversary edition, Bill Janocha, ed. (NCS)

Best Comics-Related Product

• Akiko Kimono limited print-Mark Crilley (Sirius)
• Hellboy bust, Randy Bowen (Bowen Designs) *
• Jack Kirby portfolio (Dark Horse)
• Kingdom Come cards (Skybox)
• Lillith Limited print-Joe Linsner (Sirius)
• Shi statue, Clayburn Moore (Moore Studios)

Best Publication Design

• Acme Novelty Library #7, designed by Chris Ware (Fantagraphics) *
• Black Eye Productions publications, designed by Michel Vrana: Berlin (with Jason Lutes), Dear Julia (with Brian Biggs), The Sands (with Tom Hart)
• Buzz Buzz and Giant THB Parade, designed by Paul Pope and C. Rambler (Horse Press)
• Fax from Sarajevo, designed by Brian Gogolin (Dark Horse Books)
• It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken, designed by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Mr. Monster: Origins limited edition hardcover, designed by Richard Bruning and Beatman/Brainstorm Unltd. (Graphitti)
• The Sandman: The Wake hardcover edition, designed by Dave McKean (DC/Vertigo)

Hall of Fame

• Bill Everett
• Al Feldstein
• Bill Finger
• Gardner Fox
• Carmine Infantino
• Gil Kane *
• Paul S. Newman
• Charles Schulz *
• Julius Schwartz *
• E. C. Segar
• Joe Simon
• art spiegelman
• Curt Swan *

Weekly Reading: Supreme #51

Supreme #51

Published by Awesome Entertainment in Late July 1997

The cover:

Title: A Roster of Rogues

(As always: Supreme is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

Wasn't issue #50 great? It's appropriate that after that we learn that Alan Moore won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his work on From Hell and Supreme. I'll talk more about the Eisner in a post later this week, but what a glow I'm feeling. It doesn't get better than this, does it?

Sigh, alright I guess it's time to move on. So, issue #51 seems to me to largely be setting the table for the epic conclusion to "The Story of the Year," so it's a little oddly structured, but is necessary for what is to come. J. Morrigan has returned to handle the modern art chores and acquits himself nicely.

But before we can get there, let's take a moment to consider this cover. It's a Liefeld drawing of Supreme (or maybe Emerpus?). But the color isn't right for Emerpus, as seen in this issue. It could be the Shadow Supreme, but again, the coloring isn't right.What do you think?

The issue starts as the ridiculous villain Cyberzerk attacks the offices of Dazzle Comics to take on Omniman, not realizing he's a fictional character. Moore savages both '90s comics villains and obsessive comics fans with the brief battle.

Rather than go through it, I'm just going to quote some of my favorite Cyberzerk lines:

• "You must be Diana Dane! They say you are 'taking over' Omniman! If you are his new love interest then he will have to face me in order to rescue you!"
• "This is my moment at last! It's Cyberzerk versus Omniman in a fight to the finish we just had to call 'When Titans Collide!'"
• "Y-you must have used your omni-vision to sever my arm! B-but you lost that power in issue #232 when you were 'siphoned by the space sponge'! This is a continuity error!"

Supreme makes short work of Cyberzerk, and Supreme wonders what happened to the poetic ring to villains of yesteryear. "Well, to be honest, these modern guys probably don't read anything but comic books," Diana says, voicing a complaint Moore has expressed about modern comic writers.

Supreme then flashes back to a Supreme World Exhibition devoted to his roster of rogues. In the flashback, Supreme flies Judy Jordan to the Pallisades Amusements, a theme park based on Supreme. Rather than go to the main exhibit hall, Supreme leads Judy to the "Villa of Villany."

There we get to see Stupendo the Simian Supreme, who used to be a force for destruction but has since become a friend and lives on Conqueror Island. (Note: Conqueror Island will become more important as we get into Judgment Day.) We learn more about Darius Dax and Emerpus, the backward Supreme. In the Backward Zone, old folk are dug up from the ground and slowly dwindle into babies. Emerpus would take villains from prison, help them undo their crimes, and watch them devolve into decent children.

I wish we had seen an adventure with Emerpus, but the description matches one of Moore's best short stories from his early 2000AD days: The Reversible Man. There is also a suggestion that he had an idea for an Emerpus story, but I'll get into that later.

We meet Korgo the Space Tyrant (who will turn up next issue) and Szazs the Sprite Supreme (who will turn up in a later issue). Judy is getting bored and wants to go to the main exhibit, but notices that the villain statues have shifted position.

We see an earlier form of Optilux and the Televillain, a TV repairman named Reuben Tube who can go into television programs (who will turn up later this issue). Then we see the two Supremium Men: the one who fell from the sky in issue #45 and the other an alien who collected supremium meteorites (who will turn up in a later issue). Then we learn about the Shadow Supreme, a negative-energy carbon copy of Supreme (who will appear later in this issue).

Judy sees the Emerpus statue again and thinks that it has moved. The Emerpus and Shadow Supreme statues come to life, scaring Judy, but Supreme just laughs and admits that it was a prank put on by his suprematons to distract Judy while the main exhibit was getting ready: a look at the adventures of Judy Jordan as a cowgirl, a vampire, a jungle girl and more.

It's a nice moment, obviously designed to give us a feeling for who Judy Jordan was, so we understand why she's not the Judy Jordan we see at the end of this issue. 

Back to the modern story. Supreme says goodbye to Diana and flies off. Well, that was a short issue... wait a minute! Then comes a prologue for issue #52.

Judy Jordan and Hilda are below the Citadel when Hilda grabs onto Judy and blasts off with rockets for legs and flies her to the Citadel. Hilda produces a lightning bolt to enter Supreme's home and makes short work of the suprematon guards. When Supreme returns, he's tricked into the Hell of Mirrors by Hilda.

There's a nice effect where the dialog is backward from the other side of the mirror, which Hilda can translate. The Televillain and the Shadow Supreme come charging at Supreme, and he begs Judy to let him out.

"'Judy'? Well, you just tell him from me, honey... Judy's not who he's talking to." So, who is it? Prepare for the Return of Darius Dax!

Then we get a notice that the story will conclude in "our 80-page giant spectacular." But only in the letters page is it explained that the 80 pages will be spread over two issues (that will be numbered the same). The numbering on Awesome series was always a little weird.

As always, please check out the Supreme Annotations Page, for all of the details and references that I completely missed.

Modern Master: Chris Sprouse

I talked a lot about what Chris Spouse brought to Supreme, especially in issue #50, but I had never heard of him before that, so it's probably worth talking more about him.

Sprouse was an artist who was working his way up through the industry when he came to work on Supreme. He had done some work for DC comics, bouncing around from a Two-Face story to the Hammerlocke series to the Legionnaires series featuring teenaged versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes. After illustrating a Star Wars mini-series, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, for Dark Horse Comics, he was looking to return to superhero comics.

(The following interview came from Modern Masters volume 21: Chris Sprouse by Todd Dezago and Eric Nolen-Weathington. It's a great book, which you can purchase here.)

"MM: Following Splinter of the Mind's Eye, what came next?"

"CHRIS: I don't remember the exact details, but someone from Rob Liefeld's company called me--I don't remember what it was called at that point, maybe it was already Maximum Press--and offered me work doing a Youngblood Annual. I was itching to draw super-heroes again after a bit of a break from them, so I jumped in and drew about 3/4 of the annual before being asked to stop. The annual's writer, Eric Stephenson, was also the writer and editor of New Men, a young-mutant team book kind of series, and he asked me to work on that series with him and put off the annual for a while. He wanted to change the direction of New Men a little, so we had lots of character and plot discussions, and I even redesigned the cast and all of their costumes, something I always enjoy. I love designing characters and working out all the little details, something I hadn't done very much since Legionnaires.

"A lot of friends and peers kind of scratched their heads, wondering why I was going from Star Wars to some virtually unknown book for a smallish company. Well, the phone just wasn't ringing with offers, and I'd rather work on a book where I was instrumental in the design and overall look than work as just another guy in a long line of fill-in artists on JLA Annuals or Wolverine one-shots anyway. Plus, if it was good enough for the likes of Alan Moore and Rick Veitch, then it was good enough for me."

"MM: This is Eric Stephenson who is now the guy keeping the ship running at Image Comics?"
 
"CHRIS: The same guy, and I have to say I enjoyed my time working with and for him."
 
"MM: And so you re-designed and relaunched New Men, and you did several issues of that. Is that when they tapped you to take over the art chores on Supreme?"

"CHRIS: I did three issues in all, plus loads of pin-ups and character designs and even a cover for an issue that we never got to do. I think Eric may have mentioned me drawing Supreme before New Men ended, but I can't remember for sure."
 
"MM: Were you personally chosen by Alan Moore, or do you know how that came about?"
 
"CHRIS: Once poor sales finally killed New Men, Eric hired me to draw one issue of Supreme--the 50th issue--as well as a pinup. By the end of the issue, Eric had asked me if I wanted to take over the series as the regular artist, so I guess he and Rob liked what they were seeing, and presumably Alan did as well. This was a very intimidating idea for me: Alan had worked with some fantastically good artists on some really big comics, and I didn't want to screw up! I actually had to think about it because I was so nervous! I did say "yes" though, in the end.
 
"Anyway, before I could start Supreme regularly, I had to finish that Youngblood Annual, so I went  back and resumed work on that. The finished product was kind of weird and inconsistent visually, because I had actually improved quite a bit since I drew the first chunk of pages, and that chunk wasn't in sequential order. To make matters worse, a different inker did the new pages. Control freak that I am, I did some patches and corrections to try to make things a little more consistent, but you can still tell which pages were done later. The book was later published as the Youngblood Super Special.
 
"As soon as that was finished, I drew a couple of covers for two issues of Supreme that someone else drew to buy me a little lead time, and then it was on to Supreme #53, my first regular issue, and still my favorite--visually--of the half-dozen or so I eventually drew."
 
"MM: I love those Supreme stories that Alan did and re-read them every couple of years or so. They were Alan re-visiting the Superman that he grew up with as a kid--those wild Mort Weisinger stories that were so light and fanciful. And though these stories operated on other levels, they maintained that whimsy and fun. Did you approach these stories in any way differently than you did, say, your Legionnaires?"

"CHRIS: I rarely have a conscious plan of attack, visually speaking, when starting a story, with some exceptions, like the early Timmy Turbo parts of Tom Strong, or our later attempt at injecting a little "Kirby FF" feel into later Tom Strong. I wish everything I did was planned and carefully executed, but it's not. It's usually just me reacting to the script and trying to give the writer everything he or she wants. So I suppose Alan's more light-hearted approach to his Supreme scripts dictated how I handled the art, but I didn't consciously try to do something different than what I did on Legionnaires other than attempt to be better.

"After we moved on to other things later, I wondered if having me on the book was a liability at times, in that Alan was often trying to contrast the then-current comic art style, the stereotypical Image style of that time, with styles from various periods throughout comics history, and my style has just never looked "current" and never less so than then! I always try to do my best, but I'm just not the guy anyone should go to when emulating someone else's style is called for-for better or worse, it always just end up looking like my stuff. I tried to do really cartoony styles a couple of times on Tom Strong and tried to darken my style for my Midnighter work, but I don't think anyone noticed a difference."
 
"MM: How was your working relationship with Alan? Did you communicate other than via his scripts? Did you get notes from him on your art?"

"CHRIS: I don't know all the details, so I apologize to anyone involved if I'm getting it all wrong, but Alan was very far ahead of me when I began drawing the book. I've heard that he was completely finished with his run, but I've also heard that he had more Supreme stories planned. Whatever the case, we didn't communicate at all while I was working on Supreme. I know that sounds bizarre to some people--how could I waste such an opportunity?

"Well, I'm a very shy person and very easily intimidated, especially when around people I admire, so I was afraid I'd just stammer and say stupid things. I just wanted Alan to appreciate the artwork instead of being put off by another awkward fan boy experience. 

"As for notes, well, as I've stated above and many times before, one of my goals is to give the writer what they want. Alan's scripts were so detailed and what he wanted was so clearly defined that it made giving him what he wanted on the page very, very easy. He never asked for changes in the finished art on anything we ever did together, and I'm very proud of that. Anyway, we didn't talk while working on Supreme--Eric just sent me the scripts and I drew the pages and mailed them in."
 
"MM: It would appear that you both enjoyed working together well enough to then flow right into Tom Strong. Do you recall how the subject of this new project came up?"

"CHRIS: I enjoyed working on Supreme immensely, but when Rob's company folded, I just assumed that that was it. I felt unbelievably lucky to have gotten to work with Alan at all, let alone so early in my career. I just assumed I'd be moving on, looking for something at DC or Marvel. Then I came home a few days after it all ended to find a message on my answering machine from a very deep-voiced Englishman, something like: 'Hello, Chris, this is Alan Moore and I have an idea for a new series...'"

That series, of course, became Tom Strong. But I plan to talk about Tom Strong and ABC a lot more at a later date.

Here's a second interview with Sprouse by George Khoury from the Jack Kirby Collector # 30 (which I stole from Greg Williams' wonderful Supreme website, here):

The Strong and Supreme: Artist Chris Sprouse on his collaborations with Alan Moore

How did you become part of Supreme? Was #50 a try-out issue or did you pretty much know you were going to join the book?

Chris: I had been working on New Men for three issues with Extreme Studios, whatever the company was called back then—Awesome, Maximum, I don’t remember—and that was getting cancelled. They said, "We don’t know what else we've got for you, but in the meantime, do you want to do an issue of Supreme?" I thought, “Well, okay.” I was a little reluctant at first because Alan seemed to be contrasting old-fashioned comic art styles with the modern style, and I didn't really think my style looked like what was modem or popular at that time, which was Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. I did it not thinking I would do the regular series, because I thought I wouldn’t look right for the sort of stuff Alan was trying to get across. But it was so much fun and the strip was so good I was grateful they offered it to me again, this time as a regular assignment. To that, I said, "Yes!"

CBA: You came back with #53. Was there a reason for that interval? Did you just need to catch up?

Chris: I needed to catch up. Maybe #51 and 52 were already under way, so I’m not really sure how it happened. It's been so long. I don't remember if somebody else was originally supposed to draw it and dropped out, but I remember the situation was sort of, "Hurry up and get this done,” because it was already late by the time I started.

CBA: But those books were always late, weren't they?

Chris: Well, #53 was my first regular one, so I really didn't know.

CBA: How did Al Gordon end up the inker on Supreme? Was he inking New Men?

Chris: Yes, he was. He had inked me on my very first published job, which was the Secret Origins story I mentioned earlier. … So, when we were working on Secret Origins, Al and I struck up a friendship, so if I would have a job coming up, either I would ask for him or he'd beat me to it for he inker's assignment. He'd call up and keep asking me what I was up to. I requested Al Gordon and Karl Story for different jobs because those are the two guys I like to work with the most. I also enjoyed working with Terry Austin—very much so.

CBA: What was your reaction when you were reading the script for Supreme? Were you a big Alan Moore fan before that?

Chris: Yes. I was. I never thought I'd be working with Alan Moore. I felt lucky enough to have worked on Star Wars and Legion of Super-Heroes, but my God, Alan Moore? I just didn't think I was that serious an artist. You know, Alan's always doing these big name jobs with top-notch collaborators, so I didn't think I was up there yet. Frank Miller and guys like that, yeah, they work with Alan Moore, but me? And there I was doing it!

CBA: Were you happy with your work on Supreme?

Chris: Oh, yes. I think with just about everything I’ve done, with a few exceptions, it’s been the best that I could do at the time. I look back at it now and cringe, even if it seems like it’s not that long ago. But, at the time, yes, it was the best I could do. To look at the work now is sort of painful.

CBA: What exactly happened in Supreme #56?

Chris: I don’t know the full story, but I heard stuff through the grapevine.

CBA: When it happened, were you still drawing the series?

Chris: Yes, I had turned in the final page of #57, which became Supreme: The Return #1. We had pretty much just gotten through #57 and Rob Liefeld called up and said something like, “We’re going out of business” basically. They were still putting out books after that, so I always wondered what the heck happened. Nobody ever told us. A year later, what was Supreme #57 finally got published as issue #1 of Supreme: The Return. I still don’t know the full story. It’s been published, we got the art back, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s that. It’s done. It would have been nice to do more Supreme stories.

CBA: Did you get as far as #58?

Chris: Yes. I had gotten the script, which featured a whole legion of alternate Darius Dax characters, but Jim Starlin actually ended up drawing the issue, though I’d actually started to design the characters for that, and I think that’s what I was working on when Rob called and said it was over. I have no pages of actual finished work.

CBA: What happened after Supreme ended? Did Alan contact you again? Did you two talk about doing something else together?

Chris: I went a week without doing anything, if even that long. I hadn’t talked to Alan in that whole time because I thought he was actually done with Awesome. I think he’d pretty much finished what he was doing with them anyway. I didn’t know if he’d found something else or what, but I hadn’t talked with him the entire time. So I called him up after I’d finished #57 just to tell him that it had been a lot of fun to work with him and that I really enjoyed it—I was just calling to be a fanboy, honestly—and Alan just said he had enjoyed it too, and had just come up with some characters he thought I might be good for, one character in particular. All he had at the moment were names, and one was Tom Strong.

One more small interview from The Ivory Informer fanzine:

Zine Supreme: When you were approached to start pencilling Supreme, what was your idea on how you wanted to draw the character? In other words what did you hope to bring to the character.

Chris Sprouse: Actually, I didn't want to draw Supreme regularly at all -- I was avidly following Alan's run on the book, and I didn't feel I was the right artist for the job. It seemed to me that in his scripts Alan was commenting on the difference between the comics that inspired him as a kid and the current state of comics. The "Image"-style art used in the first eight(?) issues of Alan's Supreme was perfect for setting up this contrast. I was originally only hired to draw issue #50, the romance issue, and even if my style didn't fit the "Image" mold, I couldn't pass up working on an Alan Moore story...But after I read the script, I wanted to be the regular penciller. Now, to answer your question, on that issue my goal was to make Supreme (Ethan) seem real. I wanted to make the reader feel for the poor guy who had no real life, even though he could knock planets around. And that's pretty much how I tried to portray Supreme through the rest of my time on the book -- incredibly self-assured and powerful as Supreme, but awkward and out of place as Ethan Crane. Since I've never worked on Superman, this stuff was all new to me!

ZS: What are some of your fondest moments on your Supreme run?

CS: My fondest memories...Reading Alan's scripts, especially #50 and #53 -- also, reading Supreme #53 out loud (twice) to my nephew over Thanksgiving. It's nice to know comics still appeal to young kids.

ZS: Who was your favorite character to draw, and who was your least favorite?

CS: Supreme was my favorite character to draw; Achilles from the League of Infinity was my least favorite--never could make his costume look right...

 ZS: What do you think of Alex Ross' redesign of Supreme?

CS: I love Alex's work, and I especially like his new Suprema! (On a side note-- I never got Alan's original notes on the characters, excerpted in that Handbook that just came out, so I never knew she was supposed to have "the body of Madonna." I was just drawing her as a sixteen-year-old super hero.)

In the Modern Masters book, in addition to the interviews, Chris gave the authors access to a lot of published and unpublished artwork, including commissions he had done. One such commission, of the family Supreme, caught my eye. Even though it was still only in pencils, there's so much going on that it felt like a quintessential Supreme piece. You can see the page below.

 

I loved it so much, I had it inked:

 

And colored: 

Isn't that a beauty? I'm thinking of doing a custom hardcover set of my Supreme issues and this might be perfect for a cover or slipcover. Anyway, there are a few more Supreme commissions that Sprouse did floating out there on the web, which I'll pull into a single post at some later point.

A Gallery Supreme

Here is the artwork from "A Gallery Supreme" at the back of issue #50.

 

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Note: I love this image of the League of Infinity. It was spread over two pages in the issue.

  

Note: This image by Melinda Gebbie probably best illustrates the design for the costume Suprema was originally going to have.

  

Note: Awesome produced a poster of this image (without the background characters) that I got a copy of off of eBay.

  

Note: Probably the best image of the Halls of Night.

  

Weekly Reading: Supreme #50

Supreme #50

Published by Awesome Entertainment in July 1997

The covers:

 

Title: A Love Supreme

(As always: Supreme is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

You know when you're watching a show or movie and you're entranced, knowing that you're seeing something amazing, and it will never get better than this? Welcome to Supreme #50.

There are a number of reasons this issue is so great: a crackling script, some wonderful flashback sequences, but none so important as the artwork of Chris Sprouse. This script demanded an artist who could handle real human emotions and attention to nuance and Sprouse brought that to the table. As we'll see later, he's also a helluva good superhero artist.

I'll be doing a post later this week about how Sprouse got the gig, which is well worth reading, as it illuminates some of the behind the scenes intrigue happening at Awesome.

Even though this is only the second Awesome issue and only the 10th Alan Moore issue, it was identified as issue #50 and claimed to be double sized! But it's still just Moore's normal 24-page story with a bunch of pin-ups in the back. Ah, comics... never change.

Anyway, let's jump in. We see Diana in her apartment calling for Ethan to make sure he's coming over to work on the Omniman comic. In the background, the televisions tells us about all the '60s heroes who have returned to action after the events last issue. Out the window, we see a streak of red and then Ethan is at the door.

We get a little chit chat about Billy Friday now hanging out in the year 2496 before they settle down on the couch to talk about the issue and Diana's idea to deal with Omniman's girlfriend: Linda Lake. There's a cute little joke about Supreme's love life before Ethan explains that Supreme set out to find out if he could ever marry someone back in 1962.

Just a note before we get into the flashback. I found this on comicartfans.com.

 

Sprouse had completed this page but either he or Stephenson felt that the interaction in that last panel wasn't right and Sprouse redid it.

 

Considering how rushed the art seemed last issue, to go this extra mile... I will never ever stop being grateful for the effort Sprouse brought to this comic.


And our first flashback takes us to an "impossible story" where Supreme designed a possibilitron to show what would happen if Supreme married Judy Jordan. It's classic early-'60s male paranoia as Judy forces him to get a suburban home and perform "honey do" chores for the neighbors (like making a replacement diamond and bioengineering a strain of grass that doesn't need cutting). Between the wife and the kids, Supreme doesn't even have time to fight Fakeface with Professor Night and Twilight! "Thanks, Prof., but I'm babysitting during Judy's Tuperware party," he explains.


Back to the modern story. Diana suggests that maybe Omniman can't romance Linda Lake, but his alter ego Spencer Samson could. As Diana says, "He has human needs, right?" The look on Ethan's face as he says, "Uh, yes. Yes, he does..." is perfect.

Sorry, I might just spend this entire write-up gushing over Chris Sprouse's art. But I have to talk about this script, because it's perfect. Moore has Diana say, "Well, I'm trying to think about it visually. I mean, a civilian relationship doesn't make for good comics. All you'd have is pages of people in ordinary clothing sitting around talking." The way Moore is writing Diana's brainstorming with Ethan's feelings of a romantic subtext, while commenting on comics and how a story like this shouldn't work in a superhero comic is truly amazing. He's walking a tightrope, and yet it plays perfectly.

Diana suggests that maybe Omniman could have a relationship with something more exotic, like a mermaid. than says that Supreme considered that, too.


And our second flashback reveals what happened when the possibilitron showed Supreme marrying Luriel the angel from his imaginary menagerie. They are married by the Egyptian deity, Thoth. Thoth was associated with science, philosophy, and religion, and credited with the invention of written language. Seems appropriate.

But things go bad for Luriel, as she is overwhelmed by the spiritual needs of the people of Earth. She decides to stay in the Citadel and watch TV instead. But all she sees are miserable humans and soon dies from despair.

Diana admits that she'd rather stick with a human love interest, anyway, and then goes on to describe how she'd do it, which happens to describe this issue: "...we show Omniman in action during flashback scenes or something, and then end with a scary cliffhanger on the last couple of pages." There's a nice detail of Ethan moving to sit on the floor as Diana settles down next to him. Diana wonders if maybe they should pair Omniman with Warrior Woman, just as Supreme had done with Glory in the third flashback.

In this, Glory and Suprme are wed, but Glory quickly makes some changes to the Citadel (like throwing out the prism-world of Amalynth and moving the hell of mirrors to her dressing room). There's a hilarious scene of Supreme and Glory bringing their personal squabbles to an Allies' meeting. As Supreme sneaks out of "The Light and Void Cafe" (a reference to Dave Sim's problems with the fairer sex), Glory catches him and they proceed to tear the city apart fighting. Ultimately, Supreme decides that Lady Liberty will be the only woman for him.

Diana decides that it must be Linda and describes a scene where Omniman gives in to his passion and goes for it. She refers to a censored sexy page in Steranko's Nick Fury, which you can read about here. Just as Ethan is about to do the same, Diana says, "...except it would be dishonest." If Linda doesn't know he's Omniman, it would be hiding too big a secret. And a superhero couldn't do that. "No, No, I don't suppose he could," Ethan admits before getting ready to leave. Diana is surprised, thinking that the evening offered more, but Ethan says he has too much to do.

And then we get our sinister epilogue as the elderly Judy Jordan tells Hilda to draw a picture of Supreme's Citadel. We see that it's a blueprint for the structure. The issue ends with Judy telling Hilda to get her coat. "You and grandma are going visiting."

After the letters page and a note from publisher Jeph Loeb, we get "A Gallery Supreme" of pin-ups, which I'll put up in a post later this week.

Much later, Awesome would publish Alan Moore's Awesome Universe Handbook. In there was this image from Sprouse, which I'm convinced must have been intended as the cover for this story before they decided to go the special 50th issue variant covers route. It's a beauty and better captured the tone of this issue. Couldn't they have published this one, too?

I'll have a lot more to share about Sprouse, as well as artwork to show, in a post later this week. Look for that one, because I have a lot of good stuff to share.

Anyway, what a great issue. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, as sadly, we're going to have to wait a while before we see Sprouse return to work on Supreme. But as Eric Stephenson announced in the letters page, Sprouse would be the regular artist on the series for Moore's second year, as we saw in this in-house ad at the end of the issue:

 

So much good stuff still to come!

As always, please check out the Supreme Annotations Page, for all of the details and references that I completely missed.