Original Curt Swan artwork from Superman #310!

Curt Swan in undeniably one of the most influential Superman artists of all time - I would say that the only artist who can compare is Joe Shuster, the character's co-creator. Swan was a DC stalwart for decades, churning out thousands of pages for any number of titles, but he's rightfully most well known for his work on the Man of Steel. After Swan died in the mid-'90s, DC continued to use some of his unpublished pages for anniversary stories, such as Superman's Wedding Album issue and, more recently, 2018's Action Comics #1000.

The market for Swan's work is pulled in two directions. His pages are in demand because of his classic take on comics' most recognizable character, but since he was so prolific, there are simply a lot of pages, especially from the 1970s onward. Generally speaking, an in-costume Superman appearance means you'll pay a bit more than one without. I was recently able to purchase two very affordable pages from 1977's Superman #310, both with pencils by the legendary Curt Swan.

The pages, interestingly enough, are ones published subsequently: story pages 8 and 9. 

The first page is undeniably the better of the two, because this one features none other than a bespectacled Clark Kent, looking dapper in his business-professional suit (but, sadly, no hat). Also featured is Steve Lombard, a character who pops up every so often in the book.

Steve is a former jock who sometimes picks on Clark, still thinks of himself as the star quarterback, and is often kind of a joke - he's a guy whose best years are behind him, but he doesn't realize it. His type is probably familiar to most folks and he's someone we should probably pity. Sometimes he and Clark have an inter-office rivalry, but it often ends with Clark, like, secretly using his super-breath to blow his chair out from under him so he dumps his sandwich on his shirt of something.

Both of these pages had dialogue that was pretty heavily edited, as seen above with all of the blue editor's pencil marks. But both pages came with the margins trimmed, so I couldn't see what most of the lines pointed to.

Anyway, Lombard is a character who has been around for decades, but most people aren't familiar with him. On this page he takes the company's new camera in an attempt to get an inside scoop. Oh, it should be noted that in the '70s, Clark, Lois and company moved on from the Daily Planet to WGBS, a television news station. I guess they thought that the newspaper industry wasn't relevant anymore? NEVER!

The second page in my bundle is, unfortunately, sans Clark, as we follow Lombard on his ill-fated operation. But we do come across another Superman staple - STAR Labs! I guess it's S.T.A.R. Laboratory on this page. What did "STAR" ever stand for? Anyway, Steve meets up with a robotic menace and is down for the count.

I know henchmen when I see them! This crew is actually smuggling Metallo out of storage, where he'll later do battle with Superman, and Lombard will be used as bait.

Sorry, Steve!

These pages were inked by Tex Blaisdell. I don't necessarily think his inks went particularly well with Swan's famously clean lines. Blaisdell's inks seem to roughen up the artwork a little much for my tastes - he's no Murphy Anderson.

The back of both pages comes with a stamp that indicates copyright information. 

The back of one page comes marked with two possible names: GR and Swan. The second is obviously a reference to Curt Swan, but I have no idea what GR stands for. The issue was written by Martin Pasko, Inked by Blaisdell and edited by Julie Schwartz. Maybe it indicates that it's a GREAT PAGE! Maybe.

We can also see, scratched out, that this page was at one time on sale for $25. The first page in this set, with Clark, was at one point $55. Despite getting a really good deal, I paid a bit more for these. If you see a Curt Swan page on sale for $25, grab it!

Here's the issue that includes the pages! The cover is not by Swan, but rather Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

And here's the two-page spread, with Clark looking on and Steve getting shot all to hell by a killer robot.

I've been on the lookout for some Swan original art, but they're usually a bit above my price range. These two rather everyday pages fit my budget and also featured some dramatic robot action and a concerned Clark Kent! I'm happy to have 'em. 

Rewriting the Superman/Kenny Rogers PSA crossover by Curt Swan

Curt Swan's 100th birthday was on February 17th, and as such, folks were sharing images and stories of Curt and his work online as a tribute to the greatest Superman artist of all time. Some even shared pictures of the original Swan artwork they own, which was a special treat for me. Swan is one of my favorite comic artists and I'd love to own a piece of his art one day.

Phil Hester, probably best known for his DC work as both a writer and artist (he also drew a cover to Teddy and they Yeti #1, wouldn't you know), shared a piece from his own collection, an anti-drug public service announcement from the Reagan years:

This was from a time when Superman was teaming up with the Nestle Quik Bunny and the Kool-Aid Man had his own special, but I was still surprised to see this one-page team up between the Man of Steel and country star Kenny Rogers. I was even more surprised to see Rogers swinging a mean left hook as he confronted some drug dealers. The signer appears in all eight panels of this story, compared to only three for Superman. Someone's hogging the spotlight!

Another notable thing about this page is that it's presented in black and white, which means that it was easy for me to erase the words in the speech balloons and fill them back in with some nonsense of my own, which I then proceeded to do, because I apparently had nothing else going on at the time.

I wanna say that...I like the results. Now Kenny Rogers is an out-of-control murderer who has somehow blackmailed Superman into doing his dirty work. This is a story we didn't know we needed.

If DC Comics would ever want to hire me to ruin some of their other stories, well, I'd be up for it. Sorry, Curt.

DC Comics at Walmart

After years of reading and re-reading a stack of my dad's old comics, I started reading DC and Marvel titles in earnest in 1992, when I was 10 and 11 years old. One of the first new books I picked up was Spider-Man #26 (with a sweet 30th anniversary hologram cover), and the "Death of Superman" story a few months later got me hooked, apparently for good. I'm pretty sure that my mom bought me that Spider-Man issue, but regardless of how it came home with me, I know that I got it off of a spinner rack at a grocery store, where the comics were located right by the entrance and were the first things I saw walking into the store.

It wasn't until I was about 16 when I actually stepped foot into a comic book specialty store with any regularity, and I was in college the first time I signed up for a pull list. In the years since, comics have mostly disappeared from grocery stores and similar businesses, and while online sales certainly are to blame for some of that, I'd say that the industry as a whole has suffered from this lack of an initial exposure point, primarily when it comes to kids. Comic shops are great, and I'm thankful that I don't have to run out to Foodland every week in hopes that they'll have the new Fantastic Four issue in stock, but they don't always attract a lot of first-time customers. You go to a comic shop if you like comics, not if you feel ambivalent or don't really know about them.

In general, this is why I was excited when DC announced that they would begin selling four new books exclusively at Walmart. It allows potential readers - kids, specifically - an opportunity to see the books in a place they might already be. There are more Walmart stores across North America than there are comic shops, so I guess Walmart has just become the biggest comic shop chain in the world? Maybe that's a stretch, but I think it could be the biggest step forward for visibility since, well, the slew of comic book-based movies over the last 20 years.

Even better, these four comics, Superman Giant, Batman Giant, Justice League of America Giant and Teen Titans Giant, are each 100 pages long and cost $4.99. That's a much better value than the usual 20-page story for only a dollar less.

From a collectors' standpoint, just like anything new and unusual, this new program has sent a number of established fans on scavenger hunts to Walmarts across the country in search of these books. So Walmart is getting customers from both sides - comic fans will stop in to grab the new issues (and maybe buy some toilet paper while they're there), and new readers might pick up a book for the first time (while they're already there, buying toilet paper).

I generally try to avoid shopping at Walmart for a number of reasons (all of which are probably too boring for me to write about here). But when the books were released on July 1st, I made the journey to the store and tried to find them, and without too much hassle, I managed to track them down.

The books were located near the self checkout aisles, next to trading cards and other cheaper collectibles. I've love to see these placed with the other magazines by all of the lanes, but I guess this is an okay start. The books are housed in the above display, which I really like and want to own. Do you think that Walmart has, like, five of these in the back? Should I ask them to give me, a grown man in his 30s, one of their comic book displays?

The display isn't very big, and probably holds two dozen of these 100-page Giants at most. I found all four titles, though I grabbed the very last Teen Titans issue. There were more Batman issues remaining than any of the other three titles, which leads me to believe that they had more Batman issues in stock to begin with. It's probably the most popular title, right?

The image underneath the two front spaces is, I think, from Alan Moore and Curt Swan's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" story. The whole thing is designed very well. I believe that, starting in August, new issues will be released during the first and third weeks of every month.

At this particular store, there were also a few collected three-packs of comics in the stands, which featured the characters from the Giant titles. This is another great offering, as it gives people a smattering of other stories with the characters from the titles they might have just read and enjoyed. And these aren't just comprised of old stock - the title dress is slightly different from the titles that were released a few years prior.

Here's the back of the three-pack bundle. It's basically just...an ad for the comics inside.

Speaking of ads, at least two of the titles have the comic shop locator service listed inside. This should easily be all four, as all of the ads in these titles are in-house and for other collections, and it should be plastered on the inside front cover, but I guess this is a start for now.

Oh, and it just so happened that Planters Cheez Balls just came back to stores on the same day. So this was a heck of a trip to Walmart! Can you believe it? Cheez Balls are back, and comic books are in general stores! Things are looking up. I hope both of these are remarkably successful.