1.
Superman
–
Superman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, high school living in Cleveland, Ohio. They sold Superman to Detective Comics, the future DC Comics, Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, newspaper strips, television programs, films, and video games. With this success, Superman helped to create the superhero archetype, the character is also referred to by such epithets as the Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, and The Last Son of Krypton. Discovered and adopted by a Kansas farm couple, the child is raised as Clark Kent, very early on he started to display various superhuman abilities, which, upon reaching maturity, he resolved to use for the benefit of humanity through a secret Superman identity. Superman resides and operates in the fictional American city of Metropolis, as Clark Kent, he is a journalist for the Daily Planet, a Metropolis newspaper. Supermans love interest is generally Lois Lane, and his archenemy is supervillain Lex Luthor and he is typically a member of the Justice League and close ally of Batman and Wonder Woman. Like other characters in the DC Universe, several versions of Superman have been depicted over the years. Supermans appearance is distinctive and iconic, he wears a blue costume with a red-and-yellow emblem on the chest, consisting of the letter S in a shield shape. This shield is used in media to symbolize the character. Superman is widely considered an American cultural icon and he has fascinated scholars, with cultural theorists, commentators, and critics alike exploring the characters impact and role in the United States and worldwide. The characters ownership has often been the subject of dispute, with Siegel, the character has been adapted extensively and portrayed in other forms of media as well, including films, television series, and video games. Several actors have portrayed Superman in motion pictures and TV series including Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, Siegels fanzine did not sell well. Siegel and Shuster shifted to making comic strips, which they self-published in a book they called Popular Comics, the pair dreamed of becoming professional authors and believed that syndicated newspaper strips offered more lucrative and stable work than pulp magazines. The art quality standards were lower, making them more accessible to the inexperienced Shuster. In early 1933 or in 1934, Siegel developed a new character, also named Superman, but now a heroic character and this first prototype of Superman had no fantastic abilities and wore casual clothing. Siegel and Shuster often compared this version to Slam Bradley, a character they created in 1936. Siegel shared his idea with Shuster and they decided to turn it into a comic strip, the first publisher they solicited was Humor Publishing in Chicago, after having read one of their comic books, Detective Dan
2.
Doctor Manhattan
–
Doctor Manhattan is a fictional character who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. He debuted in the novel miniseries Watchmen, published in 1986 and 1987. Doctor Manhattan was created by writer Alan Moore with artist Dave Gibbons, following his reanimation, he was immediately pressed into service by the United States government, who gave him the name Doctor Manhattan, after the Manhattan Project. He is the character in the story that possesses actual superpowers. The Watchmen series has been noted for addressing issues and questions. He is often used as an example of a posthuman god, reception towards the character is positive, and he has appeared and has been mentioned in various forms of media. Billy Crudup portrays Doctor Manhattan in the 2009 film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder, Doctor Manhattan later appears in the Before Watchmen comic book prequel, with his own individual issue miniseries. In 2016, Doctor Manhattan became the first Watchmen character to be included in the main DC continuity, during the DC Rebirth event, Doctor Manhattan was partly based on DC Comics Captain Atom who in Moores original proposal was surrounded by the shadow of nuclear threat. However, the writer found he could do more with Manhattan as a a supreme super-hero than he ever could have with Captain Atom, Moore sought to delve into nuclear physics and quantum physics in constructing the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believed that a living in a quantum universe would not perceive time with a linear perspective. Moore also wanted to avoid creating a character like Spock from Star Trek, so he sought for Dr. Manhattan to retain human habits and to grow away from them. Gibbons had created the blue character Rogue Trooper, and explained he reused the blue skin motif for Doctor Manhattan as it resembles skin tonally, Moore incorporated the color into the story, and Gibbons noted the rest of the comics color scheme made Manhattan unique. Moore recalled that he was unsure if DC would allow the creators to depict the character as fully nude, Dr. Manhattans forehead is marked with the atomic structure of hydrogen, which he put on himself, declining a helmet with the atom symbol. Jonathan Osterman was born in 1929 and his father was a watchmaker, and Jon planned to follow in his footsteps. When the US drops the bomb on Hiroshima, Jon is sixteen. Jon Osterman attends Princeton University from 1948–58 and graduates with a Ph. D. in atomic physics, here he meets Janey Slater, a fellow researcher, they eventually become lovers. During a trip to New Jersey in July 1959, Jon, janeys watchband breaks, and the watch is damaged when a fat man steps on it. Jon decides that he can repair the watch, and tells Janey so, while Jon is inside the test chamber retrieving his coat the door closes, automatically locking as a safety feature
3.
Gary Frank
–
Gary Frank is a British comic book artist, notable for pencilling on Midnight Nation and Supreme Power, both written by J. Michael Straczynski. He has also worked with author Peter David on The Incredible Hulk and he had a creator-owned series, Kin, which he wrote himself, published by Top Cow in 2000. Gary Frank began his career in 1991, illustrating covers and interior short stories for publications such as Doctor Who Magazine. This led to a stint at Marvel UK in 1992 as regular series artist on Motormouth & Killpower and it was on that series that he began a long-running collaboration with inker Cam Smith, who would continue to ink Franks work for many years. In 1992, Frank was recruited by Marvel Comics to illustrate covers for The Incredible Hulk, shortly thereafter, he was hired as the series ongoing artist beginning with issue No.403 and ending with No.425. He drew covers for Acclaim Comics Ninjak and Harris Comics Vampirella, in 1996, Frank and Smith were hired as the art team on DC Comics new Supergirl ongoing series, which re-teamed Frank with writer Peter David. Franks run as penciller ended with issue No,9, although he continued to provide covers for the series until issue No.21. Other assignments for DC included a Birds of Prey one-shot and the DC/Marvel Amalgam Comics one-shot, the Arcudi/Frank/Smith tenure on the series lasted two years, until issue No.41. It was during this run, in 1998, that Wildstorm head Jim Lee moved his studio, therefore, issues #25–36 were published by Image and issues #37–41 were published by DC/Wildstorm. Kin, a six-issue miniseries created, written and penciled by Frank, was published under Images Top Cow imprint, the story tells of a secret government agency named S. I. A. The miniseries conclusion was open-ended, with questions left unanswered, the trade paperback collection of Kin entitled Kin, Descent of Man includes six pages of additional story that were not featured in the original issues. In 2000, Frank began his first collaboration with J. Michael Straczynski, Frank served as penciller on Straczynskis Midnight Nation, a 12-issue limited series published by Top Cow from 2000 to 2002 under their now-defunct Joes Comics imprint. The first issue of the series included a 5-page interview with Frank, One of the inkers on the series was Jon Sibal, with whom Frank would begin a long-running artistic collaboration that continues to this day. On 16 July 2002, it was announced that Frank had signed a contract with Marvel. His first work under contract was a two-issue story arc on The Avengers issues #61–62, written by Geoff Johns. In 2003, Frank re-teamed with Straczynski on Supreme Power, a revamp of Marvels superhero team Squadron Supreme, with its realism and mature storytelling, the series became Marvels first MAX title to sell over 100,000 copies, making it their best-selling mature-readers series of all time. The series ran for 18 issues from October 2003 to October 2005,515 and 517, Black Panther #10, and numerous others, as well as two pages of interior art for the Avengers, Finale one-shot. On 10 May 2007, having worked several years on a Marvel exclusive contract and he served as the artist on Action Comics with writer Geoff Johns
4.
DC Comics
–
DC Comics, Inc. is an American comic book publisher. It is the unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. a division of Time Warner, the company has also published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta and many titles under their alternative imprint Vertigo. The initials DC came from the popular series Detective Comics. Random House distributes DC Comics books to the market, while Diamond Comic Distributors supplies the comics shop specialty market. DC Comics and its major, longtime competitor Marvel Comics together shared 70% of the American comic book market in 2016, entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications in autumn 1934. The company debuted with the tabloid-sized New Fun, The Big Comic Magazine #1 with a date of February 1935. That title evolved into Adventure Comics, which continued through issue #503 in 1983, in 2009 DC revived Adventure Comics with its original numbering. In 1935, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, created Doctor Occult. Wheeler-Nicholsons third and final title, Detective Comics, advertised with a cover illustration dated December 1936, the themed anthology series would become a sensation with the introduction of Batman in issue #27. By then, however, Wheeler-Nicholson had gone, Detective Comics, Inc. was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack S. Liebowitz, Donenfelds accountant, listed as owners. Major Wheeler-Nicholson remained for a year, but cash-flow problems continued, shortly afterward, Detective Comics, Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied, also known as Nicholson Publishing, at a bankruptcy auction. Detective Comics, Inc. soon launched a fourth title, Action Comics, Action Comics #1, the first comic book to feature the new character archetype—soon known as superheroes—proved a sales hit. The company quickly introduced such popular characters as the Sandman and Batman. That year, Gaines let Liebowitz buy him out, and kept only Picture Stories from the Bible as the foundation of his own new company, at that point, Liebowitz promptly orchestrated the merger of All-American and Detective Comics into National Comics. Next he took charge of organizing National Comics, Independent News, National Periodical Publications became publicly traded on the stock market in 1961. The company began to move aggressively against what it saw as copyright-violating imitations from other companies, such as Fox Comics Wonder Man and this extended to DC suing Fawcett Comics over Captain Marvel, at the time comics top-selling character. Despite the fact that parallels between Captain Marvel and Superman seemed more tenuous, the courts ruled that substantial and deliberate copying of copyrighted material had occurred, faced with declining sales and the prospect of bankruptcy if it lost, Fawcett capitulated in 1955 and ceased comics publication
5.
Limited series (comics)
–
In the field of comic books, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from a series in that the number of issues is finite and determined before production. The term is used interchangeably with miniseries and maxiseries, usually depending on the length. In Dark Horse Comics definition of a series, This term primarily applies to a connected series of individual comic books. A limited series refers to a book series with a clear beginning, middle. Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics refer to limited series of two to eleven issues as miniseries and series of issues or more as maxiseries. The limited series has a story to tell. It follows the standard plot set-up of beginning, middle, usually, all plot points are covered by the end of the series. There have been limited series done in a format. Limited series are often done by a creative team, but in cases where there are changes. The number of issues is determined by some combination of the writers plotting. In 1979, in the process of recovering from the DC Implosion, publisher DC Comics experimented with a new format in the World of Krypton miniseries, as DC termed such short-run works. The new format allowed the company to tell stories that may not have fit into a series and to showcase characters into a short story without the risk. With the success of the format, DC followed by experimenting with longer stories. Debuting in 1982, Camelot 3000 was the first limited series to run to twelve issues, DC coined the term maxiseries as a promotional description for this. It did not take long for other publishers to begin using the limited-series format, Marvel Comics used it to feature popular characters from team titles and put them in solo adventures. Wolverines earliest solo adventures were told in limited series, crossovers were introduced in limited series form before the concept of multi-title crossovers was conceived. Contest of Champions brought forth the idea of an event affecting the Marvel Universe
6.
Superhero comics
–
Superhero comics are the most common genre of American comic books. The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s and has remained the dominant form of book in North America since the 1960s. Superhero comics feature stories about superheroes and the universes these characters inhabit, in comics format, superpowered and costumed heroes like Popeye and The Phantom had appeared in newspaper comic strips for several years prior to Superman. The masked detective The Clock first appeared in the comic book Funny Pages #6, in the Great Depression and World War II era the first Superhero Comics appeared, the most popular being Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Captain America. Beginning in the 1950s, DC began publishing revised versions of their 1940s superhero characters such as The Flash, Anti-Hero becomes popular with appearances of the Punisher, Wolverine, Ghost Rider and a 1980s revival of Daredevil by Frank Miller. Superhero Comics became darker with the release of landmark deconstructive works such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, in the 1990s, Image Comics released successful new characters including the Anti-Hero Spawn which were predominantly creator owned as opposed to Marvel and DCs which were corporate owned. Superhero Comics of the Silver Age, The Illustrated History, Superhero Comics of the Golden Age, The Illustrated History. Exploring the Sacred in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Film,485 p. ISBN 978-0-06-199210-0 Jacobs, Will and Gerard Jones. The Comic Book Superheroes, from the Silver Age to the Present, xi,292 p. ISBN 0-517-55440-2 Klock, Geoff. How to Read Superhero Comics and Why and our Gods Wear Spandex, The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes. Superheroes and Gods, A Comparative Study from Babylonia to Batman
7.
DC Universe
–
The DC Universe is the fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. DC superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are from this universe, and it also well known supervillains such as the Joker, Lex Luthor. It should be noted that in context, DC Universe usually refers to the main DC continuity, the term DC Multiverse refers to the collection of all continuities within DC Comics publications. Within the Multiverse, the main DC Universe has gone by many names and its not to be confused with Earth Prime. The fact that DC Comics characters coexisted in the world was first established in All Star Comics #3 where several superheroes met each other in a group dubbed the Justice Society of America. Subsequently, the Justice Society was reintroduced as the Justice League of America, over the course of its publishing history, DC has introduced different versions of its characters, sometimes presenting them as if the earlier version had never existed. Similarly, they had such as Batman whose early adventures set in the 1940s could not easily be reconciled with stories featuring a still-youthful man in the 1970s. To explain this, they introduced the idea of the multiverse in Flash #123 where the Silver Age Flash met his Golden Age counterpart. In addition to allowing the conflicting stories to co-exist, it allowed the differing versions of characters to meet, the writers gave designations such as Earth-One, Earth-Two, and so forth, to certain universes, designations which at times were also used by the characters themselves. Earth-One was the world of this publication era. Over the years, as the number of titles published increased, in order to continue publishing stories of its most popular characters, maintaining the status quo became necessary. However, not all the books rebooted post-Crisis, for example, the Legion of Superheros book acted as if the Pre-Crisis Earth-1 history was still their past, a point driven home in the Cosmic Boy miniseries. The Zero Hour limited series gave them an opportunity to revise timelines, meanwhile, DC has published occasional stories called Elseworlds, which often presented alternate versions of its characters. For example, one told the story of Bruce Wayne as a Green Lantern, in another tale, Speeding Bullets, the rocket ship that brought the infant Superman to Earth was discovered by the Wayne family of Gotham City rather than the Kents. In 1999, The Kingdom reintroduced a variant of the old Multiverse concept called Hypertime which essentially allows for alternate versions of characters, the entire process was possibly inspired by Alan Moores meta-comic, Supreme, Story of the Year. The Convergence crossover officially retconned the events of Crisis after heroes in that went back in time to prevent the collapse of the Multiverse. However, Brainiac states Each world has evolved but they all still exist, the Infinite Crisis event remade the DC Universe yet again, with new changes. The limited series 52 established that a new multiverse now existed and this follows the conclusion of the Flashpoint crossover storyline, which provided a jumping-off point for the existing continuity
8.
Geoff Johns
–
Geoff Johns is an American comic book and television writer, film producer, and television producer. He is the president and Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics and his most notable work in different media has used the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash, and Superman. He is well known for his work on The WB/The CWs Smallville, Arrow and he is also a comic book retailer who co-owns Earth-2 Comics in Northridge, California with Carr DAngelo and Jud Meyers. Johns was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Barbara and Fred Johns, and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston and he is of half Lebanese ancestry. As Johns continued collecting comics, he gravitated toward DC Comics and later Vertigo, after graduating from Clarkston High School in 1991, he studied media arts, screenwriting, film production and film theory at Michigan State University. He graduated from Michigan State in 1995, and then moved to Los Angeles, Johns started off copying scripts, and after about two months, was hired as a production assistant for Donner, whom Johns regards as his mentor. While working on production of Donners 1997 film Conspiracy Theory, Johns visited New York City, where he met DC Comics personnel such as Eddie Berganza, reigniting his childhood interest in comics. Berganza invited Johns to tour the DC Comics offices, and offered Johns the opportunity to suggest ideas, a series based on the second Star-Spangled Kid and her stepfather, to editor Chuck Kim a year later. Johns expected to write comics on the side, until he met David Goyer and James Robinson, after looking at Stars and S. T. R. I. P. E. Robinson offered Johns co-writing duties on JSA in 2000, and Johns credits both him and Mike Carlin with shepherding him into the comics industry and that same year, Johns became the regular writer on The Flash ongoing series with issue 164. I make a lot of my characters from Detroit, I think self-made, blue-collar heroes represent Detroit. Wally Wests Flash was like that, I took the inspiration of the city and the people there and used it in the books. Johns Flash run concluded with #225 and he co-wrote a Beast Boy limited series with Ben Raab in 2000 and crafted the Return to Krypton story arc in the Superman titles with Pasqual Ferry in 2002. After writing The Avengers vol.3 #57-76 and Avengers Icons, The Vision #1-4 for Marvel Comics, Johns oversaw the re-launch of Hawkman and Teen Titans. Johns was responsible for the return of Hal Jordan in 2005 as the writer of the Green Lantern, Rebirth mini-series, Johns was the writer of the Infinite Crisis crossover limited series, a sequel to 1985s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this, Johns was one of four writers, with Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, in 2006, Johns and Kurt Busiek co-wrote the Up, Up and Away. Story arc in Superman and Action Comics and he then reunited with Richard Donner on the Last Son storyline in Action Comics with Donner co-plotting the series with his former assistant. The Justice Society of America series by Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham began in February 2007 and six months later, he and that same year, Johns helmed the critically acclaimed Sinestro Corps War storyline in the Green Lantern titles
9.
Penciller
–
A penciller is a collaboration artist who works in creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations, hence the term penciller. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and these artists are concerned with layout to showcase steps in the plot. Beyond this basic description, however, different artists choose to use a variety of different tools. While many artists use traditional wood pencils, others prefer mechanical pencils or drafting leads, still other artists do their initial layouts using a light-blue colored pencil because that color tends to disappear during photocopying. Most US comic book pages are drawn oversized on large sheets of paper, the customary size of comic book pages in the mainstream American comics industry is 11 by 17 inches. The inker usually works directly over the pencil marks, though occasionally pages are inked on translucent paper, such as drafting vellum. The artwork is later reduced in size during the printing process. With the advent of digital illustration programs such as Photoshop, more and more artwork is produced digitally, Jack Kirby From 1949 until his retirement, Jack Kirby worked out of a ten-foot-wide basement studio dubbed The Dungeon by his family. When starting with clean piece of Bristol board, would first draw his lines with a T-square. Arthur Adams Arthur Adams begins drawing thumbnail layouts from the script hes given, the thumbnails range in size from 2 inches x 3 inches to half the size of the printed comic book. When working on the illustration board, he does so on a large drawing board when in his basement studio. After tracing the thumbnails, he will then clarify details with another light-blue pencil, for a large poster image with a multitude of characters, he will go over the figure outlines with a marker in order to emphasize them. He will use photographic reference when appropriate, as when he draws things that he is not accustomed to, because a significant portion of his income is derived from selling his original artwork, he is reluctant to learn how to produce his work digitally. Jim Lee Artist Jim Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work and he uses this lead because it strikes a balance between too hard, and therefore not dark enough on the page, and too soft, and therefore prone to smearing and crumbling. Campbell avoids its closest competitor because he finds it too waxy, campbell has also used HB lead and F lead. He maintains sharpness of the lead with a Berol Turquoise sharpener, changing them every four to six months, campbell uses a combination of Magic Rub erasers, eraser sticks, and since he began to ink his work digitally, a Sakura electric eraser. He often sharpens the eraser to an edge in order to render fine detailed work. Travis Charest Artist Travis Charest uses mainly 2H lead to avoid smearing and he previously illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked the non-photo blue lines printed on them
