Sunday, April 13, 2008

The three covers of "Boys of Steel"

In September 2007, I first saw a sketch of Ross MacDonald's cover concept for Boys of Steel:

Notice anything?

(Yes, besides the misspelling of my last name. Together we can get through that.)

Notice anything missing?

Yes. Superman. There is no trace of the Man of Steel, the creation of whom is the subject of the book.

Granted, we would not necessarily have had approval to put Superman in full form on the cover, nor would that necessarily have been the way to go even if we did, but I felt his presence had to be there somehow.

I suggested a red and blue blur streaking across the sky behind the Boys of Steel. Superman is often depicted this way in comics and, as far as I know, you can’t trademark colorful streaks.

In November, I saw Ross had gone in a different direction, but I immediately bummed a ride that way:

We can all be grateful my original concept (from 2005) was delicately dismissed:


However, I do still like that masthead treatment because it's meant to be a tribute to this:

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