Today in Comics History, February 17: Happy birthday, Curt Swan!

Born on this day in 1922: Curt Swan, one of DC's greatest and most important artists, renowned for his work on the Superman family of comics...and much, much more.


from Fifty Who Made DC Great one-shot (DC, 1985)



Swan co-created a huge number of characters with in the DC Universe (especially within the Superman and Legion of Super-Heroes mythos), including the Composite Superman, Computo, the Emerald Empress, Faora, Krypto, the Legion of Super-Pets, Steve Lombard, Mordru, the Fatal Five (including Mano, the Persuader, Tharok, the Emerald Empress and Validus), Titano, Universo, Legion members Ultra Boy, White Witch and Shadow Lass, Sean Connery-a-like Vartox, Terra-Man, Superboy-Prime, and a galaxy more!


from DC Comics cover-dated June 1977
As I often feature in this here...uh...feature, Curt was also a character inside the comics as well, guest-starring (on the right in the first picture, next to Harry Donenfeld, owner of National Allied Publications) in the infamous "spot the errors" April Fool's story "Night of March 31st!"




from (top and middle) "The Night of March 31st!" in Superman (1939 series) #145, (DC, May 1961), script by Jerry Siegel, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Sheldon Moldoff; (bottom) Superman #149 (DC, November 1961)
Curt wrote and drew an entire story based around a dream (or...was it?) of actually meeting Superman!





from from "I Flew with Superman!" in Superman Annual (1960 series) #9 (September 1983); co-plot, pencils, and inks by Curt Swan; co-plot by Cary Bates; scr ipt by Elliot S! Maggin; colors by Anthony Tollin; letters by John Costanza
DC later acknowledged this story (in an issue saluting Julius Schwartz) when Superman visited Earth-Prime, the world of DC Comics creators and, well...us:


from Superman (1939 series) #411 (September 1985), script by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson, colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters John Costanza
And of course, Curt drew the very final adventure of the pre-Crisis Superman (and here he is on the cover!):



cover of Action Comics #583 (September 1986), layouts by Ed Hannigan, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson, colors Anthony Tollin
So definitive was the team of Swan and Anderson on Superman that the name "Swanderson" was coined to credit their many collaborations!

Here's some behind-the scenes pix from one of DC's treasury-sized tabloid collections):



from The Amazing World of Superman (DC, 1973)
Please join me in wishing a very superlative 102nd happy birthday to Curt Swan, a super-artist for a Superman!

from "How to Draw the Superman Family" in Limited Collectors' Edition C-38 (DC, October 1975); script, pencils, and inks by Curt Swan; letters by Gaspar Saladino
(Click top picture to Krypto-size)