As anticipation and excitement starts to gather momentum for the return of The Man Of Steel to the silver screen, SUPERMANIA responds in typically retro-fashion. Please enjoy this latest collaboration with the talented Alexei Lambley-Steel (editor of A Tribute To Christopher Reeve) to authentically mirror the latest cover of bestselling UK film magazine EMPIRE not only with its 1978 counterpart but also special editions dedicated to the sequels. In a similar wish-fulfillment endeavor to our Superman IV trading card project, the idea was to produce passable facsimiles of genuine covers had Empire existed during the original series run (the magazine was first published in 1989!). Besides the horrifying onset on inflation its interesting to note the evolution of graphic styles over a decade (I used real publications of the era such as Films Illustrated for reference) and how the images selected are still as striking today. In an age of artifice where we love our heroes dark, the experiment above proves there is much still to be said for reality and the light…
SUPERMANIA extends its thanks to Capedwonder Jim Bowers for use of his imagery and Alexei for tireless dedication to the Real Man of Steel..!
Reeve looked at his best in “Superman II”. In the stills of “Superman IV” looks a bit older and thin. And he doesn’t have the “S” curl, maybe beacuse this movie tried to reflect John Byrne’s work on the comics. In a “Wizard” interview in 1998, Byrne admited that he got US$200.000 for only 2 days of work in the fourth film. Some people is really lucky, I guess.
Hi there – Thanks for your comment!
I had no idea Byrne was involved in Superman IV but it would certainly appear the influence was there, especially in the hairstyle (actually a hairpiece). worn for the last picture. I didn’t realise at the time we were putting them together just how apparent the change was in Reeve over the series tenure…