Presented as a companion to recommended comic reading for fans of the classic Superman features, enjoy this vintage piece on Superman’s 50th anniversary from the pages of UK Midweek magazine. Beneath the splendidly colourful cover illustrated by John Byrne is Rob Ryan’s informative but somewhat cynical piece, managing to condense the highlights of an American icon over almost two pages. While the Superman Movie series gets a very brief mention (including still from Superman IV) the biggest revelation to SUPERMANIA is that Superman’s birthday is February 29th..every four years…
SUPERMANIA is proud once again to showcase the superlative works of SuperFan Jayce76 with all-new retro style ads for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace from his outstanding site Cinemazone Wallpapers.
For those of you with a fondness/guilty pleasure for output of the Cannon Group way back when, more fantastic pieces from Masters Of The Universe and the abandoned Spider-Man movie in similarly authentic style await…
SUPERMANIA had reserved this post for the reveal of the long-awaited custom Hot Toys Superman figure featuring movie-accurate modifications. Alas, due to experimentation, time-wasters and inevitable delays the project is further delayed but will continue until the desired result is achieved (as first conceived here).
In the meantime, we celebrate the enduring legacy of the MMS152 with these amazing shots captured by figure photographer extraordinaire Ronnie Del Puerto (view his photostream here). Besides the dramatic shots highlighting the best aspects of the figure, Ronnie blurs fiction and reality in considerable style with the somewhat controversial portrait (second pic) of Reeve’s Superman apprehending Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden.
While reminiscent of the final scenes of Superman: The Movie where Superman drops Lex and Otis into the Prison grounds, this portrait may be done just for fun but does seem to hearken back to the days where the Superman character was used in comic books to motivate troops by taking on real-world oppressive regimes. If nothing else, it serves as a contemporary reminder of what is meant by ‘Truth, Justice and the American way’…
Though the cinematic conception of Planet Krypton as a world founded on crystal technology may be credited to Star Wars designer John Barry, it may come as a surprise that the final designs for Superman’s alien mechanisation were rendered by the man most famous for the iconic look of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Despite their infamy, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind insisted on hiring the best of the best across the industry for their productions and the late Harry Lange, now forever known as ‘The man who saw the future’ was no exception.
Credited as an ‘Astronautics Consultant’ for Richard Lester’s Superman II, German born Hans Kurt Lange (bottom pic, holding the astronaut helmet he designed for 2001) was solely responsible for the interior/exterior work on the Artemis II space capsule set (third pic) realised with such authenticity it could’ve passed as a real spacecraft –
“I’d seen real hardware at Cape Canaveral and in NASA’s research laboratories and hangars, so I knew what the equipment had to look like. A piece of board with blue squares stuck on it may do for TV, but not when you want to do something on a Cinerama screen. It had to be absolutely perfect. I kept that idea in my following films: Star Wars, Superman, James Bond…”
While comparisons between the earth-based hardware in II, Kubrick’s classic and Moonraker evidently bear Lange distinctive style, it is the Kryptonian computers/memory banks (first & second pic) that are standout examples of fantasy art elegantly realised. While the console (second pic) could easily be the basis of Superman’s computer in the Fortress Of Solitude revised for Superman II, one wonders if he was involved uncredited as early as Donner’s original movie as this lot of illustrations from his estate (in auction this month by Propstore) clearly show a bank of computers mounted in the arch of Lex Luthor’s underground hideaway…
Read Harry’s obituary from the UK Independent here…
SUPERMANIA is proud to present yet another rare vintage find with this excellent article from the short-lived LM magazine. This first of only four issues ever to hit shelves was a complimentary first edition and despite its sharp presentation (featuring art by Oliver Rey, top, under a plain black cover) and variety of pop-culture topics failed to find an audience.
While publisher Newsfield had already secured its demographic through monthlies devoted to computer gaming (Crash!, Zzap64) this obscure title (to date it is unknown what LM actually stood for though it does state ‘Leisure magazine’ on the first page) is still probably the last place you would expect to find a feature on the special effects of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.
Indeed, Curtis Huchinson’s set visit (second and third pic, click for larger) is peppered with great little revelations, firstly from star Christopher Reeve but focusing mainly on the career and contribution of special effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw, (bottom pic) whose excellent pedigree was great assurance that the tradition of ground-breaking visuals set by the Superman series would continue.
For all the optimism expressed by Ellenshaw above at having been involved in the shoot from the outset, however, at the time of writing no-one could’ve foreseen the budget for the picture would be slashed considerably leaving Ellenshaw and his in-house team (OLW – Olsen, Lane & White) to make the best of what they had, which, as we all know, fell tragically short of the quality of previous works (Tron, Captain Eo) and was ultimately judged by many to be the worst of the series…
