With a glittering career spanning over five decades and the globe, its intriguing to discover British stalwart costume designer Yvonne Blake’s first tribute volume is written in Spanish. Indeed, Victor Matellano’s lavishly-illustrated paperback went unbeknownst to me until late last year despite being published in 2006.
And what a volume it is – over the course of almost 300 pages the reader is treated to dozens of Ms. Blake’s sketches (rendered in her distinctive style) with corresponding photographs of the staggering multitude of productions showing how her creations were brought to memorable life. Having dressed everybody from Streep to Pacino it becomes more and more remarkable as the chapters come & go just how many screen credits have been amassed in some of the most popular movies of the 20th century.
With an introduction by notoriously recluse Director Richard Lester, the book charts Blake’s early career beginning in late ’50’s London and steadily gaining momentum thanks to the British Hammer Horror productions throughout the 60’s and expanding onto bigger budget blockbusters such as ‘The Eagle Has Landed’. By 1973 Blake had a considerable Hollywood portfolio and had caught the attention of extravagant producer Alexander Salkind, who along with his son Ilya hired Blake for their ambitious take on ‘The Three Muskateers.’ for what would infamously become two pictures shot simultaneously. So well-received were Blake’s creations that the young designer was first and only choice for the Salkind’s next huge project, Superman: The Movie.
Chapter 11 is entitled Marlon Brando y el hombre de acero (Marlon Brando and the Man of Steel) and is devoted to exploring how these now classic creations were forged (see pics above). From Brando’s own day-glo robes (achieved by firing light onto 3M front projection material) to the final design of the first cinematic Superhero costume not intended to draw yucks from a modern audience…
While precious little information has surfaced over the years about the nature of Blake’s Superman costume, dedicated fans including myself have pooled resources and have attempted to provide the most exhaustive guide to date (the book corroborates most of our findings short of stating the costumes were made in Austria rather than Germany) and the updated version can be found here along with sumptuous galleries portraying Blake’s most lingering legacy…
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..!
Enjoy this fascinating gallery of Super-Diagnostics amassed over the ten year period of the Superman motion picture series. Mainly culled from Japanese movie magazines, (with the exception of the Superman III Laserdisc insert, third pic down) these fun diagrams (presumably) list Superman’s great powers in seemingly exhaustive detail while still finding space for cast & crew credits and even a rogues gallery. (bottom pic) Should anybody wish to translate the copy I would be more than happy to host it here…
Continuing SUPERMANIA’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to comic reading specially selected for fans of the Movie series, the above may well represent the best and purest interpretation to date –
Indeed, writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank may well have created a satisfactory substitute for what was long thought to be a lost cause – a virtual comic adaptation of Superman: The Movie.
Having already wowed fans old & new with with their shamelessly cinematic Superman: Brainiac series, this dream-team pairing next applied their epic take on his ‘Secret’ origins, in a bold revision not attempted since John Byrne’s definitive Man Of Steel in 1986.
Over the course of six spellbinding issues, Johns & Frank manage to spin a tale of considerable substance, cherry-picking from all of the best influences from all the Man Of Tomorrow’s rich history and many incarnations, ultimately producing a graphic novel I could only describe as a precious gift to fans of the classic Superman Movies.
Indeed, there are so many rich references and sweet homage to Richard Donner’s pictures I could easily make extensive posts on every issue. As for the collection, however, beyond the main players (Christopher Reeve’s Superman/Clark Kent written and illustrated to perfection) find mentions of obscurities such as Gil Friesen to nothing short of a glorious re-interpretation of the double jeopardy scene from Superman: the Movie. Interspersed with some classic comic-book action (featuring outstanding re-imaginings of villains The Parasite and Metallo, Johns also invests considerable time & energy into addressing much of the ambiguity regarding the Superman mythos (Including the invention of the costume and the cute necessity of Clark’s glasses) in a contemporary fashion Christopher Nolan would certainly approve of.
For all its stylish integrity, however, the book does have one fairly significant and questionable failing – the re-introduction of Superboy. In a baffling second issue, Superboy comes to terms with his Superhero obligations with the help of the Legion Of Superheroes. In a move of such incomprehensible silliness totally at odds with the rest of the tone established by issue 1, Superboy travels in time for an adventure in the distant future. Even the sweetly contrived arrival of Krypto The Superdog can’t save the issue from ruining what would otherwise be an exquisite collection. Obligingly, the story does not suffer by its deletion, so the reader can easily skip from issues 1 to 3 with little or no fallout.
Despite my longing for the Johns/Frank pairing to continue on the character in his regular run until the end of time, this book, tragically, to date, this is their epitaph. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for sharing their vision whilst applying Christopher Reeve’s persona to a tale worthy of the affection we clearly share of his interpretation to this day…
More from the SUPERMANIA collection of exclusive behind the scenes material, this time on the Elstree Studios set of Luthor’s Lair atop Metropolis Tower.
These never-before-seen pics convey the considerable scale and splendid Art Deco design of Production designer John Graysmark’s set arguably better than what’s seen in the finished picture. From the top, a candid moment between actors Jon Cryer (Lenny Luthor) and Mark Pillow’s Nuclearman, Gene Hackman awaiting direction with his dance instructor while Sidney J. Furie confers with crew, actors William Hootkins, Stanley Lebor and Jim Broadbent (in his first film role) converse with Hackman & Cryer relaxing between takes, and shooting the face off between Nuclearman and Christopher Reeve’s Superman toward the end of the picture…
