With the big Action Comics #1000 release coming soon DC Comics hosted an 80 years of Superman panel to help mark the occasion. The panel featured legendary creators Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Norm Rapmund, Dan Jurgens, Marv Wolfman, Jason Fabok. The panel had plenty of little stories as the they all discussed the importance of Superman. Look ahead to see what everyone had to say in the lead up to Action Comics #1000
The panel starts with Jason Fabok talking about how he and the rest of the art team are working with Brian Bendis on the upcoming The Man of Steel comic. Fabok mentions that to maintain a consistency all the artists are maintaining constant contact with one another. Fabok does say that he does have a part in each of the six issues with the payoff of his work coming in the final issue. He goes on to mention how with the constant communication The Man of Steel artists there is a sense of competition with each artist doing all they can to make their issue the best out of the mini-series.
When asked about the New 52 design of Superman Jim Lee jokes that he is not anti-trunks. Lee goes on to say that DC Comics knew that even when they took Superman’s trunks off his costume that they would come back to be part of the costume again. He goes on to say that with Action Comics #1000 and Brian Bendis coming on board it felt like the right time to bring the trunks back to the costume. Lee opens up about how it is always dangerous to make adjustments or changes to an iconic character costume. He mentions that with each costume it brings its own fanbase.
Alex Sinclair talks about how great it is to be able to color Jim Lee, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado’s work. He goes on to joke that he does not watch Jim Lee’s Twitch streams because it is in the late hours so he sleeps and waits for the jpegs the next morning.
Marv Wolfman gets round of applause as he is about to celebrate his 50th anniversary with DC Comics. Wolfman mentions that his first issue of Blackhawks was not published for a year after he submitted it. When talking about his story in Action Comics #1000 based on four random pages that were already finished and unused artwork by artist Curt Swan. He goes on to praise Curt Swan and how much he loved putting the puzzle together of what the story for his pages would be.
Wolfman tells a story about how when he took tours of DC Comics as a teenager editors had big piles of unpublished artwork from the 1940s. Because there was more than the editors needed any unused artwork would be thrown in a furnace because it was a different time. Wolfman says that when he took the tours he took the chance to take the art that the editors would give to them since they were going to be burnt otherwise. He mentions how Jerry Sielgel and Joel Shuster artwork that he saved in one of these times is what is being used in Action Comics #1000.
Dan Jurgens says his story approach is a thank you to Superman and how great it is to have Norm Rapmund on his story. Coming in with that mindset gave him the opportunity to picture how everyone would thank Superman for all his work in the DCU.
Dan’s last story “The Last Will and Testament of Lex Luthor” is Dan’s last story on Action Comics for his current run. It will be a bookend to the start of his run and it will be a standalone story.
Jason Fabok praises the way Curt Swann’s way of drawing Superman being such a iconic version of the character even though he grew up on Jim Lee’s Superman.
Jim Lee mentions that Neil Adams was a big inspiration for him as the way he drew Superman felt real. When talking about Curt Swan he mentions how everything about his art was perfect and was a machine at drawing the character.
Alex Sinclair says that he is a big fan of how José Luis García-López’s Superman he is. The iconic way Garcia-Lopez drew him inspired a lot of how he approaches his own work.
Dan Jurgens says that that his continued inspiration for telling fresh Superman stories is finding the core of the character which goes back to the human aspect, Clark Kent, of who he is and why he does what he does. Jurgens says that Clark Kent still works is because of how the characters background based on being a farm boy from Kansas helps making Clark continue to represent Americana.
Jim Lee talks about how the Death of Superman is an amazing story because it tells the end of a character and how it displays every scene because of how historic it felt reading it.
Dan Jurgens talks about how much pressure there was with making the story because of how monumental the story was.
Marv mentions that when he grew up reading Superman he hated the fact that Lois Lane disregarded Clark Kent because she was always after Superman. He mentions how much he what writers did with Lois’ character in the 80s as it move her away from being a one-note character who was always after Superman. He goes on to mention how important Lois, Jimmy and Perry are to Clark Kent still being grounded even with everything Superman does.
Everyone adds to Wolfman’s words by praising how Lois Lane is such a strong character now. Lee even mentions how Lois is the one that helps ground Clark in his humanity. She also represents the ideals of Superman because even if she doesn’t have his powers she still lives with the ideals of truth and justice.
The panel closes with everyone on the panel talking about how Superman won’t change because of how he is someone that will be thought of in a similar way to the Greek Gods and has such an iconic look.
As the panel ends those in attendance receive special “#TheTrunksAreBack” Superman replica trunks.