In Praise of Murphy Anderson

As Superman is my favourite comic book character, Murphy Anderson is my favourite comic book Artist. I believe he is the Leonardo Da Vinci of American comic book art. His graceful, dignified, and anatomically correct depictions of action heroes are unequalled over many decades. There are some artists who come close to his ideal and they will get a mention in due course. Some samples here of the genius of Murphy Anderson. The book, which cover is shown here, is well worth getting and I'm sure is available on Amazon or E-bay. It has a great collection of Anderson art and a luxury color section in the middle.

 His collaboration with Curt Swan on Superman throughout the 70's defined the character for that era. Although this was his best known work, he worked on many other characters in the DC roster and particularly notable was his depiction of Adam Strange in "Mystery in Space", which again defined that character's appearance for DC fans everywhere.

 Anderson also did two stints on the "Buck Rogers" newspaper strip in 1948-49 and again in 1958. His "Buck Rogers" look brought a quality image to the strip which won wide praise;

Note the similarities between the respective outfits of "Buck" and "Adam"

 A color drawing of "Buck Rogers" by Anderson.

 "Buck Rogers" newspaper strip art by Anderson.



A Swan/Anderson worksheet for DC Comics: Curt Swan pencilled and Murphy Anderson inked the pages during their long collaboration at DC. Note that "cut & paste" really was that in those days.

A color drawing of "Adam Strange" by Murphy Anderson:

PLANETRONIX,

EARTH, 30/01/2012.

(more will be added to this post)