Art Style
Swan's artwork on Superman was a contrast to Wayne Boring, his Golden Age predecessor. Critic Arlen Schumer praises Swan's ability to depict "the spectrum of human emotion, from agony to anger, mournful to mirthful." As characterized by critic Paul Gravett, Swan's Superman made ". . . Krypton's last son in exile, the alien in our midst, into someone like us, who would think and feel as well as act, who was approachable, big-hearted, considerate, maybe physically superpowerful yet gentle, noble yet subtly tragic." In a similar vein, Swan biographer Eddy Zeno calls Swan "the Norman Rockwell of . . . comics."
With his frequent inker Murphy Anderson from 1970–1974 (and then again from 1988–1989), the pair's collaborative artwork came to be called "Swanderson" by the fans. (Despite his and Anderson's success together, however, Swan's favorite inker was Al Williamson, with whom he only worked a short time, from 1985–1986.)
Read more about this topic: Curt Swan
Famous quotes containing the words art and/or style:
“To “give style” to one’s character—a rare and noble art! Those practice it who compass all that their natures present as strengths and weaknesses and then fit them into an artistic plan until every one appears as art and reason and even weakness enchants the eye.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“To translate, one must have a style of his own, for otherwise the translation will have no rhythm or nuance, which come from the process of artistically thinking through and molding the sentences; they cannot be reconstituted by piecemeal imitation. The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one’s own style and creatively adjust this to one’s author.”
—Paul Goodman (1911–1972)