A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE… By PAUL KUPPERBERG Before I knew their names, I recognized the distinct styles of the three lead Superman artists of the 1950s and 1960s. There was the solid realism of Curt Swan; the slightly dated and awkwardly stiff renderings of Wayne Boring; and the slick, verging on the cartoony style of Al Plastino. Frankly, deciding which one I liked best was often as close as it being the one who had drawn the last story I read. The retirement of longtime Man of Steel editor Mort Weisinger also ended Plastino and Boring’s ongoing relationship with the character. Once the editorial reins were handed over to Julie Schwartz on Superman (beginning with #233, January 1971) and Murray Boltinoff (Action Comics #393, October 1970), it would be Curt Swan all the way for the foreseeable future. Not that there was anything wrong with that, especially in those early years when he was being inked by Murphy Anderson. “Swanderson” was about as good as it got. While I’m happy that Curt lasted through the 1980s, long enough to draw a number of my scripts, he was displaced by the next editorial change and shift in the creative direction. I never did have the chance to work with either Boring or Plastino and only met Al once, briefly, when he was a guest of the Hero Initiative at the 2011 New York Comic Con. Neither my connection to Superman nor to a cousin of his with whom I had worked a couple of years earlier at Weekly World News impressed him. Plastino’s (December 15, 1921 – November 25, 2013) association with Superman began in 1948 and he quickly became one of DC Comics’ most consistent artists on the character. Over the next 22 years he would illustrate stories (usually penciling and inking) in over 100 issues of Superman, almost 90 of Action, and a few score more of Superboy, Adventure Comics, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, and World’s Finest, for almost 280 stories, not to mention dozens of covers. Plastino was on hand to co-create some of the most enduring 1950s contributions to the Superman mythos, including the villainous Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor (Action Comics #242, July 1958), the futuristic teenage Legion of Super-Heroes (Adventure Comics #247, April 1958), and Supergirl (Action Comics #252, May...