It’s the World’s Finest gag — on the first day of June!
—
UPDATED 6/1/24: It’s the first day of June! Summer’s practically here! Perfect time to re-present this fab piece from 2021, as summer turned to fall. Dig it. It’s a real kick. — Dan
—
The weather’s getting cool and Halloween is just weeks away but we’ve got one final, very funny look at summer, courtesy of graphic designer Matthew Dunn: a parody World’s Finest splash page where our heroes enjoy a day at the beach — but have a hard time hiding their tan lines.
Check it out — and dig all the Easter eggs:
I love everything about this. Matt — whom you may recall from the Batman ’66 musical salute The Bat Swings and the fan-made Batman ’66 Meets Godzilla — has the chops, doesn’t he? It’s groovy that he added Wonder Woman to the mix. (The bootstrap lines!)
“A few months back, I was considering funny tan lines that might show up on characters like the Boy Wonder and decided to build an illustration around that,” Matt said. “Thinking about the absurd ways our heroes protect their secret identities, I pulled my copies of Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told and Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told from the shelf, and the idea quickly morphed into an homage to DC’s Silver Age.”
As great as the final product is, it’s a real kick to see Matt’s other versions, including one that apes a page of original art:
“I had as much fun poking around my comic collection and the Heritage Auctions site as I did drawing the piece,” Matt added. “A couple poses are lifted from Wayne Boring and Jack Burnley while other elements are inspired by Curt Swan, Dick Sprang and Ross Andru.
“I wanted to include villains without crowding the scene. Brainiac looks interesting from a distance. Thought about beach activities… Holy parasailing! That parachute Iooks like a smile! The robot crab is inspired by a Luthor contraption from Superman #164,” he said.
“The infamous Dr. Fredric Wertham would have some things to say about this scene, so I labeled the sun tan lotion in his honor,” Matt said.
So how did he make it look so realistic?
“I did my initial pencils on actual newsprint, then I inked it on an iPad using the Procreate app,” he explained. “The halftone patterns and paper effects are also done in Procreate, using Retro Supply’s ColorLab and Phantom Paper tools, respectively. To cap it off, I improvised more print imperfections before compiling additional imagery in Photoshop, including the Charles Atlas inside cover and the faux ‘original’ inked board with paste-up logos.”
Brilliant.
—
MORE
— BATMAN, GODZILLA and the Greatest House Ad That Never Was. Click here.
— THE BAT SWINGS! The Coolest Tribute to the Music of BATMAN ’66. Click here.
September 30, 2021
When an artist can produce material this awesome, one has to wonder why DC isn’t using Matt to publish some great retro books for fans of the style. The only reasoning I can come up with to provide an excuse for DC is that they prefer the junk they are publishing today rather than creative, fun, truly escapist content like this.
September 30, 2021
This print ad is most definitely hilarious.
October 4, 2021
Masterpieces.
Colors from the comic pages …
electrocuted.
September 30, 2021
Brilliant!
September 30, 2021
This is more fun than anything new published these days.
September 30, 2021
Superman can’t have tan lines. dude absorb the Sun for his power, and basically his skin is indestructible.
September 30, 2021
OK
October 1, 2021
iamyyinata— It’s a comic. Relax.
October 1, 2021
In the time period of this page, the story would be about convincing Lois Lane, Vicki Vale, and Steve Trevor how those tan lines got there and why they are not Superman, Batman and Robin, and Wonder Woman. Those stories were always a gas!
October 2, 2021
good fun
October 2, 2021
crazy man crazy
August 5, 2022
Love it!!!! Thanks for reposting it, Dan.
August 5, 2022
I want… no… NEED this comic to exist!
August 5, 2022
This is awesome! The fake ad really tops it off!
June 1, 2024
That’s awesome! I’d pay $9.99 for that book DC!