Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 26, 2026 | 5 comments

The Art of DAKOTA ALEXANDER: A Birthday Tribute…

By DAKOTA ALEXANDER

My love for superheroes began before I could read comics.

I was born in 1979, so in the early ’80s my introduction came from all the media and merchandise presented by Marvel and DC. TV shows, toys, View-Masters and videos were plentiful at the time, and I was hooked from a young age by the exciting world of adventure that surrounded these costumed crusaders.

With all the various merchandise that showcased the heroes of the Big Two, even at a young age I noticed that any merch with DC characters had a specific “style” to its images (I think many of you know where I am going with this). Of course it wasn’t until later that I realized that these images, in fact, were not repurposed from the comics (as was often the case with Marvel). They were part of an immense gallery of art known as… THE DC COMICS STYLE GUIDE.

As you probably know, the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide was the binder that contained official images of nearly all the company’s characters used for licensed merchandise around the world. It’s been updated many times and is still used today for DC’s retro goods. (Standards Manual’s 2024 hardcover Style Guide reprint, on which 13th Dimension‘s Dan Greenfield was a technical adviser and writer, was nominated for an Eisner last year.)

As former DC head Paul Levitz wrote in a previous 13th Dimension article: “The Style Guides were done to change a policy that was unfair to artists — most earlier DC licensed products or ads simply picked up images from the comics, without any additional payment to the talent. Led by president Jenette Kahn, we changed that policy so that most licensees had to use artwork created specifically for that purpose, either in the Style Guides (for which the talent was paid a higher rate and knew the intended use) or newly drawn.”

Basically, from 1982 to 1989, if you saw any merch that was DC-related (not counting the Superman movies) it was likely that artwork was licensed from the DC Style Guide. I remember the paper plates, cups, and napkins for my 4th birthday were all superhero art from the guide.

Not 100% sure this was the exact birthday plate, but you get the idea.

It was the visual language for how kids would recognize the characters from the DC Universe, so to say that it was iconic artwork is almost an understatement. Most of it was pencilled by the amazing José Luis García-López — who was born 78 years ago, on March 26, 1948 — and inked by Dick Giordano, so all the images are incredible, to say the least.

Of course, me being me, one day I thought, “I’d like to make my own Style Guide art in that JLGL/ Giordano style!” Who doesn’t like a challenge, right? Well lemme tell you, that is one pairing that is not so easily imitated, but I gave it my best shot.

Here we have Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Batgirl — all done in the vein of the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide. All done with great respect to the masters José Luis García-López and Dick Giordano.

Hope you like ’em.

(If by chance you were hoping to see some other DC heroes not featured here, you can find some pinups done in the ’80s style on my Etsy.)

Enjoy, and we’ll catch you next week with a faux house ad that will really raise some hell!

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Want more of THE ART OF DAKOTA ALEXANDER? Come back next week!

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MORE

— Why ROM Deserves So Much More Respect Than He Gets. Click here.

— TALES FROM THE CRYPTIDS: An EC COMICS Series You Never Knew Existed — Because It Didn’t. Click here.

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DAKOTA ALEXANDER is an American artist living in Japan. He’s worked on many projects, such as The Liberty Brigade, The Masters, Charon 13, and G.H.O.S.T. Agents. His latest is his love letter to Bronze Age superhero-horror comics, The Hunter, which is now available at his Etsy, Drums of the Serpent.