PART 5 0f a daily feature on August’s Super Powers variant cover line-up…
Throughout August, DC Comics is publishing eight variant covers in honor of the 40th anniversary of Kenner’s Super Powers line of action figures, vehicles and playsets. Artists Jason “ToyOtter” Geyer and Alex Saviuk combined forces to create covers that homage the packaging, with the kicker being that none of the figures shown were actually made — though they should have been. (Geyer did the figures and the packaging; Saviuk, who was similarly involved in the original Super Powers line, did the “Style Guide” art.)
Our hope is that McFarlane Toys — which has revived Super Powers — will pick up this baton and actually make the figures. (And they’re not saying no. By coincidence, they’ve already made the Gold Superman we’re featuring in this installment.)
Since we can’t get enough of this whole project, we’re featuring Jason Geyer’s development art for each cover, every day for eight days, along with the final versions — backs and fronts. (His commentary is adapted from Facebook posts he’s done.) We’re be publishing them in the order they will be released by DC.
Next up? GOLD SUPERMAN (Superman #17, due Aug. 21):
“Gold Superman was the only one in this series of covers that was actually planned by Kenner,” Jason said. “The figure that was designed for an unproduced fourth wave had repositioned arms so they would be in more of a “flying pose” when you squeezed his legs. And the legs wouldn’t have knee joints because of the vac-metal process. He got pretty far along in development, with a fully painted hard copy and rough card design.
“Why a gold figure? Well, he was planned as part of a small assortment of items to celebrate Superman’s 50th anniversary. Kenner had already made a gold vac-metalized carrying case with C-3PO in 1983 (ironically, the plain yellow version to tie into the Droids cartoon was canceled around this time) so they proposed a gold Superman carrying case, along with a repainted Supermobile vehicle, with possibly even more items as yet undiscovered.
“I designed the whole thing, wrote all the copy, and colored the amazing line art for Superman by Alex Saviuk. (I matched the gold treatment from my Kenner card mockup from 20 years ago… that Mattel picked up for THEIR gold superman homage figure!) The whole project was spearheaded by my editor at DC, Alex Galer, and championed by sales manager Dustin Kitchens. We briefly discussed using the Kenner card design, but ultimately wanted the full set of covers to match. And of course, we started this before we even knew McFarlane was coming out with their own Gold Superman! Fun fact: Gold is for 50th anniversaries, ruby is for 40th ones. But it’s never a bad time for gold, amirite?”
Thanks, Jason!
Like we said, McFarlane has already produced a Gold Superman. Now it’s just a matter of beating the drum for the other seven!
NEXT: Wonder Girl. Click here.
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MORE
— GREEN LANTERN: Beware the Power of the Fab SUPER POWERS Variant Cover. Click here.
— The NIGHTWING SUPER POWERS Variant Cover Leaps Into Your Heart. Click here.
