The Art of Pinto

Didn't have much free time lately but I managed to sketch and paint this pic in ArtRage. I started it just to show it to my nieces and nephews while they were visiting. Kinda kept doodling with it late last night to have SOMETHING to post. Was fun tho.

I recently watched Hollywoodland. Or, at least, most of it. I was always fascinated by the life and death of TV's Superman so I guess it was natural for me to be inspired for this painting. I used to watch the old George Reeves episodes as a child before the Christopher Reeve version came out and loved it. My Dad made me an "S" and Grandma sewed it onto my blue pajamas. Add a pair of socks and a pair of underwear on the outside and voila! Superman!! My wife gave me the first two seasons of the Adventures of Superman on DVD a few years back and I have books on the show too. Where am I going with this?? I have no clue. I am at work and procrastinating! Anywho, here is George in his glory painted entirely in ArtRage.

To me he was Miracleman. I had no idea that he existed years before in England as Marvelman. I first read his adventures when they were reprinted for the first time in America and had to be re-titled for legal reasons. Anyway, those first several issues written by Alan Moore and drawn by Gary Leach and Alan Davis simply blew me away. Super beings in the real world?? Who heard of that!? We have since become diluted with that concept in the years since but to a kid in high school who grew up on 1970's Marvel and DC comics, this was a far cry from what was out there. Today, there are so many legal entanglements around the character that even he, with his much vaunted power, could conquer. Sad. The only ones really suffering are the fans who have been deprived of not only new stories but the old ones since they cannot be reprinted at this time.

I kept this one simple and straight forward. Just a simple line drawing from my sketchbook that I colored in Photoshop. Enjoy.

Back when I was doing all those doodles of Power Pig, one was done to emulate the pose Superman took on the cover of his first issue (Superman #1, NOT Action Comics #1). I thought it was kinda cute and funny. Recently, I saw it again in my sketchbook and decided it would be fun to re-create the whole cover. So I did. End of story. Enjoy.

Here is the original cover:



...and here is the Power Pig version.