Superman and Superboy-- Together Again!

This may have been inspired by a story published around that period wherein Old and Young Supie get stuck in the same period and resolve their dilemma by having one stand still and the other fly at him with all his might (accompanied by some narration concerning the whole "irresistible force/immovable object" conundrum), the result being that this causes him to be bashed through the time barrier to his own home time zone. It seemed like specious reasoning even then, but I accepted it. Alternately, this may be Superman with his son Superman, Jr., from the "Super-Sons" stories that ran periodically in World's Finest in those days. Either seems plausible to me.

Three Comic Strips

What Grandfather could ask for a finer birthday gift than a trio of pantomime gag strips? In March of 1977, my own grandfather, John T. Thompson, Sr. was obliged to consider that very question on the occasion of his 65th birthday. If dissatisfied, he never mentioned it.
Said comics seem likely inspired by the Gold Key Club comics pages then used as filler in comics from that publisher. Sometimes they would just be wordless gags by staff artists, and other times there would be setups provided by the company and finished by readers. (Most if not all of these were 10-year old reprints-or just old used comics-at the time I was reading them, but it was all new to me). In this instance, though, I had to start from scratch. Taken in order:

• Icarus: In my retelling, Daedalus isn't involved. Icarus does it all himself. Of course, this may just be some other dude making himself a set of wings, but the mythological angle adds a touch of class. I thought the first panel was worthy of Saul Steinberg.

• Star Trek: A rather slight gag, but surprisingly post-modern and sophisticated for an 8-year old, if I might pat myself on the back.

• Superman: The least successful, mostly because the third panel is incomprehensible. I think it might involve Superman's construction of a jail cell, but I don't get it. The readers' interpretations are hereby solicited.

In retrospect, I wish I'd structured the third one to end with an explosion, so as to maintain the narrative symmetry, but I apparently wasn't all that concerned with it at the time.

Hembeck Style

Fred Hembeck was (and still is) one of the most prominent star artists in comics fanzines, though he has done a fair amount of work for the major publishers through the years. I would first encounter his work in the form of short gag strips in the backs of various DC comics in the late '70s (archived here). I've always enjoyed his work, but 1980-85 was the height of my interest. I still remember riding back from a Charlotte Mini-Con in the back of my friend Jerry's mother's car, while we performed a radio play-style performance of the Fantastic Four Roast. Looking back, I can say that Fred was probably the single biggest outside influence on my taste in comics in those days. If not for him, I might not have known how much I needed Brother Power, the Geek or Mysterious Suspense. Thanks, Fred!
These drawings are an approximation of his earlier, clunkier style (he's since streamlined the lumpy elbows and knees, while retaining the trademark knee squiggles). One can criticize that early work for its overuse of a basic stylized design that is customized to suit one's needs, like a Zwinky or a Qee, but the upside of it is that a 13-year old can apply the design rules and produce a reasonably presentable imitation of it. Of course, that's not at all the same as being able to make actual comics of note, which Mr. H was doing all along, and continues to this day.

The Justice League

...or at least a subgroup thereof. Not drawn to scale, obviously. Don't know where Superman left his cape.

Superman

The Man of Steel, rendered in the Paper of Construction! I was going to suggest that his head sort of resembled that of Alf, the taller castaway in The Drop-Outs, but a bit of research informs me that I didn't have a very clear mental picture of him after all.

The Solar System and Beyond

A reasonably accurate map of the solar system, though the relative sizes and distances between the planets are obviously off. Also, I've depicted no moons other than Earth's, and only Saturn has its ring (though, in my defense, I believe that none of the other rings would be discovered until a few years later). And, for the record, Pluto is still a planet as far as I'm concerned. I have no objection to adding a few, but I'm not giving up any of the ones we already had. Note the additional portrayal of young Kal-El's rocket leaving Krypton and its red sun, embarking upon his long journey towards Smallville and his new parents.

SUBPeRMAN

Man...Supie sure is happy!This one displays a perhaps-borderline dyslexic tendency of mine to transpose "P" and "B" (also "M" and "W")...but I caught it in time! Also, then and now, I've always really liked lowercase "e".

From a year or so earlier, here are a couple of abandoned attempts (not actually from the same page, but united by Photoshop). The first one I obviously didn't care for, but I don't know why I didn't finish the other one.