The Art Institute of Zwen: Curt Swan (1)

Curt Swan is the quintessential Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes artist. For those of us who grew up enjoying then-current work by the likes of Mike Grell, Keith Giffen, Steve Lightle, and Greg LaRoque, we knew the best reprint and "classic" Legion artist was Curt Swan.

Ironically enough, the artist best known for his work on the Bronze Age Superman, *hated* working on the Legion book! In a 1983 interview reprinted in The Legion Companion he is quoted as saying, "Too many characters involved. The writers, bless 'em, they don't understand. It was painstaking and boring work."

Well, this is another case of the artist not understanding how his work affects the audience, because even if the work was boring to create, the results were never dull! Even the character guide, reprinted as the back cover of The Amazing World of DC Comics #9 (above), shows how much time and effort Curt Swan put into his work.

Here is a relatively rare piece of Curt Swan work. It is the art that was used for the cover of The Legion of Super-Heroes Illustrated Index #2, from ICG Publishers. First marvel at the original pencils and inks....

And here is the colored cover of the actual issue.

The Legion Companion was published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Although it has sold out and is no longer available from the publisher, you can sometimes find a copy on places like ebay or amazon.