Superman Batman Dark Knight Returns Homage Sketch Cover

by Joshua H. Stulman

Frank Miller revolutionized the look and feel of modern comics with his 3 year stint on Daredevil and his iconoclastic work on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Miller has had a long string of success as both Artist and Writer, evolving the look and feel of his artwork throughout the years.

When Dark Knight Returns came out in 1986, no one had quite seen Batman the way Miller wrote him. Old, quasi-suicidal, and spurred into action after years of retirement for one last battle with his arch nemesis- The Joker. Miller’s incorporation of Superman and Batman’s climactic battle representing the political clash of conservative and liberal ideology, helped bring comics into a new form of pop culture literature.

Imagery from the cover to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns # 2 was so striking it inspired a whole new generation of comic artists and instant homage (and parody). Dave Sim created a parody piece in Cerebus # 93 (Dec. 1986), while Todd McFarlane (who worked with Frank Miller in the 1990’s) recently created an homage artwork for Spawn # 224 (2012).

During the 2018 Batman: The Master Race sequel, many artists at DC created homage artwork to their favorite moments from Frank Miller’s original Dark Knight storyline. Chris Burnham developed two homage pieces featuring both Carrie Kelly Robin and the Joker.

So all that was missing was the Superman counterpart. But none came… until now! With great love and devotion, I set out to create an homage to Miller’s famous cover featuring Superman done in his style of that time.

I starting using the original Frank Miller cover as a base for the figure and reference for the famous wrinkling. I removed his gloves and adapted his boots, belt and chest symbol to reflect Superman. Changes were also made to the cape, and of course a complete re-draw of the face in Miller’s style.

Once the inking was complete, I laid in color using a brush pen. First yellow, red and finally blue. Subsequent layers helped to deepen the colors removing much of the stroke work.