Action Comics Issue #1000

Jim Lee & Scott Williams

Besides Star Wars and Star Trek, One of the greatest top tier sources of fan fiction that has encompassed different mediums over the year, and has monikered the grandfather of the superhero archetype is Superman. 
April 18^th, 2018 saw the release of Action comic #1000, an extremely rare milestone accomplishment that celebrates 80 years of this beloved DC Character.  Conceived from a Canadian heritage, Superman was a comic strip, an 11 year- run Radio Serial, multiple comic book series, multiple television series, multiple animated series, a motion picture franchise, and a set of Video game titles.

Steve Rude 30s

Frank Cho 40s

 This April, variant covers representing each decade from a different artist will be featured, including a blank cover, and a Primary cover designed by Jim Lee and Scott Williams , bringing the total of 10 different covers to this issue. The issue is an anthology of short stories commemorating or celebrating the iconic hero.

Dave Gibbons 50s

Michael Allred 60s

Jim Steranko 70s

Joshua Middleton 80s

Dan Jurgens 90s

Lee Bermejo 2000s

Most of the covers are not by artists who were active in the period, but rather artists whose work feels inspired by the period, with Steve Rude tackling the Superman of the 1930s, Frank Cho covering the Superman of the '40s, and Watchmen's Dave Gibbons hitting the '50s. Madman creator and the artist behind Batman ’66 Michael Allred is attached to the 1960s. Jim Steranko trusted with the 70s who has not done a lot of work with DC but had drawn a variant for Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1.  Joshua Middleton came onto the comic book scene in the 2000’s but his most recognized Superman contribution was Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder and is in charge of the 80s.  Leaving the most likely to be the most popular artist and cover which might be the biggest seller for monetary purposes is Dan Jurgens  for the 1990’s cover, Dan is the current writer for Action comics  but was the definitive artist for Superman in the 1990s . While Lee Bermejo, who recently did an exclusive Justice League theatrical poster, will draw 

2018 marks the 40^th Anniversary of the motion picture release of Superman. Starring a then unknown actor, the late Christopher Reeve.  Director Richard Donner casted him after watching Reeve's Performance on play in New York, playing a duo role of a young man and his grandfather.  The Tagline being you will believe a man can fly.  Was significant because the status of effects prior to the Donner's film was categorically very low-end and not taken too seriously.  The motion picture revolutionized the perception of the superhero genre being box office draw and giving authenticity to a fictional character that was otherwise marginalized to little children.  Donner's contributions to the first 3 films  before studio execs and behind the scene dealings altered Richard Donners’ involvement and vision is still considered unprecedented.  The current president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, upon graduating from USC went to intern and then work under Richard Donner and his wife Lauren at the beginning of his career, working on the set of Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones, and You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Hanks that eventually led to Lauren Donner having Feige sit in and work with Bryan Singer to work on the first X-men Movie, which led to his own eventual path with Marvel. 

Superman 1978 were the character reveal takes place one hour into the film, something unheard of even today, took a mature approach to the material and as such elevated a b-level picture genre and  paved the way for ruling genre today. The kids who grew up enthralled and caught up with both the star wars saga and Superman franchises are the movers and shakers of the business today.  It’s a reflection of the enormous impact that these characters or franchises have had on the modern movie landscape today.
One of the contributing stories of Action comics #1000 is a  co-written piece by Richard Donner.