I’ve been a big fan of Twomorrow’s Modern Masters series but I’ve felt that the last couple of volumes, while focussing on great artists, have been a bit lacking in the interviews. Unfortunately Michael Golden, Charles Vess and Art Adams have produced just too little work to produce a satisfying career-spanning interview.
The latest volume focusing on Jerry Ordway is a welcome return to the substantial interviews that were included in the John Byrne or Walter Simonson editions. Ordway is a creator who has probably shunned the spotlight quite a bit. I can’t remember reading anything more than a promotional interview with him before (“So, Jerry, tell me about the work you’re doing on Avengers?” type stuff.) The interview in this volume covers his formative years, including his work experience before he got into comics and some fantastic behind-the-scenes stuff about working on the Byrne era Superman. bI want someone to do a complete tell-all type book about the Superman period from just before “The Last Superman Story” up to “The Death of Superman. The more I hear about this lately, the more fascinated I am by the creative processes that lead to one of the most talked about eras for the character. This book also features a good discussion about Ordway’s work on Shazam! I think I ended up dropping the title somewhere around issue #25 but I think I may end up going back and getting the whole series.
And then there’s why the book exists– Jerry Ordway’s artwork. When Ordway is paired with the right inker, his stuff screams adventure. The strongest inkers on display here are himself, Mike Machlan or Dennis Janke. Ordway manages to make the incredible and super look possible and realistic. He’s an incredibly down to earth artist that gets a lot of texture and fun into his work. If there’s one thing I would have liked to see though, it would have been some before-and-after shots of Ordway inking over others like Byrne, Perez or Jurgens. It would have been neat to see the effects his inking has over such stalwart super-hero artists as those three.
This volume of the book also offers a couple of too brief glimpses into abandoned projects– a Byrne/Ordway drawn version of Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme mini (what a different book that would have been) and a Buck Rogers update helmed by Ordway. For the Squadron Supreme story, only a promotional sketch is shown, highlighting the main characters similarities to the JLA. From the Buck Rogers’ project, a couple of cover designs are shown. It looks like this could have been a classical re-imagining of the character.
When you get to the end of the interview, you realize how under utilized Ordway has been over the last 8 or so years. He shows up here and there but where’s the classic Ordway drawn book? Superman or the Shazam mini may be them right now but seeing the Buck Rogers artwork makes me think that there’s more waiting to happen. Ordway needs to produce his “epic,” his touchstone that will cement his place as an all-time great artist. Not that he isn’t that but his journeyman career makes it easy to overlook his great capabilities and skills.