Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Man in the Background

I've been remiss in posting a lot lately, but I've also been reading a lot of comics that fall outside the target of this blog; I'm working my way through a couple of series, including the 1970s Flash issues and Cerebus. But as it happens, I got a hankering to read the Action Superman stories starting from issue #200, and I began noticing the man in the background of a lot of scenes set at the Daily Planet offices. And I do mean a lot. Action #200:
Action #202
That's the only instance I can find so far of him having any lines, but he appears quite often:
Sometimes he's portly, sometimes he's rather svelte:
But the pipe and the bald head are absolutely ubiquitous. Well, the bald head is, occasionally he does take the pipe out of his mouth:
He's also the little man in this picture which was pointed out by longtime commenter Ralph C:
There's not really any mystery here; apparently Superman artist Wayne Boring put editor Mort Weisinger into a lot of panels as an inside joke.
Update: For a more biting look at Mort Weisinger from Boring, check here. Hat tip to commenters Wordsmith for the suggestion and Diane for the link.

2 comments:

wordsmith said...

Pat, if you track down a copy of Michael Eury's "The Krypton Companion" you'd find a Wayne Boring caricature of Mort Weisinger that's infinitely less benign.

Diane said...

I suspect this is the one Wordsmith is talking about:

http://rynanart.tumblr.com/post/42697112714/ericleejohnsonart-digging-around-for-pictures