Best of 2021 :: Published/Unpublished Comic Book Splashes, Title Pages

Totleben, John - Miracleman, issue 14, pages 10 & 11 DPS (Apr 1988)

Owner: Chris K.
Artist: John Totleben (All)

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Artwork Details

Title:	Totleben, John - Miracleman, issue 14, pages 10 & 11 DPS (Apr 1988)
Artist:	John Totleben (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Double Page Spread
Views:	789
Likes on CAF:	16 17
Added to Site:	6/29/2021

Description

�Sometimes I want to be him all the time and sometimes I wish he�d just vanish and leave us alone.� - Mike Moran in Miracleman, chapter 7, book one: Blue Murder.

Which is a long way from 'Dancing on my own' - the beginning of Chapter 3, book 4: Pantheon after his wife Liz Moran has left him upon his return from the trip with Avril Lear and the Warpsmiths to learn more of his origins. And even further from these two pages where he effectively ends his human life.

When Mike Moran first changed back into Miracleman, he expresses a jubilation of being something not human - not the tired, afraid, sick & anxious man Mike Moran was just moments before. As MM says, �I�m back!!� He's no longer 'trapped in that old, tired body'.

But that lightness to him in the beginning becomes much more weighty as he rediscovers who he is and the extent of his powers as he toggles back and forth between superhero and human. And early on it�s his wife Liz who correctly theorizes that Mike Moran and Miracleman are two separate bodies that share occupying real time (even though they do share the same mind and memories somehow...even though MM is �cleverer� and �his thoughts are like poetry� as Mike notes to his wife, Liz).

Eventually, he comes to be the embodiment of his own statement - �I�m Michael Moran. I�m a forty-two year old man. I�m standing on a rooftop and I feel stupid. All my life I�ve felt stupid. There are lots of people like me.� And as the world around him grows more complicated, he takes the same earlier position of Evelyn Cream, 'I don't trust Moran in a crisis.' Better to trust the 7-foot superhero that is his alter ego.

Which is exactly what he does in these two pages of story.

I always found this DPS powerful - a God/man choosing to leave his humanity forever behind after the only things connecting him to his humanity leave him (his wife & infant daughter). This might not have been the first time Moore used the concept in his writing, but we certainly know it would not be the last (see Dr. Manhattan leaving Earth in Watchmen!).

Anyway, as with most Totleben art from Miracleman, there's no way to capture the delicacy and beauty of his pencils in a scan - especially a scan as poor as this one. I'll try to get a better one posted soon so the art can be more fulsomely enjoyed.

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	Chris K. Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	August 2008
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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