Adventures of Superman Annual #6, pg. 4 - Super Seven: The Longest Night (1994)

This is a page from the very first comic book I can remember reading as a kid. It was gifted to me by a neighbor and I must have read it from cover to cover at least 100 times over the years. I'm sure I've read thousands of other comics since then... many of them were masterpieces of the form... but none have left the lasting impact on me that this book has.

As soon as I started collecting original comic art, a page--any page--from this book was at the top of my wish list. But, after about 10ish years I'd only ever seen two original pieces from this issue (both on CAF):

The cover: https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1435671 (A Mignola that could be the centerpiece of any collection.)

And this page: https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=975405 (which sold to its current owner shortly before I saw it for the first time.)

I was shocked and elated when I was given the opportunity to purchase this page... and it's not just *any* page. This is the part of the story just before the people turn on their heroes... and the heroes (most of them) turn their backs on the people. The last panel in particular is a punch in the gut.

Side note: I find it interesting that Superman's anguished facial expression was removed in the published work, leaving him fully silhouetted. It gives him a more stoic look, but I actually like the original better. The scream makes him more human... shows more of the struggle between his invulnerable exterior and his emotional interior that is just as vulnerable as anyone else's.

It wasn't until I was much older that I read the second half of this story in Superboy Annual #1 and was pretty disappointed by it. Not only was the art completely different (and not my taste), but the plot fell off the rails pretty hard in my opinion. It doesn't change how I feel about this first part, but I have always wished it'd gone a different way.

Later, I learned that this was Brock Hor's very first assignment, he was still a Senior in the School of Visual Arts at the time, and he had to turn down the second book in order to graduate. He also only worked in the comic industry for two years (just bad timing). If this is what Brock was producing as a Senior in college, I would have loved to see pages from him 10, 20, or 30 years later... had he been able to remain in the industry.

Now I get to go check off a box I never thought I would. For me, this is a grail that I will have a very, very difficult time topping.