Thursday, July 2, 2009

SUPERMAN VS MUHAMMAD ALI Treasury Comic Book Parody Covers



When I was a very young teen DC Comics used to publish these HUGE comic books called Treasury Comics. They were a very large format & I used to totally love them. One of my favorites was called "Muhammad Ali VS Superman". The entire story & artwork was done by Neal Adams so you know it had some amazing art! It was a really great story too. The basic premise was that the leader of an alien race wanted to know who would win if Ali & Superman fought in a boxing match. The alien leader had them both abducted & taken to a planet with a red sun. Because of the "red sun" aspect, Superman didn't have any super-powers at all so then it would be an "equal fight". The story also dealt with a lot of real-life issues like race, tolerance, justice, equality, etc...it was just really really great! In fact, it's now a beloved classic! Well, this post is mainly about the "parody covers" in other magazines. The 1st one is an issue of ESPN Magazine ( art done by Neal Adams ) showing Muhammad Ali boxing Michael Jordan surrounded by the top 100 athletes of the millennium. The 2nd one ( artist unknown by me ) is Homer Simpson VS Bugs Bunny, totally hilarious! OK, I know this post is not really that much "Batman-Related" but Neal Adams was one of the very best artists to ever draw the Dark Knight Caped Crusader so that counts, right?