Recently I finished a reread of my Triangle Era Superman collection. I had never read the books all the way through, roughly six years worth, but the experience changed my perspective on so many stories and enhanced my understanding of the era in many ways.

While I could easily write about the tiny details I noticed all over the place this time that I never had before, or the incredible experience of building up to the Death and Return of Superman- DEFINITELY some other time- a few things jumped out at me that hadn’t quite as much before.

One was the art of Mr. Kerry Gammill.

Gammill has been a veteran of the comic book industry for a solid forty years now. He worked at both Marvel and DC during that time and, come to find out, still does work on his own indie horror line of sorts.

While I haven’t read any of his new stuff, and very little of his Marvel stuff, I have always enjoyed his Man of Steel. What output he produced on the character wasn’t too much in terms of volume (probably twenty-ish books and many more covers), but he did work during a beloved era on some signature stories, most notably Exile.

His style is just perfectly suited for Supes, in that he draws a fair amount of detail with John Byrne’s Superman very clearly in mind. He draws a mean Clark Kent too, as well as Metropolis and the supporting cast. His panel layout is superb, and perspectives as well- not too many closeups or tiny figures in the background, but a good balance that makes for very easy reading.

Exile is most definitely his signature Superman story, with many of the covers and splash pages of that yarn having become iconic, but a few others struck me as well.

I’ve read in the past that Gammill’s relatively brief tenure as the regular artist of the main Superman book, and his sporadic output almost immediately after being given assignment, were both due to the fact that he is a rabid perfectionist who would often redraw entire pages to get things just right. As such, his tenure on the regular book- part of a more or less weekly slate of books at the time- was always going to end at some point, but thankfully other projects were much more up his alley.

Gammill drew two original Superman graphic novels, “For Earth,” (1991) and “Under a Yellow Sun” (1994), which were absolutely wonderful. Original graphic novels afford the creative team a chance to take their time far more than a typical book, and was perfectly suited for Kerry’s pace. The latter book very clearly came out years after it was intended to be released (ie Clark and Lois are dating, she doesn’t know his secret identity, etc). Perhaps because Gammill took so long to finish it?

Regardless, “Yellow Sun” cleverly combined a great script with his and Eduardo Barreto’s art- another underrated DC veteran- to make a story that wove in and out of Clark Kent’s fictional “reality.” “For Earth” also had some great pages of work from Gammill for a project that was meant to be a glorified public service announcement, but with that and Roger Stern’s nice script became something more. The two books are often overlooked gems from the era which were fantastic to reread.

I would love to see Kerry Gammill given some more work today, however unlikely that is, and would be first in line if he were to do another Superman project. He certainly has his fans, as can be attested to the well trodden Art of Kerry Gammill Facebook page, and his name appearing on even some all time great Superman artist lists.

It’s too bad we didn’t get to see a good deal more work from him on Superman over the years, but what we got was great. I highly recommend checking out some of his Superman stories if you ever get the chance.

NOTE: Kerry Gammill also did hundreds of creature concept drawings for the aborted Superman: Lives film. He is briefly interviewed in an infamous documentary on the subject which can be found at around 1:05. Enjoy!