Chris Burnham’s Variant Cover for ACTION COMICS #7

“My initial instinct upon reading the issue was to do something with the bottled cities of Metropolis & Kandor,” Burnham exclusively told THE SOURCE. “I LOVE the bottled city of Kandor. A few years ago I was at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh with my then-3-year-old nephew, Noah. We stumbled upon this incredible sculpture exhibition by the late great Mike Kelley. The exhibit is simply called ‘Kandor’ and features dozens of astounding renditions of the bottled city. Google it. It’s amazing. And well worth tracking down in person if you get the chance. It was my favorite part of the museum and it was Noah’s too! I literally had to drag him out of there kicking and screaming after we’d spent almost an hour in there. Kandor love runs in the family!

ANYHOW. Rags had already done an excellent job with a literal approach to the bottled city idea, so I decided to go a little more conceptual. The pieces all fell into place for a good, old-fashioned split cover! Superman torn between two worlds! Kandor and Metropolis! Nature and nurture! Teflon and cotton!

The cover also gave me the chance to work with the incomparable Gene Ha’s astoundingly complicated designs for Krypton and Kandor. It was a great challenge to be true to his vision without straight-up tracing what he’d already drawn. Did I pull it off? You decide!”

Personally, I love this cover. Aside from the fact that Superman is wearing a white shirt instead of his usual Action Comics blue, I think the piece is stunning, I love the contrast between Metropolis and Kandor on the cover. It actually makes the Kryptonian suit make more sense to me. I’m not sure why, but I get it when it’s held against that backdrop a bit more. What do you think about the cover?

ACTION COMICS #7 goes on sale on March 7th