Supergirl illustration by Al Gordon

Here is a lovely Supergirl illustration that was sent in to me by artist Al Gordon, creator of WildStar and writer/artist on numerous titles including Spider Woman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, JLA, and Legion of Super-Heroes among others. I really like the art deco feel of it.

This Mucha-esque pose of Supergirl at the beach is a fun, playful take on early ’80s Supergirl (the big curly hair is awesome). While this is clearly Matrix, I can also see in her a grown up Kara who might have lived through the Crisis Updated Oct 23/10: Alan informs me that this is a grown up version of Kara, not Matrix, as I had assumed due to the belt and the time period. (Having not grown up with Kara, my mental picture of her kind of stops in the late 1970′s. When I think of “80′s Supergirl” I think Matrix, not Kara, but really that’s not true.)

This illustration was to be released as a poster in the late 80s, shortly before Dick Giordano and Patty Bastienne’s departure from DC. Due to editorial changeover, that never came to pass. Which is too bad: I think this would have made a terrific poster during the time period when Supergirl was portrayed as older and more statuesque – I particularly love how big Supergirl is here.