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Saturday, September 19, 2026

Top Tens - James Sherman

James Sherman burst onto the comic book scene in the mid 1970's but left comics a few years later to work in advertising. During his time in comics Sherman was probably best remembered for his run on the Legion of Superheroes where he took over the art chores from Mike Grell starting from #225 until #242 ( with a few breaks in between). My favourite of his LSH run was on the excellent "Earth War Saga" ( #240 - #242) with writer Paul Levitz who he fell out with and left the title with issue 242 before returning for a final issue (#262)in 1980 when Gerry Conway became the writer. Although Sherman worked for other publishers including Marvel, his work on the Legion will always be the highlight of his tenure in the medium.
Sherman was not always paired with inkers that complimented his art. For #229 he was teamed up with Jack Abel who really was not the best inker for his style .
Another of my favourite Jim Sherman Legion of Superheroes comics was #231 ( cover below by Mike Grell) which contained some of his best splash art.
As noted above Sherman also worked for other companies including Marvel where he drew several one off issues of various titles. Below is the splash page to Silver Surfer #39 ( vol 3).
Sherman was also picked up by Red Circle Comics (Archie) where he drew the first issue of the Fly under a stunning Steranko cover.
And finally, as I need to add another illo to make it a "Top 10" is the splash page from Super-Team Family #9. Sadly Sherman was teamed up with Jack Abel for his Challengers run.
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11 comments:

  1. Rip JaggerSeptember 19, 2026 at 7:49 AM

    I fondly remember James Sherman as well, for just the same reasons you do. His artwork had a quiet charm about it, a gentleness even detectable on super-hero work which is mostly known for bombast. Bob McCleod's inks are worth noting as well. Great stuff! Thanks for reminding me.

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  2. McSCOTTYSeptember 19, 2026 at 10:28 AM

    I really looked forward to reading his work on the Legion at this time. It seemed fresh yet familiar. McLeod was a great choice of inker for Sherman's pencils, as was Rubenstein.

    Rip I noticed that my comments on your blog aren't showing, Colin Jones mentioned the same thing. Ditto my new blogs aren't showing on other blogs, vut I note yours are now updating now.

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    1. KidSeptember 19, 2026 at 1:14 PM

      I tried to comment on this post much earlier, but there was a message in the comments box which said 'sign in to Google to comment' - all to no avail when I tried. I see it's now back to normal, so all I wanted to say is that I have no recollection of ever seeing James Sherman's name before. Of course, that just may be down to my ailing and failing memory these days.

      Delete
    2. Rip JaggerSeptember 20, 2026 at 8:25 AM

      No comments have popped up for moderation for some time. I'll check into it. I just thought folks didn't realize I was updating the blog.

      Delete
  3. McSCOTTYSeptember 19, 2026 at 2:35 PM

    I'm not sure what is happening with Blogger. Last week my blog list, and others were not updating. That now seems to have been rectified for most blogs except mine which still shows my Gil Kane blog from 2 weeks ago. I've tried everything blogger suggested to no avail so will need to see what happens as my views have dropped for thousands to a few hundred a week.

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    Replies
    1. Rip JaggerSeptember 20, 2026 at 8:56 AM

      Just found a cache of comments awaiting moderation and they have been approved. They normally go to my e-mail but that function seems no longer to be available. So I apologize for no catching this sooner. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

      Delete
  4. McSCOTTYSeptember 20, 2026 at 11:44 AM

    That's great Rip. I didn't want you to think no one was commenting after all the effort put into your articles

    ReplyDelete
  5. Charlie Horse 47September 21, 2026 at 2:20 PM

    Nice Post McScotty!

    I was a fan of the Legion since the late 60s off and on.

    I did have some Sherman issues and thought his work was top tier stuff!

    I was never one to remember inkers but per your example above I actually like Jack Abel’s.

    Also, Vlad the Villain has lived rent-free in my head for a good 55 years at least. Not sure who invented him (Shooter?) but fair play to whoever it was!

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  6. McSCOTTYSeptember 21, 2026 at 7:37 PM

    Glad you enjoyed it Charlie. The Legion was my favourite DC comic for many years and I purchased every issue I came across through the Cockram, Grell, Sherman and Giffen years. In general I like Abels inks but I wasn't a big fan of his inking of Sherman. Validus (Vlad?) was created by Curt Swan and Jim Shooter

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  7. Charlie Horse 47September 22, 2026 at 10:45 PM

    Thanks! Validus it is… Mr Big Brain! I really got hooked on the Legion when I went to a comic book show, a small local one, around 1991 and a fellow was selling off all those Legion stories in adventure Comics for, I think, one or two dollars each so I picked up 20 or so of them. It was a rollicking good time those next few months, reading them one after the other!

    I did get those DCR archives to fill on the gaps, but it’s just not the same as holding what was done a 25 year-old comic… The smell… The various letters, pages and advertisement…

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  8. McSCOTTYSeptember 23, 2026 at 10:00 PM

    Totally agree Charlie nothing beats having the original comic book. I originally got into the Legion as Superboy, the Legion comics were regularly on sale in the Glasgow. Many US comics only appeared now and then.

    ReplyDelete

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