I’m sure anyone that follows a regular ebay search of Super Powers items has seen by now the vintage looking artwork on Super Powers branded posters. There are a few different styles, some marked DC, some not marked at all. I took a chance on these and ordered a set of both styles I found and thought I’d post a review here. The white background prints there were around 50 of these prints and the ones with the tan background marked DC there were about 70 prints. I got these from 2 different sellers, and both claiming them to be vintage. In fact, one set the seller claims to have gotten them from a former DC employee and he had them in the 80s and saved them. I got these all in 12×18 size (except for 1 Batman print that was a 13×19 size).
First of all both orders took a VERY long time to ship. One was even 3 weeks. To print them off, perhaps?
Well my first impressions on the set from an alleged former DC employee, “HOT OFF THE PRESS”! That was the feeling I got when I saw them. They even smelled like fresh ink. Paper as new as a fresh pack of cardstock recently opened. No doubt about it, these are 100% custom printed.
My first impressions on the white background set, “these are nice, look custom printed”. The logos were a bit grainy, as if a smaller image was stretched to fit the size of the print. The seller claims to have bought them over 10 years ago. But there was one thing I noticed that was a dead giveaway. The logo printed on the bottom of some of the prints is the DC logo that wasn’t created and used by DC comics until 2005. It’s possible the seller bought them 10 years ago, because that’s when they were printed. (Source: DC Wiki)
The confirmation!
About a year after I bought these, I finally found the source! Super-fan Tim Garner created these with images he obtained from a DC Comics employee (he gave me the source but I won’t share) and with these images he’s created hundreds of these posters for fans to enjoy. First hand confirmation, doesn’t get much better than that!
Final assessment: Don’t buy these if you think you are buying legitimate vintage pieces. But do buy them if you want a very nicely done custom printed poster to hang on your wall to proudly display your love for the best toy line ever. I’ve got about 30 of them hanging in my office. 🙂
Image featured is a screen shot of an eBay search, shown for example purposes only.
One Reply to “Super Powers “vintage” poster prints – Beware!”
Several of these images used are much later than the super powers line itself. The seller looks like they have several style guides from different years and is printing these off.