Here's an ink and greywash job over Curt's pencils from Josef Rubenstein... man, this is perfect. It's a shame he never got to do a whole run inking Curt's work -- if he did, Curt might have been kept on to draw one of the Superman titles after Byrne took over (I still think they should have given him a shot with someone like Rubenstein or Ordway inking him).

It's tough, since I'm not as well-read as you in Superman... I'm making my way through them, but I have literally hundreds of issues to still get through. For our purposes here I will include the stories I think are the most entertaining, rather than milestone issues included out of obligation. If I were compiling a real book, I'd make more of an effort to capture all the most distinctive elements of the Silver Age Superman's universe -- a Mxyzptlk story, a Jimmy transformation story, a Krypto story, etc.

As you've pointed out, I have a massive Edmond Hamilton bias -- not intentional, I never knew who wrote these stories, but I am just going with the ones I truly like the most. I also have more Imaginary Stories in here than I should, but again, just going with what I enjoyed most.

All that said, there's some issues you included that I'd consider "musts" that I'd include --

The Story of Superman's Life by Otto Binder (Superman 146)
The Last Days of Superman by Edmond Hamilton (Superman 156)
The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman by Edmond Hamilton (Superman 164)
The Team of Luthor and Brainiac by Edmond Hamilton (Superman 167)
Superman in Kandor by Jerry Siegel (Superman 158)
Superman Under the Red Sun by Edmond Hamilton (Action 300)
The Death of Superman by Jerry Siegel (Superman 149)
Superman's Return to Krypton by Jerry Siegel (Superman 141)
The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue! (Superman 162) by Leo Dorfman

And then mine --

The Superman Of 2465! Saga by Edmond Hamilton (since they didn't take up entire issues, I will cheat and list Superman #181 and Action #338 and #339 as one story): In the year 2965, Klar Ken T5477 takes over the role of Superman from his father, a role passed from father to son since the original Superman 1,000 years before. Then in Action 338 and 339, Superman tracks Muto to sector Z-44, where the villain springs a series of traps on the hero, finally luring him into saving a trio of android children in the path of a wave of paralyzing toxic seawater.

The Danger of the Deadly Duo! by Jim Shooter (World's Finest #166): When Muto teams with the Joker of 2967 to battle Superman, the last descendant of Batman takes up the cape and cowl to help Superman and get revenge against the Joker, who's father killed his father.

The Kryptonite Killer by Edmond Hamilton (Action Comics #294): Luthor escapes from his imprisonment on the planet Roxar with the help of three enhanced androids, then goes on an interplanetary crime spree.

The Legion of Super-Traitors by Jerry Siegel (Adventure Comics #293): When the Brain-Globes of Rambat take over the minds of the Legion of Super-Heroes, there's only one force on Earth that can rescue Superboy -- The Legion of Super-Pets!

The Fury of the Kryptonian-Killer! by Jim Shooter (Superman #195): A mysterious stranger is destroying Superman and Supergirl's lives and legacy, piece by piece!

The Three Generations of Superman! by Edmond Hamilton (Superman #327): An imaginary story in which Superman I and Kal-El II discover a plot to invade the Earth. But can an aging hero and his super-young grandson save the day?

The Saga of Superman vs Batman by Edmond Hamilton (World's Finest #153): An imaginary story in which young Bruce Wayne is tricked by Luthor into thinking that Superboy killed his father, and so vows to become Batman to bring him to justice.

The Legion of Super-Villains! by Jerry Siegel (Superman #147): Luthor contacts and teams up with Legion of Super-Villains from 30th Century; adult Legion of Super-Heroes comes to 20th Century to help Superman.

The Fantastic Story of Superman's Sons! by Edmond Hamilton (Superman #166): A very poignant imaginary story where Superman has two sons, one with powers and one without.

The Death of Ferro-Lad! by Jim Shooter (Adventure Comics #352-353): As a last resort, the Legion decides to enlist the villainous Fatal Five to defend Earth from the Sun-Eater. When Superboy attempts a final suicide mission to destroy the Sun-Eater, Ferro Lad knocks him out and sacrifices his life to deliver the bomb which destroys the Sun-Eater.

The Sons of Superman and Batman by Edmond Hamilton (World's Finest #154): An imaginary story where Superman and Batman have trouble-making sons who hang out together.

The Adult Legion / The War of the Legions! by Jim Shooter (Adventure Comics #354-355): Superman is summoned to help the adult Legion investigate acts of sabotage; the Legion is lured into separate traps by the Legion of Super-Villains

Clark Kent's Brother! by Edmond Hamilton (Superman #175): An imaginary story where Jonathan and Martha Kent survive and adopt Lex Luthor, who becomes Superman's ally.

The Feud Between Batman and Superman by Edmond Hamilton (World's Finest #143): When Batman is injured helping Superman he believes he is not helping Superman because he doesn't have any super powers; Superman takes him to Kandor where neither have super powers to get his confidence back.

Prison For Heroes! by Edmond Hamilton (World's Finest #145): Batman is hypnotized into becoming the warden of an alien prison and charged with capturing Superman and imprisoning him with the other heroes inside.

They just need to try harder.

And faster. And deeper.

And standing up. Standing up is how you get sons.

Ross Andru's cover to the DC Special Series #26 --

I see occasional Andru hate posts on various online boards. I always liked his stuff.

I think this is my favorite Imwan thread ever.

Really? In general or on Superman? I'm not very familiar with his work overall, but everything I've seen seems pretty solid and good.

His Superman seems straight from the Garcia-Lopez or Neal Adams playbook... can't imagine anyone being unhappy with that.

He was THE Spidey artist of the 70s. I always liked his work. He drew a ton of Superman Family covers after he became DC's art director.

His Spider-Man was very on-model as well, keeping that style and flavor but bringing more of a 70s mentality to the layouts and design.

He was never my favorite but I can't imagine his art inspiring "hate" the same way artists with very distinctive visual styles do, such as Kirby or Quitely. It seems like the mainstream stuff fans like.

Generally in regards to disliking his Spider-Man. Andru was doing Spidey early on when I started collecting, so his
work always seemed on the mark for me, but I get that tastes vary. I can't recall where I was reading the comments,
probably on the Masterworks board; those guys typically ooh and ahh over stuff that leaves me meh, though, so it
wouldn't be strange if they hated what I tend to like.

Yes, especially when inked by Dick Giordano.

I got this Superman encyclopedia the other week in the mail. Holy cow, is it extensive -- the entry on Lex Luthor is 33.5 pages long! That does include some illustrations, but man alive -- it must cover all of his appearances to that point!

Anyway, here's some Superman Unchained variants -- funny how almost every artist chose to depict Superman in his classic uniform instead of the Jim Lee suit.

That middle one is nice. Should I know Dave Johnson? Other than as the former Mets and Reds manager I mean. That Bruce Timm one is not pretty. I don't know what happened but the arm is a mess. I don't care for anything Lee Bermejo does, and that one is no exception. Too hyperdetailed (I made up a word). The underlying art isn't bad at all though.