The fictional Planet Krypton is famous as the birthplace of Superman. Krypton is unstable and is destroyed in the very first panel of Action Comics #1. For a long time, the action in Superman comics took place on Earth. In the 1930's-era newspaper comic strip, Superman's home planet was given a rudimentary back story. In the 1950's and 60's, Superman and other characters were able to travel back in time to visit Krypton before its destruction, and in these comics we see a highly romanticized planet of adventure and doom. From these details we are presented with the map of Krypton, a lush garden world where the inhabitants are highly evolved, heavily scientific, and culturally divided into New World and Old World hemispheres. War or some other cataclysm destroys the green surface of the planet and at least one of its moons.
This is the point where we get to the "Richard Donner" version of Krypton, the angular and sterile world of Marlon Brando's Kal-El in the 1978 Superman movie. This was also my plan for my globe of Krypton, since we get some good views of the planet in the movie. However, my friend Earl convinced me to go with the comic book version which like Mongo is colourful and filled with exotic locations.
The first step is laying out the continents. Learning from Mongo, for Krypton I used much more water to allow for easier working of the clay. Moist Das clay is off-white, giving Krypton that Richard Donner look, which I think has appeal.
As Das dries, it becomes whiter. I will also prime all of the continents with white gesso to make certain the acrylic paint goes on properly. Since I used a lot of water (you can see it dripping off the bottom of the globe), it will take a while for the clay to dry fully.
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