Artist brings superheroes to life
East Meadow's Mark Sparacio pens famous comic book characters
Silver Surfer, Thor and Captain America stood vigilant for years, just incase cosmic invaders, mad scientists or gruesome monsters even thought about attacking the East Meadow High School cafeteria.
They were captured in a sprawling, super-powered, Spandex-clad mural created in the 1980s by some teenage True Believers who found it comforting to have The Hulk, Iron Man and The Thing watching over them as they ate rectangular pizza and tater tots. They even joked that Invisible Woman was standing in the back — you just couldn’t see her.
The whole thing dripped with equal parts acrylic paint and a child-like love for these colorful comic book characters and the way they always save the day.
It’s gone now, but Mark Sparacio, one of its creators, will tell you that you can paint over the mural, but those feelings never fade — not even after you grow up, study comic book art at the foot of the legendary Will Eisner, become a professional artist and get to create new adventures for these same characters.
“I think what I have always loved about super heroes is the idea of being able to tell a story that even though the characters might be super-powered or have talents far beyond that of mortal men, when it all boils down, is still a story that can have the reader become emotionally involved,” said Sparacio, 49. “Even the most super-powered character can still be vulnerable and have foibles and that good will eventually triumph over evil.”
Sparacio’s pens and brushes have brought some of the most famous super heroes to life. He’s pitted Marvel’s Black Cat and Shang-Chi against Doctor Doom, deployed DC’s Sgt. Rock on a secret mission and sent Moonstone’s Captain Action out to stem the tide of the Red Crawl.
