DC Comics Statues and Busts: DC Sculptors: Jack Mathews

I started collecting statues in July 2016. I was browsing at Barnes & Noble and saw the Cover Girls Wave 3 Artgerm Batgirl and Batwoman statues. I bought them then and there, and later the same week, I bought the Wave 3 Poison Ivy at a local comics shop. Here's the very first picture that I took of my statues:

Cover Girls Wave 3 Batgirl, Poison Ivy, and Batwoman

All three statues were sculpted by Jack Mathews. Indeed, he's sculpted most of the Cover Girls line, which started back in 2009. As we head into 2019, DC Collectibles has announced Wave 4 statues of Mera, Wonder Woman, and Black Canary, again all sculpted by Mathews.

Cover Girls Wave 4 Mera

Cover Girls Wave 4 Wonder Woman

Cover Girls Wave 4 Black Canary

For a while, I collected only the Wave 3 Cover Girls. I liked the idea of having "matching" statues (both in terms of art style and bases). Although other lines intrigued me, I usually found excuses to avoid them. Over time, I also realized that I simply liked Jack Mathews's work more than any other sculptor's. I don't think that women have to look "feminine" or "a certain way", but I think that Mathews's face sculpts are beautiful even when the facial expressions are fierce/angry or, in the Joelle Jones Batgirl's case, goofy. ^_^

Cover Girls Wave 4 Batgirl

Jack Mathews has been working with DC Collectibles for a long time, since before the Cover Girls line began in 2009. He used to be credited as John Mathews or John G. Mathews before he started using Jack Mathews, probably to avoid being confused with sculptor Jonathan Matthews.

It's been fascinating researching Jack Mathews's work. Many sculptors like Mathews started playing with physical materials in their hands when they were children. They used clay/wax and wires when they attended college. I found the following picture on Mathews's Instagram page. It's the first paint master for the Wave 3 Cover Girls Poison Ivy. The production piece's face is longer/narrower compared to this paint master.

Cover Girls Wave 3 Poison Ivy, First Paint Master

Cover Girls Wave 3 Poison Ivy, Production Master

Can you imagine having to remove the head, sculpt another face, re-attach the hair to the new face, attach the new head, and repaint over any neck seams? Ouch!

Jack Mathews made a full transition to digital sculpting sometime in 2016, when he created 2017's Bombshells Katana and Cover Girls Wave 3 Hawkgirl statues. I'm glad that he did this because I passed on a few of his hand-sculpted statues that had oddly-shaped faces (the right sides look like they had been yanked upwards).

Cover Girls Wave 3 Supergirl

Cover Girls Wave 3 Wonder Woman

Bombshells Power Girl

Mathews's digital Bombshells sculpts are my favorites in that particular line. I once read a comment on an online forum that his Bombshells busts look like supermodels cosplaying as DC characters.

Bombshells Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Mera Busts

Based on what I can see through social media, many sculptors are friends and even collaborators. Jack Mathews has worked with Sam Greenwell on some projects. They've also traded sculpting duties on some lines, such as the Wave 2 Cover Girls. Greenwell sculpted most of the Artists Alley Sho Murase figures, but Mathews sculpted Catwoman. Mathews is half-Japanese, and during a live unboxing video, he mentioned how happy he was to be able to interpret Murase's work in 3D since his mother also drew Japanese line art.