Unused Adventure Comics Cover: Plastic Man

Only the lower right corner section, with Starman, was used on the published cover of Adventure Comics # 469, cover dated March 1980. Aparo's Plastic Man was replaced with a Joe Staton-drawn illustration:

Staton (who pencilled the interior Plastic Man story) has kept the same basic layout, but Plas is defensive and intimidated rather than fighting back, so the editor must have wanted to convey threat instead of a more active engagement.
It's interesting to see Jim work in a more intentionally cartoony style, hearkening back to his earliest comic book work. The villain is clearly in the vein of Ramona Fradon, who had recently handled Plas in his self-titled series, ending in October 1977. Other than Joe Staton, who was penciller on this run in Adventure Comics, Aparo was the only other artist to have drawn Plastic Man in the intervening years, in Brave & Bold #148.
Jim did the full cover of the previous issue, Adventure Comics #468.

Aparo inked by Bill Draut--Girls' Love #142

Here's a rarity! From DC's Girls' Love #142, an uncredited story pencilled by Jim Aparo, and inked by Bill Draut! If you're having trouble spotting Jim's work underneath Draut's oppressive inks, you're not alone...but look at panels 3 and 4 of page 3 to see the most distinctive evidence of Aparo's style!
Click the pages to expand for a good look at the original art pages!

Career Girl Romances

Originally posted February 2009:

Here's an Aparo job so rare that it's not in my collection...yet! Career Girl Romances #40 has an Aparo cover and an 8-page story illustrated by Jim.

Our cover girl here strikes me as very reminiscent of the girls that John Romita used to draw when he was one of DC's primary romance artists...and, for that matter, when he was drawing groovy chicks like Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson on Spider-Man! The jazzy backing musicians, though, are a bit more in the Aparo style.

This one's from 1967, during Jim's first year in the comic book business, toiling away at Charlton. At this stage, Aparo's line work is delicate, which was generally expected of artists on romance comics. The inking is, in fact, barely recognizable as Jim's, but he was doing what was expected as he started to make his way in the business.

Note that he's drawn a left-handed guitarist here...I wonder if he was working from some photo reference of a lefty, or whether he just opted for a figure that better suited the cover composition? Whatever the case, I've got to give him credit for drawing a more convincing guitarist than many comics artists of the era that attempted to depict musicians. The microphone position is a little off, and the drum kit is sparse, but over all, it's a good stab at drawing a combo with a sexy girl singer, don't you think?

UPDATE:
Now that I've got a copy of the actual issue, here's Jim's splash page from the interior story:

It looks like Dick Giordano did the cover, based on Jim's interior work. Dick altered the girl's face and adjusted her pose, but the guitarist and drummer adhere to Aparo's work. 

Aparo credited in Batman v. Superman!

If you watched through all of the film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, you saw Jim Aparo thanked in the credits:

Presumably, the credit is in acknowledgement of the filmmakers' taking some inspiration from Jim's rendition of Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince in Brave and Bold #158:

The film includes a visually similar scene with Bruce and Diana attending a high class social event, although one without Dick Giordano attending!
Then again, it could be a more general acknowledgement of Jim as the Graphical Guru of Batman team-ups!

An SF illustration from Phoenix, a 1970 Fanzine

Aparo Art in Convergence: Green Arrow #1, April 14, 2015

OK, not much Aparo art, but look closely at this page, the second of two recapping the history of Green Arrows Oliver Queen and Connor Hawke:

Down there at the bottom? A panel from one of the issues of Green Arrow that Jim drew in the 1990's:

More Aparo art is used here for their look back at Azrael as posted at DC's website.

An Aparo Cover on a New DC Comic?!

The Chip Kidd Variant cover to DC's Batman and the Outsiders #1, part of DC's April "Convergence" event, will be using a Jim Aparo drawing of the team's Geo-Force character as its source. Other variants are employing the work of classic Silver and Bronze Age artists, such as Joe Kubert (Hawkman #1), Don Heck (Wonder Woman #1), Dick Giordano (Justice Society of America #1), and even Sheldon Mayer (World's Finest Comics #1)! It's nice to see the work of these legends appearing on covers again, if just this once.