I find it odd to see so much fan art of Namor extremely buff like a body builder- Wouldn’t he have a much leaner, dense physique similar to an Olympic swimmer?
HE SHOULD HAVE A SWIMMER’S BODY! I can see why fan art has Namor bigger, and I’m not pointing out or telling artists what to do because hey, its fan art! It should be fun, go nuts and draw what you like. Most fan artists try to follow the character design anyways.
As seen here in Namor by Bill Everett in Marvel Mystery Comics #3; Namor against normal sized humans isn’t that much buffer.
Even Everett’s later art in the 70s had Namor bigger but never overly muscled like some artists do, here Everett was following along the new look for Namor as set by Gene Colan’s buffer Namor. Tales to Astonish #96
Gene Colan - Tales to Astonish #77
However after Everett left for the war, along came CARL FUCKING PFEUFER.
*grinds glass with teeth*
The man is responsible for the worst thing that ever happened to the character. He made Namor ugly. He gives Namor a triangular head and a bigger body, broader shoulders etc. Later artists would take Namor’s triangle head to even worse proportions. This is where the stupid flat head Namor looks originates from and why you sometimes see Namor with a flat top head and other times with a normal head throughout comics.
Marvel Mystery Comics (1939) #42
THANKFULLY Everett came back later and we get this cutie again. Young Men (1950) #24
However later artists who are used to working on overly muscled heroes, drew Namor much buffer, I really think a lot of it has to do with the most well known Namor silver age cover art (so famous a BDSM company ripped it off for their logo design LMAO)
THE SUB-MARINER (1968) #1 art by John Buscema
And so it was that Namor’s buffness stayed, it peaked in the 90′s however more or less he isn’t drawn to such huge proportions any more.
Namor art by Lou Harrison
You will find other artists who draw him slimmer but Namor is a big bastard and that’s the look that stayed.
A version I love the most is one that I had commissioned an artist for: here. Because I don’t think Namor should be super buff, but have more of a swimmer’s build.