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Frank Frazetta — A Bright Comet

March 11, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Johnny Comet Daily Strip, June 5, 1952

This is the second Frank Frazetta Johnny Comet original strip I’ve owned, and it’s a vast improvement over the first.

William Wray, a very talented artist himself, says it best:

“That’s a great one — you got the drama, you got the cute girl, and the comedy poses.”

The short-lived Johnny Comet / Ace McCoy strips have been collected numerous times (see below) but we’ve yet to see an “ultimate” collection, complete, restored and properly formatted.

Of the existing collections, my personal favorite is the Eclipse hardcover, (or softcover) from 1991 which is similar to the horizontal Library of American Comics (LOAC) strip format, although it’s missing a few strips. It must have been somewhat over-printed, because there are still plenty of copies out there.

Collections of Johnny Comet exist as far back as 1967 (top left) and the most recent are from a dozen years ago from Vanguard in both SC and HC. (Bottom left and right.) Those collections are inexplicably formatted as vertical books despite that strips are laid out horizontally to properly present them. My favorite remains the Eclipse hardcover from 1991. (Top right.)

While I was working on this post, I happened to see a fun Dave Stevens tribute (Rocketeer) to Frazetta’s Johnny Comet on the great Facebook group, “Comics Swipes.” (H/T Arty Freeman).

Will Conrad — A Spirited Tribute

March 4, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Spirit Commission, Tribute to Will Eisner, 2003

Celebrating “Will Eisner Week” and the 85th anniversary of The Spirit, with a repost of an early blog (2020). I finally framed this gorgeous piece a few weeks ago — and it’s even more stunning.

The very talented (and underrated) Brazilian artist Will Conrad is a self-professed Will Eisner geek. When he heard that Eisner would be attending a local convention, he labored over an over-sized Spirit piece to show Will, who was flattered and supportive.

Will held on to the piece for some time and tweaked it a bit to the point where he considered it “finished.” He knew how much I loved it, and after some unusual patience on my part, he ultimately let it go. (Thanks, Will!)

“Sometimes Eisner used an empty street as part of the story. When he drew fog, the page was damp.

And the rain, always the rain, dripping off everything including the Spirit logo. He lingered over environments until you could almost smell the cheap hotel rooms, taste the tension, or feel on your flesh the chilly pall of a rain swept street.”

— Jim Steranko, History of The Comics, Volume 2

Raining on his parade — Eisner’s Spirit page from 1996 and Darwyn Cooke’s cover from 2009.

Jim Silke — A Great Century

February 27, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

American Century #21, February 2003

RIP Jim Silke, the multi-talented artist / art director/ writer who died last week at the age of 93. A great century (ok, nearly) indeed.

One of my favorite facts from Silke’s career is that he essentially started his “new” career as a comic book artist / writer in his early 60s.

Repeat: He started in his early 60s.

I acquired this wonderful painted cover late last year, part of a series he created for Vertigo’s American Century title.

A retro classic.

And readers of this blog, especially any who visited me at the late Liberty Station IDW Publishing offices, know I definitely have a thing for old newsstands. (FYI, that’s Action Comics #183 from 1953, bottom right.)

One of Silke’s four Grammy-nominated album covers. He actually won for a Judy Garland cover, but frankly this is a personal favorite of mine, because I don’t think I have ever looked as relaxed as Sinatra does here. I consider it aspirational.

Gil Kane & Wallace Wood — In Brightest Day…

February 18, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Green Lantern #69, June 1969

Another checked box on the art bucket list: Green Lantern, pencils by Gil Kane and Inks by Wallace Wood, from the only GL issue (#69) they worked on together.

This dynamic page, created during the latter part of Kane’s run on the series, nicely showcases the artistic chops of both Kane and Wood. Although Woody was often known for completely overshadowing his pencilers, this issue’s collaboration is excellent — Wood adding his sleek polish to Kane’s imaginative storytelling and skillful figure work.

Green Lantern was all over the map during this period — story and art teams were always in flux, and it’s clear the book couldn’t find its footing. Ultimately, that editorial challenge proved to be a boon to comics and DC specifically, when a half year later, Denny O’neil and Neal Adams took over, added Green Arrow and revamped it all. At that point, what did they have to lose?

The rest, as they say, is history…

Robert Crumb — NYAHH!

February 13, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Motor City Comics #1, April 1969

Boingy Baxter is a classic early peak Crumb story that originally sold complete in 2017. Broken up in 2024, I managed to acquire a great page late last year. Here’s the description of the story from the original auction sale at Heritage:

“Speed freak Milton “Boingy” Baxter gets tranked out in Detroit and has to bounce his way out of a marriage and on to China, in this crazy five-pager. Motor City Comics was R. Crumb’s most straight-forward series from his early peak period, with less emphasis on sex and drugs (although not completely lacking in that department). It’s fun stuff with a lighter touch, particularly this story, with a 1940s-style title character reminiscent of slick deadbeat Al from the radio comedy My Friend Irma, who always called his girlfriend “Chicken.”

Motor City Comics #1 appeared at almost the exact same time as Zap #4 (see below), most infamously known for “Joe Blow”, a Crumb story that ultimately resulted in an obscenity conviction for some Zap retailers, and a long-term decline in the availability of outlets for underground comics.

It is definitely cool to check off a Crumb page from the original art bucket list, especially a terrific early one that is suitable for display in any setting.

Steve Ditko — Master Of Machines… & Mayhem

January 30, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents #18, September 1968

Classic Steve Ditko art (pencils and inks), from a story completed just two years after the iconic (and somewhat iconoclastic) artist left Spider-Man and Marvel for… reasons.

No “superheroes” here, just a supervillain who looks like he came from Spidey central casting. The energy and whimsy on this page are terrific, and Steve clearly is enjoying himself in his storytelling. (Ralph Reese is the credited writer, but my guess is that he gave Ditko a plot/treatment and told him to run with it.)

Despite a hefty price tag (even with a trade), this outstanding artwork definitely spoke to me. Of course, if it actually was a Spidey page, It would have been marked about 10-15 times higher, so there’s some consolation for my wallet.

Mike Kaluta — The Future Was Yesterday

January 16, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Metropolis, Illustrated Edition Hardcover, 1988

Peak Mike Kaluta. From a version of project that I didn’t recall at all.

This is one of two endpapers from the illustrated Metropolis (Limited Edition Hardcover). I believe all of Mike’s other beautiful art created for this project appears in both the softcover and hardcover edition, but not the endpapers. So, since I only had the softcover, I had never seen them.

This spectacular art came to market for the first time in years (if not for the first time ever) as a set of the two at SDCC this past summer. I didn’t want to blow my whole budget on both of them, and fortunately, neither did Hans Kosenkranius (Tri-State) so we did a smart thing — we split them. If we both hadn’t ended up in the right place at the right time, it’s likely that neither one of us would have ended up with them.

Both are equally gorgeous so it’s a win-win. Oversized art (nearly 2ft x 3ft!), and, like I said, peak Kaluta.

Fun fact: The film version of Metropolis debuted 98 years ago last week. It’s still ahead of its time.

***The Metropolis film poster, and the cover to the Kaluta illustrated edition. Apparently, the original novel is actually a planned treatment for the film.***

If the Metropolis robot (“Maria”) looks familiar, it could be because George Lucas and conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie were inspired to create a certain protocol droid based on her design.

Al Hirschfeld — Back In Time

January 8, 2025 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

TV Guide Illustration, October 29, 1966

Where are we going this time?
Is this the fifties?
Or nineteen ninety-nine? *

Irwin Allen’s Time Tunnel (1966) was one of my favorite shows as a little kid. I was crestfallen that it A) only lasted one season and B) because of its short length, it was rarely available in syndicated reruns after the fact.

When It landed on DVD about 40 years later, I purchased it immediately and watched it with my young kids. They liked it too. James Darren and Robert Colbert lost in time, desperately trying to return to present day? What’s not to like.

And I’ve always wanted piece of art by the legendary caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. And the piece… or the price… never seemed to be quite right.

So, when the opportunity presented itself to own this original Hirschfeld Time Tunnel illustration from TV Guide, I had to push the button.

And despite Cleveland Amory’s bitchy review of the series from the TV Guide article, It was definitely well produced (The pilot/first episode looks amazing). Sadly, It did occasionally suffer from some half-baked scripts and cheesy aliens that crept into the show in the latter half of the run.

But… It employs a high concept that would come into play many times in future fiction, including Stephen Kings 1963:

When you try to change time, time fights back.

More about Time Tunnel can be found here.

*Back in Time,1985

Songwriters: Huey Lewis / John Victor Colla / Christopher John Hayes / Sean Thomas Hopper

Back in Time lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Huey Lewis Music, Cause And Effect Music, Kinda Blue Music, Bedaah Music, Pw 3 Ascap Songs

***Cool cover on this issue Of TV Guide. Green Hornet, which I also adored, didn’t make it past one season either. Sigh.***

Peter Bagge — Christmas Shopping

December 25, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Hate #22, March 1996

“Isn’t there someplace besides the mall where we can get our Christmas shopping done?”

That seems so quaint now.

I hope everyone’s shopping went smoothly. Happy Holidays to all, and see you in the new year!

**This story appears in three different collections, although the Complete Hate is definitely the one to have if it works within your budget.**

Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella — Batman Of Two Worlds

December 17, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

DC Comics Presents: Batman #1, September 2004

Batman meets… Batman?

In this goofy, but fun 2004 comic tale, why not? (It’s a tribute to DC Editor Julius Schwartz who died earlier that year.)

It’s the final published Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella Batman artwork (story by Geoff Johns) and this cool page features both the “real” Batman and the TV version.

A nice pick-up from fellow collector Steve Lipsky.

I apparently missed these Schwartz tribute comics when they first appeared 20 years ago, so now I’m going down that rabbit hole. (There were eight one-shot issues, and they’ve never been collected together.) This specific Batman one-shot does however appear in the 2014 Infantino Batman hardcover collection.