Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

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.

Maybe I would change my mind if I saw the original art without the coloring, but as of now, this might be my least favorite Adam Hughes cover of all time. Robin looks like a bizarre cross between Tim Drake and Carrie Kelley.

*Classic comic book circulation numbers are wild. Nearly 500,000 copes sold, BEFORE Batman had his own TV show.*

Berkeley Breathed — Mixed Emotions

November 26, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Bloom County Sunday Strip, April 17, 1983

So… You support much of one party’s political platform, and the other guys win, and you somehow benefit from that opposing victory anyway?

Talk about mixed emotions.

This Bloom County Sunday strip appeared in print six weeks before I had my first “real” job — with a salary that certainly that did NOT benefit from any sort of Reagan tax cut.

And yet this specific strip remained burned in my brain forever. When we (IDW Publishing) added Bloom County reprints to our line-up around 2009, I asked if Berkley still had this specific strip, and if so, would he sell it to me.

He still had it… and he gifted it to me. A gift I treasure, and one that I am indeed very thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Shaky Kane — Of Bubblegum & Kings

November 21, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Captain America, Jack Kirby Tribute, August 2024

Marvel’s superhero business “blew up” in 1966. A cliché, maybe. But thanks to the Marvel cartoons airing in nationwide syndication that fall, Marvel’s licensing and merchandising business went from pretty much from negligible to ubiquitous, overnight.

I loved those cartoons. I didn’t fully understand that they were pretty much “animating” on the cheap by mostly directly lifting and moving around the actual comic book pages and panels, and at six-years old I didn’t care. (Technically, these cartoons are not much more than primitive motion comics.)

I bought a lot of that merch. The comics of course, were the main thing. But the cards. And the stickers. Dumb gags I admit. But I loved the Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al, art in miniature.

So, when I saw Shaky Kane’s original painted tribute to Marvel “bubblegum” cards at the Jack Kirby art exhibit in LA this past summer, it knocked me out, flooding me with (literally) sweet memories.

Unfortunately, it had already sold. This bummed me out of course, until one of my pals with me that day, the brilliant (and extremely logical) designer Stan Madaloni, said to me:

“Why don’t you reach out to him see if he’ll make another one for you.”

Uh. Duh.

Shaky agreed, and, although I hate to use another cliché, the rest, is in fact, history.

The second one is now fortunately, and gratefully, in my possession.

Both Donruss and Philadelphia Gum (“Swell”) beat Topps to the punch in the Marvel business in 1967, with cards and stickers respectively. Topps found a way in with the odd Marvel Flyers collection (designs from Wally Wood’s studio) and the mini-comics satire “Krazy Little Comics”, with art by Wood, Gil Kane and others. (Scripts by Roy Thomas.)

Final thoughts: If I could go back in time and tell seven-year Greg that he would one day work for both Topps AND Marvel, he’d probably tell me I’m nuts and chase me away.

What a trip.

Russ Heath — Watch It!

November 11, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Battlefront #17, March 1954

Here’s a terrific early and rare Atlas war page form the legendary artist, Russ Heath.

This page’s great dogfight reminds me of some of Russ’ later DC work, including the classic “Aces Wild” in All-American Men of War #89, otherwise known as Roy Lichtenstein’s favorite comic book. Lichtenstein, the renowned pop art pioneer, “appropriated” (swiped / repurposed / purloined — take your pick) two Heath panels from that story, as well as others in that issue. (See below.)

Those paintings are worth millions of dollars. Multi-millions.

The best 12¢ anyone ever spent.

Happy Veterans Day to all who served!

Fun Fact: Russ, a veteran, used himself as reference for the role of Major Leo Grabeski (also below) in this extremely multi-cultural group of airmen.

Two Heath panels from the same page from “Aces Wild” story (All-American Men of War #89, 1962) became the basis for two well-known Roy Lichtenstein war paintings: “Brattata” and “Blam.”.

A panel from an Irv Novick’s story in the same issue was the basis for Lichtenstein’s “Whaam.”