Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Month: March 2025

Seth — Reflections Of A TV Host

Original Art and The Artists

George Sprott: (1894–1975), 2009

Here’s a terrific page from a terrific artist and a great graphic novel: George Sprott: (1894–1975), a biography of a fictional Canadian TV personality.

I believe this color page was created exclusively for the graphic novel to flesh out the story. Sprott was originally serialized in the pages of the New York Times, with each strip its own story, and those originals are black and white.

As noted previously, Seth (Gregory Gallant) is one of the most underrated “indie” artists of his generation. His beautifully clean art and his quiet, methodical storytelling (along with a wry sense of humor) are absolutely delightful.

Pro tip: Seek out the hardcover (below left) as opposed to the softcover (both out of print, but still plentiful) because the much larger trim size is more effective for Seth’s storytelling style utilizing smaller panels.

Sprott was recently released as a “chamber novella” (above) with audio.

Frank Frazetta — A Bright Comet

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

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.