Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
Author: Greg Goldstein
Greg Goldstein is a veteran publishing and media executive; most recently, he was the Chief Operating Officer, President and Publisher of IDW Publishing, managing all aspects of the company’s book and games business from 2008 to 2019.
Throughout his career, Greg has developed creative and profitable publishing programs for dozens of the world’s best-known entertainment brands including Star Wars, Transformers, Star Trek, James Bond, TMNT, Spider-Man, Batman and Godzilla.
In 2013, Greg led IDW’s acquisition of Top Shelf, an independent publisher best known for Congressman John Lewis’ March trilogy, which has become the most lauded non-fiction graphic novel series in the history of the medium.
In 2011, Greg won an Eisner award for his editing on the first-ever collection of Bob Montana’s Archie newspaper comic strips. (Published under IDW’s Library of American Comics imprint.)
Prior to joining IDW, Greg was VP of Entertainment and Gaming for Upper Deck, responsible for the company’s blockbuster slate of games, including Yu-Gi-Oh, World of Warcraft and The VS Superhero system. During his tenure, he created Marvel Ultimate Battles, the first-ever trading card game that focused exclusively on Marvel’s popular mass media characters.
As VP of Brand Development for Activision from 2000-2002, Greg established strategic partnerships with the largest Hollywood studios, and worked closely with Marvel Entertainment to successfully develop Spider-man into one of the biggest blockbuster licensed videogame brands in interactive history.
Greg’s career has also included a successful stint at Topps, where he helped launch and manage Topps Comics in the mid 1990s.
Additionally, Greg serves as an adviser for to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBDLF). He is also a frequent guest lecturer at San Diego Sate University and has presented at dozens of panels and conferences throughout the US.
He is also a well-known collector of original comic book art and rues the day he sold his collection the first time around in the late 1990s.
Captain America officially turns 80 in a few weeks, and this iconic character is definitely worth an anniversary celebration. (Cap #1, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, is cover-dated March 1941, but the on-sale date was December 20,1940.)
First up is this great Jack Kirby homage by Ron Frenz and Bruce Timm that appeared as a pin up in Captain America #50 (3rd series.). This piece, typical of Timm’s other published comic book work, is “inks-only” over a Frenz layout.
The layout itself is an homage to Jack’s Captain America art that appeared on the cover Marvelmania #1 (fan magazine), near the end of his Silver Age run at Marvel. Frenz added the Super-Adaptoid, and Bruce did his magic, creating a classic Kirby look.
Jack’s original art for this cover was little-seen until it finally appeared in color as the cover to the Jack Kirby Collector (#34, 2002),
The Super-Adaptoid was a mid-60s creation appearing early during Cap’s Silver Age revival. Also pictured, Captain America #1 with Cap decking Hitler a full year before the U.S. entered World War II.
“Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp’s The Green Lantern is imaginative, surprising and just plain weird. And one of the most fearlessly unique comics currently on the stands.” –Rosie Marx
Liam Sharp reunites Green Lantern and his old teammate Green Arrow for a trippy alien drug ring story written by Grant Morrison.
Sharp has been a stellar artist since he broke into the industry in the 80s with work at 2000 AD, but in my opinion, his storytelling and draftsmanship get (ahem) sharper all the time.
I loved his contemporary work on Wonder Woman as well, but many of those originals were drawn at 18×24, and I hate to say it, but space is finite.
The GL pages — at least from this issue — are drawn at standard art size, and therefore a bit more manageable.
And of course, terrific.
I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the Green Lantern series on HBO Max. Managed well (and budgeted accordingly) it has astonishing potential.
Continuing a celebration of Green Lantern’s anniversary this week.
Joe Staton somehow manages to channel a bit of Gil Kane and a bit of Neal Adams on this dynamic Green Lantern action sequence from 1981.
I first started following Joe’s work (with writer Nicola Cuti) on the quirky E-Man from Charlton back in 1973 1975. (Funny enough, it lasted 10 issues, and I kept all 10, which is unusual for me. Guess I really liked it.)
Shortly thereafter, he took over art duties on the Justice Society in All-Star Squadron, a book I also enjoyed.
This page is from Joe’s first run on Green lantern with writer Marv Wolfman, and this story introduces the extraterrestrial superheroes, Omega Men. Joe later returned on the Green Lantern Corps with writer Steve Englehart.
When conventions finally return (mid-late 2021 is my guess) make sure you visit Joe wherever —and whenever — you find him. He is truly one of the humblest and nicest creators in the business. And obviously, very talented.
To paraphrase an old adage, sometimes you get the bird, and sometimes… the bird gets you.
I’ve discussed my pal Wheeler’s terrific cartooning skills previously. For this book (on which I actually have a co-editing credit, because of all my nagging, nudging and general meddling) he let me have first dibs on any piece, and I chose this one.
Every holiday (hell, every day, actually) feels so bizarre this year, but I’m thankful to all of you who take a moment from our apocalypse-in-training to check in on the blog.
Thanks again, and have a good holiday. Be safe out there!
Green Lantern celebrates two anniversaries in 2020.
The original Green Lantern (Alan Scott) first appeared in 1940, and the Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, gained his own DC comic book series in 1960, shortly after first appearing Showcase #22 the year prior.
During the first 75 issues of GL’s own Silver Age comic, Gil Kane is the artist most associated with this run.
In these early issues Gil is not quite GIL KANE yet. The art is very solid, slick, and polished, in DC tradition, but it would take a few years before Gil’s trademark style would fully break through the conservative confines of the scripting and editing.
By the time Gil finishes his 10-year run with issue #75, Green Lantern is not a giant commercial success, but Gil Kane is most certainly GIL KANE. Reading through collected editions of the series, you can clearly see the metamorphosis of his storytelling capabilities and artistic style.
As for issue #76 in 1970 (Another anniversary, now that you mention it) Denny O’Neil and DC shake things up a bit by adding Green Arrow to the mix — and artist Neal Adams takes the reigns.
The rest, as they say, really is history.
Green Lantern milestones: The first appearance of Alan Scott in 1940; the first appearance of Hal Jordan, 1959; The first Silver Age issue of the Jordan GL, 1960.
Jack Davis and Stan Lee only worked together a handful of times. Jack drew six Rawhide Kid stories at the dawn of the “Marvel Age,” after Jack Kirby became too busy designing and developing Marvel’s earliest superheroes.
Davis’ cartoony style is unmistakable, and definitely a departure from the typical Marvel western art line-up that included Kirby, Dick Ayers and Larry Lieber, among others.
These Davis Western stories are some of the final color comic book stories to he ever drew. Shortly after their publication, Davis returned to Mad Magazine and became a Mad mainstay for more than 20 years.
And of course, we can’t forget the Time Magazine covers. The TV Guide covers. The film posters. The advertising work. Trading cards for Topps. Etc.
Just a few things to occupy the drawing board of one of America’s most talented and recognizable commercial illustrators.
Too bad Stan couldn’t persuade Davis for a bit more work. I’m not sure how it would have worked out on the traditional superhero stories * but a few short pieces for Not Brand Echh would have been right on the nose.
(*Well, actually I’m certain it would have been jarring to see Jack on “straight” superhero stories…)
Here’s a dramatic title page by the legendary Doug Wildey from 1960.
My reaction to the page, however, pales in comparison to the one from the story’s co-creator, Stan Lee.
Back in about 2010, we visited Stan in his Beverly Hills office to get some signature plates signed for the first John Romita Spider-Man Artists Edition. Stan’s “people” were kind enough to let us bring some personal items to get signed as well, so I brought a few pages of original art with me.
Stan, who was telling stories and singing while he was signing (Yes, singing, not a typo for signing. Story for another day.) stopped dead in his tracks when he saw this page of art.
He stared at it quietly for a few moments — given the speedy pace of our morning, it seemed like an eternity — and you could see pleasant memories wash over his face. And then the big Stan Lee smile:
“Doug Wildey. Wow. He was great. So terrific. I loved his stuff. I wish we had a chance to do more together.”
He handed the page back to me, still beaming, still examining it up and down as he slowly passed it back. I had seen Stan sign thousands of items; many of them with fond remembrances, but nothing quite like this.
A great page, certainly. But perhaps an even greater memorable moment — for the two of us.
Stan in the Timely / Atlas / Marvel offices in 1954, just a few years prior to the publication of the Earp story.
Living in the West, this is probably the time of the year that reminds me most of… living in the West.
Warm, sunny afternoons, dry cold nights, cool mornings; just the way I pictured the climate watching dozens, if not hundreds of western films as a kid back in the cozy confines of the New York City metro area.
Ironically, I never read many western comics as a kid. (I guess I had my fill on TV.) So I never caught up to the classic western comic art until much later on.
Some of that great art that included Johnny Thunder by Alex Toth. Toth, an Eastern transplant himself, had a visual storytelling style perfect for those 50s Thunder stories.
But then again, Toth’s amazing talent was perfect for just about any genre: Romance, horror, SF, war, and the all-too rare superhero story.
I had only read a handful of Johnny Thunder stories when this original was offered for sale, but coincidentally enough, it was from a terrific story I had in fact remembered. It appears in the DC’s collection of greatest comic book stories of the 1950s
Can’t argue with the editorial choice one bit.
This classic Johnny Thunder story appeared 30 years later in DC”s collection of greatest comic stories from the 50s, with some revised coloring throughout.
Jack Kirby’s tenure at DC was ultimately a mixed bag — for both Jack and DC.
The Fourth World saga was one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in comics at that time; yet, the books were cancelled well before they had a chance to fully realize Jack’s vision.
And yet… there was something about those characters and premises that continued to resonate.
Jack’s Post DC career included a three-year return at Marvel (Think Eternals, et al), his own creator-owned comics (Captain Victory, Silver Star) and a home at animation house DePatie-Freleng studios and then later Ruby-Spears.
And then, another opportunity arose at DC to finish his New Gods saga. DC would reprint the original series in “deluxe” format and give Jack a chance to end the saga with new material.
But, unfortunately Jack wanted to end the saga in a way that would kill off the main characters, and by then DC had grown accustomed to having them in the line-up.
So, Jack was again denied the chance again to finish it in his vision. And somehow the end of the saga morphed into a standalone graphic novel, Hunger Dogs, which also didn’t bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion.
And the graphic novel itself was a mess on the production end. Pages intended for the standard comic books were reworked for the graphic novel using photocopies, corrections, new “border” art and a host of other techniques to turn standard size pages into graphic novel pages.
Fortunately, Jack did create brand new large art pages for the GN, and they are pretty terrific in terms of page layout and composition, as evidenced here. They are his final work for either of the “big two” publishers.
As for the New Gods? They lived on, and more importantly, Darkseid arguably became the most important villain in the DCU. Jack shared in some of that commercial success, and his family continues to share in that success today.
Best of DC #22, March 1982; originally Sandman #7, February 1976 and Kamandi #61, November 1978 (Both unpublished)
Here is some big goofy fun from Jack Kirby (inks by Mike Royer) with a story involving the Sandman and… Santa Claus. (You can’t make this up.)
Even goofier than the actual narrative itself, however, is the fact this story fell victim to cancelation, not once, but twice, before finally seeing print nearly six years after it was completed.
Kirby’s Sandman series was cancelled after issue #6, although this story for issue #7 had already been completed. It sat in inventory for two years, until it was slotted to appear as a back-up in Kamandi #61, and then that comic, along with dozens of others fell victim to the “DC Implosion” and was cancelled as well.
It finally saw print in Best of DC #22, a digest-sized publication, that hit the stands shortly before Christmas 1981.
Which means… It did not actually appear in traditional color comic book format until DC collected it in 2011 in the Jack Kirby Omnibus — 35 years later!
