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.

Howard Chaykin — Atlas, Shrugged Off

August 27, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Scorpion #1, February 1975

Atlas/Seaboard announced its 1974 entry into comic book publishing with plenty of talent and plenty of marketing. Founded by former Marvel Comics publisher Martin Goodman and featuring marquee names like Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood and many up-and-comers, it seemed the possibilities for the new company were endless.

But… those possibilities ended just 23 issues later (no individual title lasted more than four) in late 1975. Many of the titles had rebooted midstream, providing a capricious and confounding publishing strategy.

Howard Chaykin’s Scorpion was easily one of the better Atlas titles — so naturally, after two issues, Seaboard canned Chaykin, hired Alex Toth, and never actually published the pages Toth produced. (They turned up later, elsewhere.)

Not one to waste a great character, Howard quickly transformed Scorpion into Dominic Fortune at Marvel, where he has lived on and off for the last 40 years.

This great page captures Chaykin inventive and dynamic sense of storytelling. Literally “thinking out of the box,” Chaykin flies the airplane right through the outer panel walls, and somehow Atlas’ production dept. made it work — years before full bleed pages were practical in comic book printing.

(Related — there are a few videos available on-line on the short history of Atlas/ Seaboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzhcYa23PI0 ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn7NlnjLy8)

And, as Luke narrates in the recent Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker trailer, “No one’s ever really gone.” To wit, Atlas just made another comeback of sorts:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ghost-rider-producer-buys-atlas-comics-library-teams-paramount-1211185

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/who-owns-atlas-comics-1212677

Walter Simonson — Cover Me

August 25, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor: Artist’s Edition HC, Original Art Cover

Editor/Original Art expert Scott Dunbier brought his Artist’s Edition idea to IDW Publishing, and the rest as they say, is history. In 2011, Walter Simonson’s groundbreaking Thor run became the very first of the many Marvel Artist’s Editions in this extraordinary series. (And the second IDW Artist’s Edition overall, following Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer the year prior.)

Scott also had the wild idea to do actual original art covers of these original art reprint books on a super-limited basis, and Walter went along with it. These are not “sketch” covers, but rather very nicely detailed individual pencil and ink full-figure drawings of Thor done on blank cover variants. Walter only did about 10 of these — 15 at the most.

The only drawback — I can’t think of any way to frame it. (It’s also the heaviest piece of original art I own. Artist’s Editions are not light, but that is definitely the textbook definition of a first world problem…)

John Byrne — What’s Up, Doc?*

August 24, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Amazing Spider-Man 15, March 2000

Now here’s a proper villain — done properly! Nice Dan Green inks throughout — but especially on this page.

(*Please see published page — Mackie’s pun, not mine…)

John Buscema — Going Underground

August 23, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Fantastic Four 128, November 1972

This cool page is from a two-part story that features most of the “underground” characters from the Marvel Universe at that time in a super-villain soap opera (seriously): Mole Man, Tyrannus and Kala, Queen of the Netherworld — her only previous appearance was Tales of Suspense 43!

Here we get The Mole Man and his villainous accomplices defeating the full FF — all the characters are on this page.

I have a soft spot for ‘ol Moley since he was the first Marvel “villain” (FF #1) but, face it, overall he’s pretty lame, and his appearances were relatively limited at this point. As the Marvel Universe became more expansive, the subterranean “inner space” characters logically took a backseat to the far more interesting cosmic entities that reside in the MU.

I also have a soft spot for the six-panel page where the panels are vertical, rather than square. Overall, it’s a much more dramatic look, and much less common than other layouts. (At least at that point.) All in all, a nice Buscema FF page from his great run, and once again, terrific inks by Joe Sinnott.

John Buscema — Keep the Lights On!

August 21, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Thor # 238, August 1975

John Buscema is famously quoted as saying that when Jack Kirby left Marvel in 1970, he was surprised they didn’t close the doors.

You can quote me —

John Buscema is one of the top artistic reasons they didn’t have to.

Taking over, nearly seamlessly, for Jack on both Thor and Fantastic Four for about seven years on the former, three years on the latter (with just a few gaps) Buscema kept Jack’s cosmic spirit alive on those series. He didn’t draw like Kirby — he didn’t have to. He had his own artistic voice, which had by then defined the Marvel “House Style.” And this from a guy who also famously didn’t like superheroes!

This Thor “chapter page” has everything you would want: Badass Buscema action and Thor in every panel, with inks by the legendary Joe Sinnott.

Thoom on!

Mark Bagley — Green Energy = Clean Energy?

August 20, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Justice League of America #43 (2006 Series), May 2010

The super-talented Mark Bagley has only spent three years (so far, at least) of his 30-year career at DC. But during that tenure, he worked on the weekly Trinity book as well as JLA/JSA, so he drew many of the DCU’s mainstay characters — some with multiple versions. On this great splash page, we see Alan Scott, the Green Lantern of Earth 2 having a power surge issue. (With terrific inks by Norm Rapmund, and ultimately when printed, great colors by Pete Pantazis.) I love the “camera angle” that Mark chose, enhancing the drama.

Earth 2, Earth 3, Earth Prime, Earth 616, whatever. Bring them on. I’ve been fascinated by the multiverse concept ever since I purchased my first JSA/JLA crossover annual event off the racks in the summer of 1967. Even when it gets confusing, I’m still a fan.

And while we are at it, bring back Fringe, too.

This started my journey down the rabbit hole…
…and I’m still down there…

Kevin Altieri — Happy New Year!

August 19, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1, January 1995

This is a terrific three-page Batman / Joker sequence from the amazing Batman Animated team: Story by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, art by Kevin Altieri. Kevin is primarily known for his role as an award-winning director and storyboard artist for Batman and other animated series. As such, Kevin’s done little actual comic book work. As this sequence clearly illustrates, that’s a shame.

Kevin Altieri:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0022828/

Charlie Adlard — The Truth is…

August 18, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

**X-Files #12, Topps Comics, January 1996**

Sometimes, you like a page… just because.

Because of the theme? Because of the composition? Because of the way the artist uses design to contrast light and darkness? Because you have a special fondness for the comic book series? All of that? Something completely different?

I think this X-files page appeals to me for all of the reasons above and more. Obviously not what collectors typically think of when they think of a cool splash page. (Among its many quirks, you can’t see the characters’ faces.) But for me, something about this just works.

I’ve always loved science fiction and unexplained phenomena and the X-Files was a great combination of the two And I consider myself fortunate to have published the franchise twice: Once at Topps Comics during the show’s first-run heyday, and then 20 years later at IDW Publishing, where I remain convinced that our comics drove the renewed interest in the franchise.

The truth about Charlie Adlard? Charlie helped make the Walking Dead into one of the most important comics of the last 20 years. And Walking Dead, in turn, helped Charlie achieve the star status he deserves as a brilliant artist and storyteller. And I couldn’t be more pleased (and not at all surprised) about his success.

Mike Allred — We’ll Always Have Paris!

August 16, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Dissecting unpublished vs. published covers is a fun activity, especially if you can’t find someone who knows specifically why a change was made, which leads to amusing speculation. (And I have forgotten to ask Mike on two different occasions. Sigh.)

In the case of these Allred X-Statix covers, logic dictates that the main reason to change here was necessary to match Iron Man’s costume in the series. That said, it’s interesting that quite a bit more was also changed in the final version. The IM figure in the published cover is much more prominent in the foreground of course, and, changing the Paris landmark from Arc de Triomphe to The Eiffel Tower fascinates me.

I acquired these covers separately, and a few years apart, but I remember the first time I saw the unpublished version at a quick glance I assumed the Arch was actually the well known Washington Square Arch in New York City which, although much smaller, is actually based on the Arc de Triomphe. (This piece of information has sent me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole — but I digress.)

Avengers… New York…. Makes sense, right? Except when I actually had the piece in hand, I realized that not only is the Arc de Triomphe very nicely photo referenced, it includes tiny-silhouetted figures for some scale. Definitely Paris.

But that couldn’t be the reason for the additional change? Could it? No one said, “The Eiffel Tower is more recognizable as Paris” did they?…. Would they?…

Regardless, I like some elements’ of both covers, but if I had my pick, I prefer the unpublished version. That might be the “wrong” Iron Man costume, but the retro feel is cooler, especially in Allred’s distinctive style. And overall, the inks are more appealing to me in the unpublished version.

Oh well — c’est la vie!

Mike Allred — Assemble!

August 15, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

X-Statix 21 (June 2004)

Mike’s unique take on Peter Milligan’s X-Statix series was quirky and great fun — as you would expect it be. Late in the series — but before anyone could even conceive of a cinematic “MCU” — he added his version of the classic Avengers into the mix. In this iconic splash page (It’s now available as a poster) if you replace Scarlet Witch with either Black Widow or Hulk, you pretty much have the main cast of Endgame. Assembled indeed!

Published Page
Published Poster