Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Category: Original Art and The Artists

Irv Novick & Dick Giordano — Silent Night, Deadly Night

Original Art and The Artists

Batman #239, February 1972

It’s surprising — and definitely a miss  — that only a few “Christmas” superhero stories have had made much impact in the comic book format.

But of the ones that do exist, Batman’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Denny O’Neil) is one of the key holiday classics for Silver Age/ Bronze Age fans.

I’m not sure I had ever seen an original page from this story prior to acquiring this one, a few short weeks ago. None have ever been offered by Heritage Auctions for sale, and their database is a reasonable bellwether for historical availability, at least in this century.

Did I wildly overpay? Probably. Did I pay the right price? Possibly. Do I want to get into a bidding war with someone else who wants this page and find out?

Nope.

And that, my friends, is how you have unexpectedly large bill come due during holiday season.

Great page, legendary story, and the sweet spot of my superhero comic book reading era. 

There was nothing I could do.

Welcome to Day 11 of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

Oddly, you can only find this classic story in two reprints beyond the original — this 1974 DC treasury, and the sixth and final volume of DC’s Batman Showcase black and white reprint series.

Neal Adams & Bernie Wrightson — All New, All Now!

Original Art and The Artists

Green Lantern #84, July 1971

Neal Adams pencilling and Bernie Wrightson inking? Seems like an impossible combination. First thought, one would overpower the other, or, even worse, combine into some sort of Frankenstein’s monster (pun intended) of comic book art.

Well, not only is it possible, its terrific — at least in this one specific issue of Green Lantern. (Bernie himself said he was extra careful not to dominate Neal’s pencils here.)

And on this great page, you can clearly see the result — both styles complement each other. (The coloring in the printed issue unfortunately diminishes the impact of that last great panel. But heck, it is dark out.)

I’m delighted to own a page from this classic issue — and classic series.

Welcome to Day 10 of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

Wallace Wood — Bored Of The Rings

Original Art and The Artists

Plop #23, October 1976, “The King Of The Ring”

Wallace Wood revisits his Mad comics chops with this terrific parody of Lord of the Rings.

Terrific, but little seen, because it appears in a later issue of Plop, when sales were low, and… it’s only been collected one other time — in digest format — a few years later.

With the exception of (perhaps) the title splash this is the best page in the issue, mashing up gags about hobbits, the seven dwarves and Prince Valiant — all in the distinctive Woody style. (And yes, one word balloon is definitely not PC in the original, but it was nearly 50 years ago, and appears to have been modified.)

Welcome to Day Nine of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

The 80s digest reprint did a much better job of promoting of what you received when you plopped down (ouch) your dollar.
The classic Harvard Lampoon satire of LOTR has gone though multiple printings since it first appeared in 1969, and unlike most parodies, has stayed in print since first publication.

Chris Sprouse — Tom Strong Gets Strange

Original Art and The Artists

Tom Strong #12, June 2001

Alan Moore has fun with his “silver-age” heroes (Tom Strong and friends) meeting their “golden-age” counterparts (Tom Strange and friends) in this great two-parter.

The entire series is apparently finally getting an omnibus – or compendium, or something — in 2023, and it’s about time. (All of the “America’s Best Comics” material needs the same treatment.) 

Al Gordon provides quality inks for Chris on this early issue, as Sprouse and Karl Story had not yet become a “permanent” pencilling and inking team.

Plus… great cover homages on these early to classic silver age covers. (See below.)

Welcome to Day Eight of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

Howard Chaykin — Not Your Typical Superhero

Original Art and The Artists

Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage #1, January 2007

Here’s the loveliest page from Howard Chaykin’s very entertaining Guy Gardner Green Lantern series from DC’s “prestige” format. (Less issues, but longer stories, nicely presented in a deluxe package.)

Lovely is somewhat ironic in context here — Guy just killed a bunch of bad guys, but he does seem to be enjoying it, and the storytelling and illustration are indeed… lovely. 

So let’s stick with it.

Welcome to Day Seven of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

Dick Giordano — Shadows Of Yesterday

Original Art and The Artists

Action Comics #422, March 1973 (Human Target back-up feature)

Here’s a terrific Dick Giordano action page from the origin story of the Human Target, published shortly after the character’s introduction in a back-up feature in Action Comics 50 years ago.

And although uncredited, I’m pretty sure I see some light ghosting from Dick’s pal, Neal Adams, in a few places along the way.

Regardless, it is yet another example of a DC Bronze-age series that remained uncollected for decades. After three (!) TV iterations of the character, you would think our friend Christopher Chance deserved a TPB. But, finally in 2019, the complete early stories appeared in a best of Len Wein collection. (Len wrote all the original stories.)

Welcome to Day Six of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

In case you were curious about copies printed and copies sold back in the day…
The early Human Target stories are finally assembledin this 2019 collection, although you wouldn’t know from the (great ) Jim Starlin cover.

Bob Brown — Mr. Cipher

Original Art and The Artists

Superboy #150, September 1968

Neal Adams covers were much more thrilling that than Bob Brown’s interiors on Superboy. Those Adams covers drew me in — pun intended — nearly every single time.

Of course, that could be said about pretty much any Adams DC cover vs. interior artist at the time — but we digress.

Still, Brown was a better storyteller than fans give him credit for, and his action pages, like this one, almost always delivered a fair level of drama and interest.

And despite the fact that the villain, “Mr. Cipher” didn’t quite deliver the terrifying promise of the cover’s drama in the interior, it’s yet another example of an issue I remember 50-plus years later, so it’s fun to own a page from it.

Welcome to Day five of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

Gil Kane — War And Peace

Original Art and The Artists

The Hawk And The Dove #4, March 1969

Gil Kane serves up a fun action page from the original short-lived series of the unusual superhero team, Hawk and Dove. (Created by Steve Skeates and Steve Ditko.)

(Come to think of it, all of the Hawk and Dove series have been short-lived.)

I’m not typically a fan of Sal Trapani’s inks on Gil’s pencils, but credit where credit is due: Sal creates an amazing illusion of shine on that tile floor on the original. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything quite like it.

Separately, on a slightly more critical note, apparently it’s no big deal that Hawk might have destroyed an original masterpiece based on the next few panels… WTH?

Welcome to Day three of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.

When DC finally collected the series in color for the first time, the production department used (effectively) a light touch on the recoloring — it’s a very accurate representation of the original.

Tim Sale — Kryptonite

Original Art and The Artists

Superman Confidential #4, 2007

A lovely page from a novel series:

Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale, two legends gone much too soon, teamed up on this interesting exploration of the origins of kryptonite and how Superman came to understand his relationship to his home planet.

Welcome to Day two of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.