Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Category: Original Art and The Artists

Jack Davis — Wolfman Jack

Original Art and The Artists

Tales From The Crypt #46, March 1955

2020 is the 60th anniversary of the legendary EC “New Trend” comics. William Gaines and his masterful crew published some of the most enduring comics and stories in the medium’s history, raising the bar in all categories — humor, science fiction, war, crime, and of course, legendarily, horror.

To celebrate this anniversary, we take a look at one of EC’s greats — Jack Davis.

This Davis page is from Jack’s last horror story, “Upon Reflection,” from Tales From The Crypt #46, the final issue. Gaines, under censorship pressure — and unable to ensure distribution — raised the white flag and cancelled his horror and crime titles.

Davis telltale style drips all over this page. The old crone, the angry mob, and the tense claustrophobia in each panel spell out impending doom… for someone. (If we know the EC M.O., it will be a twist.)

The cover from this werewolf story has become one of the most iconic in horror comics history.

By 1955, Davis had easily become one of the most important artists in the EC “bullpen.” He was unfailingly reliable, tremendously gifted, and ridiculously prolific. Under the gun, he could pencil and ink three pages in day, without taking quality shortcuts.

Gaines, Davis, and nearly all of the rest of the EC mainstays reunited at the 1972 EC fan convention, organized by fans Bruce Hershenson and Ron Barlow. At various panels throughout the event, they reminisced about EC’s halcyon days, and the two spoke about Jack’s association with horror stories:

JACK DAVIS:  I enjoyed doing the horror bit and they liked it, and so I kept at it.  But when I looked back on it after things began to get very ticklish with the Code and everything, I began to ask – am I doing something constructive or good.  I still, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s really that bad.

WILLIAM GAINES:  You have to understand Jack comes from another era, and another kind of background.  Jack was, and still is, a very moral, religious person.  He came up here from Georgia… [laughter]…I’m serious now…and Jack did this stuff because it was his job as an artist.  Jack has always had some misgivings about it, and I respect his misgivings.  Jack has been more comfortable with other types of material than horror.  But the fact that he’s a real pro is evident from the fact that although he wasn’t 100% comfortable with it, you see the job he did.

“Upon Reflection” is collected in both black and white and color versions, and the Tales From The Crypt cover adorns the Jack Davis EC Stories Artist’s Edition from IDW.
Three EC-related publications that warped my (very young) brain, and the rest, as they say, is history: The 1971 bio of Gaines that includes tremendous detail about EC’s rise and fall — and rise; Woody Gelman’s 1971 Nostalgia Press oversize collection of EC stories was my intro to the tales themselves; and the brilliant 1972 EC fan convention program which featured bios and caricatures of all the EC creators.
EC publishes its own obituary.

Eric Powell — That’s Gotta Hurt

Original Art and The Artists

Will Eisner’s The Spirit # 11, 2016

Concluding our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

Looks like the Spirit forgot to beware the Ides of March.

Matt Wagner brought the Spirit back to life for Dynamite in 2015 with an ongoing series. Although Matt drew the cover for the first issue, the amazing Eric Powell created many of the rest of the main covers, including this terrific one.

I first discovered The Spirit via the over-sized, black & white reprints from Warren Publications in the mid 70s. I was bowled over by Eisner’s artistry and sophisticated use of sequential narrative but also by the enormous emotional punch these stories seemed to pack into a brief seven pages. Whether it was humor, romance, pathos or irony, I found a depth of character and resonance that seemed to be missing from the mainstream comics of the day. I can honestly say The Spirit changed my perceptions of a comics creator and made me consciously aware of the artistry involved in rendering these tales. I’m a comics artist and writer today because of Will Eisner and The Spirit.

— Matt Wagner, quoted in the Westfield Comics Blog

Kitchen Sink started the tradition of all-star creators working on the Spirit, a tradition that continues today…

Tim Bradstreet — Hard Boiled

Original Art and The Artists

The Spirit New Adventures #6, 1998

Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

Tim Bradstreet — with Eisner’s blessing — redraws some of the Spirit’s backstory in Will’s style for the cover of  The Spirit New Adventures #6.

The foreground? Bradstreet reimagines The Spirit a bit more hardboiled, a bit darker, less whimsical version of the character. And he sports possibly the greatest comic book trench coat ever.

(As you can see from the original vs. published cover, The Kitchen Sink trade design cropped much of the background.)

The complete collection of the New Adventures, which includes contributions by Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and others is available from Dark Horse Comics.

On June 2, 1940, Denny Colt made his debut… and promptly died.

Eisner introduced his detective with jaunty body language, lots of attitude and over-confidence, and a close relationship with Police Commissioner Dolan (and that was all in the first half dozen panels.) The cartoonist already knew his character well. Colt went off to capture the villainous Dr. Cobra and was found dead, drowned in a flood of toxic chemicals. After his funeral, Colt woke from suspended animation, dug himself out and assumed a new role as the Spirit, haunting Wildwood cemetery and keeping his city safe with Dolan’s connivance.

— Paul Levitz, summarizing the Spirit’s origin in his book, Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel

The classic film noir trench-coated detective: Alan Ladd with Veronica Lake in This Gun For Hire; Robert Mitchum (with Jane Greer) in Out of The Past; and Humphrey Bogart — in pretty much everything. (Ladd would have made an excellent Spirit back in the day.)

John Paul Leon — Spirit In The Sky

Original Art and The Artists

Spirit #16, September 2011

Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

David Hine (Spider-Man Noir) authors a clever tale where pretty much every page is a splash — with the Spirit title included as part of the art. John Paul Leon hits the concept out of the park successfully homaging Will Eisner’s original brilliant splash pages with innovations of his own.

On this page, the final one of the story, Leon perhaps finds inspiration for the logo from 1946 — from the classic tale, “The Man Who Killed The Spirit” AKA “The Last Trolley.”

Fun fact: This issue — and this entire series — was edited by the ultra-talented Joey Cavalieri, a pal of mine for nearly 50 years. Joey and I first met as kids hunting down comics in the candy stores, newsstands and luncheonettes of the lovely seaside town of Long Beach, New York.

Variations on a theme: The original 1946 Spirit strip with the blowing letters — and two later (and slightly different) reprint versions.

Mike Ploog — PS, I Love You

Original Art and The Artists

Spirit # 31, September 2009

Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

Perhaps the artist with the most specific style similarities to Will Eisner is Mike Ploog, who worked for Eisner briefly in the early 1970s, on Eisner’s PS Magazine for the military. Ploog credits his initial Eisner influence on the 10 years he himself spent in the Marines reading and copying the magazine.

Ironically, as a kid, Ploog was not a comic book fan, so he had no idea who Eisner was, or the history of the Spirit.

But that obviously changed as Ploog discovered Eisner, The Spirit and comics’ lore in general. On this page from 2007, Ploog, aided by inks from vet Dan Green, captures Eisner’s Spirit — and adds his own taste for a horrific milieu.

Ploog spoke with journalist Jon B. Cooke about the early part of his career in an interview for Comic Book Artist #2 in 1998. Read the full interview here.

CBA: How’d you get the call from Will?
Ploog: I was working for Hanna-Barbera, and the guy in the room with me belonged to the National Cartoonist’s Society. He got a flyer Will had put out, looking for an assistant. He looked at it and said, “Ploog, this looks like your stuff.” I looked at it and said, “It is my stuff.” [laughter]. I called Will, and two days later he was in L.A. and interviewed me…the following week I went to work for him.

CBA: When you first burst upon the scene in comic books, you had a style very reminiscent of Will’s work. Did you start developing that style through osmosis, just being around him?
Ploog: It was very difficult for me, because I hadn’t done that much work. I really didn’t know what a “style” meant. When Will saw my work, he said, “This guy can adapt to what I’m doing easily.” Obviously whatever I had, it was adaptable to him. I could emulate Will right down to a pinpoint on an occasion…I’m sure from working with Will, it developed in that direction…

I love Will; he’s a dear, dear old friend. He’s been an enormous influence on my work both in comics and film.

-Mike Ploog, 1998

Early Ploog Marvel work — he was a breakout star from pretty much the beginning of his comics career, although he ultimately spent more of his professional life working in film.
The Ploog art book is a must have for any fan of Mike’s — or simply for those who like great looking art books.

Will Conrad — Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

Original Art and The Artists

Spirit Commission, 2003

Continuing our celebration of “Will Eisner Week” and the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

The very talented (and underrated) Brazilian artist Will Conrad is a self-professed Will Eisner nerd. When he heard that Eisner would be attending a Brazilian comic book convention, he labored over this oversized Spirit piece to show Will, who was nothing but flattered and supportive.

Will held on to the piece for many years, but he knew how much I loved it, and after some atypical 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.
The original Spirit series is collected in its entirety in an impressive 26-volume archive series from DC, and select stories in the original large art format (Artist’s Editions) are available in two gorgeous volumes from IDW.

Darwyn Cooke — Captures The Spirit

Original Art and The Artists

Continuing our celebration of “Will Eisner Week” and the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with other creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

The late Darwyn Cooke?  The closest thing to Will Eisner this modern generation of talent had seen. Visionary storyteller, writer, illustrator, letterer and more. Not only could he do it all, Darwyn could do it well. VERY well.

He was the logical choice for an ongoing series of Spirit stories — the first since Eisner’s run ended in 1952.

DC launched the series with a Batman Sprit crossover, and this terrific splash is the final page of that story. Inked by J. Bone, this issue, and the subsequent ones of the ongoing series are the closet in spirit (ahem) to Eisner’s vision more than 50 years prior.

Darwyn, we miss you.

“I think everybody who is consumed by storytelling within this medium has had some profound schooling from Will…

I can remember it was one of those days when I was thirteen, and I was in a comic store, and there was nothing that I wanted to get. On the wall was a copy of Warren’s Spirit magazine. I think it’s number three, where he is running down the elevated track straight at you, and the train is behind him. It’s just one of the most exciting images I have ever seen…”

-Darwyn Cooke interview From Will Eisner: A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman

Young Darwyn Cooke found a copy of Warren’s Spirit #3 and the world was never the same. Also pictured, his cover for the first issue and collection of DC comics stories.

Will Eisner — Peak Spirit

Original Art and The Artists

The Spirt, Register and Tribune Syndicate, September 12, 1948

2020 marks the 80th Anniversary of the Will Eisner’s Spirit, a comic series that ultimately became a game changer in the medium. This week is also celebrated annually as “Will Eisner Week,” dedicated top one of comics’ most influential legacies. So let’s dive in…

This cool page is from “Cache McStash”, and is from Eisner’s peak period on the Spirit. In fact, it is published just one week after his own personal favorite story, “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,” perhaps the most perfect film noir ever created for the comics.

And don’t let the misleading credits on the otherwise great Grand Comics Database fool you. This story is all Eisner — script, pencils, inks, and letters — as confirmed by Denis Kitchen.

I was fortunate enough to be asked write the intro for the Spirit story “Sound” featured in the hot-off-the-presses Spirit 80th celebration from Clover Press.  No spoilers, but, I love the way Eisner integrated sound effects into his storytelling, and, on this page the simple ticking of the clock enhances tension and movement.

Like everything else he did, he found a way to make his two dimensional comics cinematic in scope.

“I grew up on the movies, that’s what I lived with. The movies always influenced me… Doing the Spirit strip was like making movies. It gave me a chance to be an actor, producer, author and cameraman all at once.”

— Will Eisner, quoted in Jim Steranko’s History of The Comics, Volume 2

Clover Press has just published an 80th Anniversary celebration of Will Eisner’s Spirit, available directly from the publisher or in comic book stores and other traditional outlets.
Color me alive — three different color takes of the Spirit’s origin from 1966: The original, possibly colored by Jules Feiffer; The 1975 Warren magazine reprint, possibly colored by Richard Corben; and the brand new Clover Press version, definitely colored by Jeremy Cox.

Giorgio Comolo — Across The Universe

Original Art and The Artists

Thor #168 (September 1969), Cover Re-creation, 2006

Today wraps our special remembrance to Jack Kirby with a third piece by Giorgio Comolo, an Italian artist who worships the King  — and expresses his adoration with unique and lovely homages and recreations.

“It is your understanding I seek — and not your enmity!” —Galactus

Galactus reveals his origin to Thor (and to us) in this story arc, after Thor, at Odin’s insistence, tracks down the planet devourer in the far reaches of the universe.

Kirby is doing some of his wildest Marvel science fiction in these issues — a small hint of what will come just a short time later in his “Fourth World” comic books at DC.

Apparently, Galactus is not a bad guy. Despite the fact that he devours worlds and galaxies, destroys trillions of lives, he’s misunderstood. That’s all.

Uh-huh.

Comolo homages the cool Kirby cover image and fleshes out the background with cosmic details. And again, he employs that very specific neon-like palate. He also makes Thor’s face a bit more visible — a nice touch. (Although he keeps Thor’s somewhat wonky hand from Jack’s original.)

Oh, and he gives Galactus pants and full sleeves. Galactus should always have pants and full sleeves.

No one has (yet) published a book –or even a portfolio — of Comolo’s Kirby homages. I hope that is rectified in the near future.

Or hey, at a minimum, how about celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Fantastic Four next year by doing Kirby cover homages all year long. Who wouldn’t want to contribute to that?

Meanwhile, Thor #168 itself?:

Kirby. Thor. Odin. Galactus. The Watcher. Balder. The Warriors Three. The Thermal Man…

A pretty good deal at 15 cents.

Galactus gets emo… Thor struggles with cosmic ethics… The universe will never be the same.
1971 blacklight posters repurposed existing panels & pages from Marvel comics, adding a rich cosmic feel to the art.

Giorgio Comolo — Clash Of The Titans

Original Art and The Artists

Fantastic Four #73 (April 1968) Re-creation, 2008

We continue to remember Jack Kirby with the help of Giorgio Comolo, an Italian artist who worships the King  — and expresses his adoration with unique and lovely homages and recreations.

Thor vs. Thing? Come on, no contest. The Thing is powerful, but Thor is a GOD, right?

In this one-off issue of Fantastic Four (#73), Thor (with diminished powers) helps Spider-Man, who in turn is helping Daredevil, who recently had a mind transference with Doctor Doom who… never mind. The FF think Daredevil is still Doc Doom. Chaos ensues. Read the comic yourself and catch back up with us later.

Pretty much the entire issue is a battle royale, and Comolo captures the power of this terrific Kirby splash with his own specific style and palate.

Good thing Thor is having power problems… or Thing would be a pile of rocks on the next page.

Also, FYI, in this issue Thing calls Thor “Curly” “Goldilocks” and “Cornball” at various times, and Spider-Man calls him an “Asgardian Hippie.” I know that was Stan’s style, but we are perilously close to Not Brand Echh territory at this point.

Fortunately for us, Galactus and the Silver Surfer return in the next issue. More operatic than comedy.