Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Mike Machlan — Avengers #2, Redux

Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Fanfare #41, December 1988

Mike Machlan adds his own flavor to the classic match-up of The Avengers vs. the Space Phantom (Avengers #2) in this published pin-up from Marvel fanfare #41. Mike did a few of these classic interpretations as a portfolio in this issue, each with a different inker. (John Beatty provides finishes here.)

I’ve always enjoyed Machlan’s art. I understand that health reasons cut his career short, which, goes without saying, is a terrible shame.

Separately, I’ve gone on record saying that the first four issues of the Avengers are the craziest (in a positive way) and most colorful start to any series in the Silver Age — if not ever:

Issue #1 —The Avengers (Ant-man, Wasp, Thor Iron Man, Hulk) form to fight Loki, and despite Hulk’s reticence they agree to become a team. Wasp provides the name “Avengers.”

Issue #2 — Ant-Man is now Giant-Man, and this time the Space Phantom (instead of Loki) manipulates the Hulk (and the rest of the group) — and after a big fight, ol’ greenskin gets angry and runs-off.

Issue #3 – The remaining Avengers chase after the Hulk and run into the Namor the Sub-Mariner along the way. Iron Man wears new armor, everyone gets into a big fight, and the Hulk runs off. Again. Namor escapes to the sea. Cameos by Spider-man, The X-Men and The Fantastic Four.

Issue #4 — Namor, now really, really angry, starts hurling some icebergs around, and it turns out Captain America is frozen in one of them, although Subby swims off before he can discover that. The Avengers revive Cap (good thing they have a submarine), and after they tussle, and he comprehends he’s been in suspended animation for 20 years, he joins them.

Whew.

John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson— Heroes Return!

Original Art and The Artists

Thor #1, July 1998

It’s the Avengers vs. the Destroyer in this great action page from the first issue of the underrated reboot of the Thor mythos. Dan Jurgens wrote the series and John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson provided the visual storytelling for the launch.

Cool bonus feature: Both artists signed the page the year the issue was published.

Marvel definitely floundered after the Image exodus in 1991, but by the late 90s stated putting the comic book pieces back together as evidenced here and in the launch of the Marvel Knights imprint, produced by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. The Ultimate universe came along a few years later, and the rest, as they say is history.

Bob Layton — The New Line-Up!

Original Art and The Artists

Commission, All-Star Squadron #1 Mash-up with Avengers #150 and #151, 2007

Bob Layton has some fun reimagining the cover of DC’s All-Star Squadron #1 (Rich Buckler, artist) as an Avengers “changing of the guard” issue.

Also fun — Bob uses the trade dress for issue #150 (1976) of the Avengers own comic book, a fill in issue that primarily features a reprint of the first major line-up change in issue #16. The actual line-up changes in #151.  

It was clearly all meant to be a single story in #150, but… the dreaded deadline of doom strikes again.

Sal Buscema & Tom Palmer— Day Of The Man-Ape

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers #78, July 1970

Sal Buscema brings us a fantastic panel page featuring an over the top Man-Ape (M’Baku) defeating Black Panther and threatening the entire Avengers team. (Spoiler alert — he’s about to introduce us to the entire original Lethal Legion for the first time on the very next page.)

This issue is from mid 1970 — a classic period, as the Silver Age ends and the Bonze Age begins — and if I couldn’t find the monthly issue of Avengers at my local candy store, I would hunt it down somewhere. 

That, by the way, happened frequently. (Did your comics newsstand care which issues actually came in or sold out? I don’t think mine did.)

My obsession was a great way to get some exercise.

Bonus Page: The first appearance of Grim Reaper’s Lethal Legion.

Tom Grummett — Killing It Like Buscema

Original Art and The Artists

Chaos War: Dead Avengers #2, February 2011

Tom Grummett delivers a terrific modern homage to John Buscema’s original cover to Avengers # 52 from the “classic” Buscema era.

I’m not sure how you kill a “Dead” Avenger (I never did catch-up to this crossover) but the art is cool regardless.

We continue with our 60th anniversary celebration of the first appearance of the Avengers.

See you Tuesday.

Sal Buscema — Avengers Assembled!

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers #68, Cover Re-creation, 2002

Sal Buscema delivers a perfect recreation of his classic cover for Avengers #68 featuring the entire team concerned, shall we say — about the current health of The Vision.

Sal got a lot of mileage of these kinds of group shots.  (See Below.) 

Apparently, the cover of Marvelmania was actually his tryout piece for the series, and obviously he knocked it out of the park. (No surprise.) One lucky collector owns the original.

That illustration didn’t appear in color until it was used as a pin-up in a Marvel Treasury reprint (Jack Kirby Cover), years later.

Meanwhile, a third similar group shot appeared as a story end page, although we haven’t been able to track down its provenance — yet.

We continue with our 60th anniversary celebration of the first appearance of the Avengers.

See you Friday.

John Buscema — Avengers Melee

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers #44, September 1967

The legendary John Buscema took over the regular art chores on The Avengers a few issues prior to this one, and quickly makes the series his own. 

In this second part of the story that introduces the Red Guardian to the Marvel Universe, we present a terrific action page that pretty much captures the melee madness of the cover.

(Spoiler alert: Turns out the Black widow wasn’t really a widow. But, as always, we digress.)

Welcome to the 60th anniversary (!) of the Avengers, who debuted as a team in 1963. 

To be continued…

Dollar Bin Bandits

Original Art and The Artists

I’m the guest on last week’s Friday (2/3) episode of the terrific comic book industry podcast Dollar Bin Bandits, available on your favorite podcast platform — and on YouTube.  (Links below.)

We covered quite a bit of ground: State of the industry, Topps and IDW days, comic book history, gaming and much more.; maybe something for everyone — or at least anyone who cares about these topics.

They picked a “classic” photo for marketing (as seen above — full version on my “About Me” tab), so don’t’ be too surprised if you watch on video, and well, I don’t look exactly the same. (Must have been the lighting.)

Thanks to Oren Phillips and crew for a very enjoyable hour, and an excellent series all around!

https://www.youtube.com/c/DollarBinBandits/videos?app=desktop

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dollar-bin-bandits/id1576289731?i=1000597848080&fbclid=IwAR39RLXRY_ELHVulTHxDd2caqP7VgzwOAdNzzBHj_lSon2Y6HNl22lgvPVQ

Angel Gabriele — Kirby Mash

Original Art and The Artists

Jack Kirby Classic Hulk & Iron Man Mashup, 2012

Here’s a fun mashup of two early Jack Kirby Marvel Silver-Age images: Hulk, from the title splash of Avengers #2, and Iron Man from the cover of Tales of Suspense #39.

About 10-12 years ago, Angel was drawing some Kirby-recreations and original reinterpretations, and offering them online. He included this specific art with some other items I acquired from him, with this inscription. Very lovely, especially since I like to think he was really thanking Jack here, not me.

And I like it better that way.

It’s also the appropriate art to segue into a celebration of the Avengers 60th anniversary, coming in February. 

Stay tuned.

Mike Allred — Nope, Still Not A Robot

Original Art and The Artists

Iron Man vs. Magnus: Robot Fighter, Commission, 2012

Mike Allred tackles the Magnus vs. Iron Man theme with great results, including a fully hand-lettered logo!

I acquired both the Paul Smith IM-Magnus commission and this one at the same time, from the same dealer, so I assume the original owner had moved on from this concept.

If there are any others out there that look as good as these two, I would probably try to obtain them as well. 

You know where to find me.

For a look at some additional Allred Iron Man (classic and modern), click here.