Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

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.

Paul Smith — Er, Not A Robot

Original Art and The Artists

Classic Iron Man vs. Magnus: Robot Fighter, Commission, 2001

Mankind advances more than 2000 years into the future, and the greatest superhero of the era apparently can’t distinguish between a robot and a man in a suit of armor?

No matter, it’s a superb piece of art by the terrific Paul Smith. And a perfect way to honor both characters’ 6oth anniversary.

Russ Manning — Robots, And More Robots

Original Art and The Artists

Magnus, Robot Fighter #20, November 1967

Gold Key was never a publisher of choice for me as a kid. It had to be a really slow day at the comics rack, and I had to be flush with cash (meaning a few extra coins) to pick up the one Gold Key title I liked: Magnus Robot Fighter.

Russ Manning’s vision of the future was so clean and pristine that I didn’t much care about the stories, I just loved the art. Beautiful futuristic cities, and crazy badass robots. Oh, and his men and woman were gorgeous. Natural selection had apparently taken leaps and bounds by 4000 AD.

The future looked really bright — minus that whole totalitarian robot situation, of course.

Magnus Robot fighter turns 60 in 2023. 1963 was apparently a good year for armor.

Bob Layton — Iron Redux

Original Art and The Artists

Iron Fist #1(1975) Re-Imagination, 2005

Continuing our Iron Man 60th anniversary series, here’s another great Bob Layton piece. 

This time, we have a 2005 re-imagination of Gil Kane’s Iron Fist #1 cover(1974).  Bob completely changes the POV of the action, transforming the piece into his own — while still honoring the original.

Since the background equipment is still intact in Bob’s version, lets call it: “One Minute Earlier.”

Bob Layton — Armored Legend

Original Art and The Artists

Iron Man #258.1, July 2013

Iron Man celebrates his 60th anniversary in 2023. (Actually, Tales of Suspense #39 was on the newsstands in December of 1962 with a cover of date of March 1963. But why quibble?)

What better way to honor Shellhead’s anniversary than with a dramatic —and iconic — 2013 title splash from Bob Layton’s (breakdowns by Dave Ross) “variant” story of the Armor Wars sequel. 

Bob, with John Romita Jr. and David Michelinie created the original and memorable Armor Wars I in 1987, and a few years later was scheduled to be the solo writer and on the sequel. But… Valiant comics presented Bob an offer he couldn’t refuse, and he jumped ship at Marvel.  John Byrne stepped in and wrote the already announced sequel, and then 23 years later, Layton — with Michelinie and Ross — had his chance again to do his own take.

Follow all that? 

Don’t worry, if I got anything wrong, Bob will definitely let me know.

Happy Anniversary, Tony Stark.

Dave Berg — Back From Vacation

Original Art and The Artists

“The Lighter Side of…,” Mad #305, September 1991

Dave Berg loved to draw his friends, neighbors and colleagues into his Mad Magazine “Lighter Side”  series. On this great strip, Mad Publisher William (Bill) Gaines and other staffers get the full Berg treatment. I love this.

Mad staffers here are — 

Leftside, front to back:

Lenny Brenner, Tom Nozkowski, Charlie Kadau, Joe Raiola

Rightside, front to back:

Nick Meglin, John Ficarra, Sarah Friedman, Andrew Schwartzberg

(Thanks to my pals Joey Cavalieri and Charlie Kochman for filling in the names of folks I didn’t know.)

Left: Still one of my favorite biographies of all time. Right: A fun ad parody featuring the Mad gang further back in the day.

Keith Giffen & Bob Oskner — Merry Crisis, Baby

Original Art and The Artists

Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer #1, February 1986

Every once in a while the lettering — or sound effect — is the draw for me. 

That’s never been more evidenced than on this zany Ambush Bug holiday issue page by the even zanier Keith Giffen.

“Crisis on the only Earth we’re allowed to use!”

The most meta — and accurate — statement in the history of comics.

Welcome to our 12th and final day of the 12 DC Days of DeCember. 

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a joyous Holiday season and a Happy New Year!

And, as always, thanks for sticking around.

Peace. (And see you in 2023.)

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.