Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Jennifer Graves & J. Bone — Bats And Cats

Original Art and The Artists

Gotham Girls #1, October 2002

Batgirl fighting Catwoman? — seems like a great way to celebrate Halloween (upcoming) and Batman Day (belatedly) within a terrific action page by Jennifer Graves and the equally terrific J.Bone.

And, always a pleasant surprise to have a 21st Century piece of art with the word balloons hand lettered on the page.

Call me “old-school” all you want. It’s a compliment.

Fun fact: It took nearly 20 years for DC to collect this mini-series, and when they did they renamed it “Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls to capitalize on — you guessed it — Harley Quinn, who is by no means the centerpiece of the original series.

I can hear the Joker’s cackle from here.

500 — And Counting

Original Art and The Artists

Norm Rapmund Recreation of John Byrne Batman, July 2022

How to celebrate the 500th blog post — and a little more than three years of posting?: Here’s a beautiful Norm Rapmund recreation of a John Byrne Batman splash page (from the 1990 Batman 3-D graphic novel) that Norm started well before this blog was even conceived. (Probably 2017 or so.*)

The 500 milestone includes some “reruns” and a few “cheats,” but hey, 500 is still 500. And we have may slipped in frequency for the first time this past month, but there’s still more great art to come.

Stay tuned.

(*A story for another day.)

Byrne’s original 3D graphic novel and the black and white reprint from a Byrne DC collection 25 years later. One change that Norm made that I really like is that the Harvey Dent side of Two-Face’s face is a bit less evil — as it should be.

Howard Chaykin — Breaking & Entering

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Catwoman: Follow The Money #1, January 2011

Batman picking a lock while Catwoman looks on?

Just perfect.

(And with dialog even more so, but I had not read the issue when I acquired the page.)

Such a fun page by my pal Howard. (In a one-shot issue edited by one of oldest friends, Joey Cavalieri. But as always, we digress.)

It is “Batman Day” today — and we’ll pay tribute to that with a few more Bats-related posts through the rest of the month.

Its also our 500th post(!) and there will more to say about that in the next few weeks as well.

HC and GG — At Long Beach Comic–Con Two weeks ago

Long Beach Comic-Con 2022

Original Art and The Artists

September 3-4. 2022

It’s been a minute (specifically, three years!)… Glad to be back in Long Beach with friends and fans!

Howard Chaykin sketching… Star Wars
Denys Cowan, Michael Stradford, Michael Polis
Scott Koblish
Matthew Clark
Howard and Greg… Together again
Gabe Hardman
Fighting crime is… tiring
With Show Promoter Extraordinaire Martha Donato
With Chris Gossett

Ron Lim — Maximum Carnage

Original Art and The Artists

Spider-Man Unlimited #1, May 1993

Carnage organizes a group of like-minded maniacs (Shriek, Carrion, etc.) on a murderous spree in the infamous 1993 crossover event from Marvel. In the intro issue, Ron Lim delivers this terrific splash as Spider-Man tackles Doppelganger, an evil near-mindless version of Webhead created during The Infinity War saga.

The “Comics Code” was completely superfluous by now, if not an outright joke. This storyline, which is the basis for a video game, and influenced the second Venom film, features so much bloodshed and violence its pretty much impossible to keep a bodycount.

The Green Goblin is a pussycat compared to these guys.

10 minutes with Ron Lim at a con and I spend the rest of the day grinning ear to ear.

Scott Koblish — Goblin City

Original Art and The Artists

Spider-Man Spectacular #1, August, 2014

The only thing that freaks out Aunt May more than the Green Goblin? Spider-Man, of course.

Scott Koblish provides pencils and inks for this story set early in Spidey’s career. In this drama-filled penultimate action page, The Green Goblin’s glider indeed comes back to him — but not in the way he would like.

Meanwhile, a terrified May Parker figures she’s next since she believes Spidey has already murdered her late husband. Ah, irony.

(Based on the notation in the top margin, the story was originally intended for a French Panini magazine, and ended up in an American one-shot instead. It’s later reprinted in a Brazilian Panini mag, but I’m not sure there ever was a French version.)

Leonard Kirk — The Gorilla On The Cover Trick

Original Art and The Artists

Spider-Man Family #4, October 2007

It’s Spider-Man vs. Agents of Atlas on this fun cover, and check out the featured player: It’s Gorilla-Man, an obscure 50s character who eventually made his way into Marvels Agent of Atlas, a team made up entirely of obscure 50s characters.

During the 50s and 60s, word over at the “Distinguished Competition” (DC Comics) was that gorillas on the covers sold more copies. (And purple gorillas apparently outsold ordinary-colored gorillas, but as always, we digress.)

Atlas (Marvel) clearly didn’t get that message in 1954, because the zombies get top billing in the issue with Gorilla-Man’s first appearance. But this was 1954 of course, and zombies were doing pretty well in the comics biz, at least for a few more months anyway.

Fifty years later, with the mass market for comics nearly extinct, I don’t think it matters for sales whether a gorilla is featured on the cover or not.

But fun, anyway.

Bret Blevins — Web Of Confusion

Original Art and The Artists

Sleepwalker # 5, October 1991

Spider_Man. Nearly drowned. Trapped in chains. On a table. Prone before Kingpin and a group of other assorted criminal goons. It’s a terrific final splash.

In “real life”, it’s game over, as most of the goons would quickly pull their guns and start blasting away. Spider powers do not include invulnerability.

But in comics, especially older classics, it’s… continued next issue!

And I am absolutely there for it. (And we know Spidey is going to get out of this — the joy is the “how?”)

Pencils and inks here both by Blevins, who drew most of the early Sleepwalker issues, following his terrific run on New Mutants.

Next issue leads off with a somewhat silly cover — and a great splash page that’s a close-up from the previous closer.

Terry & Rachel Dodson — Underwater

Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #10, March 2005

Terry and Rachel Dodson provide the art for this dramatic and splashy page featuring ol’ web head in action underwater. Not your typical place for a spider, but hey, they do come up through the drain pipes one in a while, so why not?

(Apologies for that imagery to any of our readers that have arachnophobia.)

Marvel Knights was a lifesaving imprint for Marvel, which was in the middle of bankruptcy turmoil when the brand was launched in 1998. Original intended for grittier and “lesser” characters (Daredevil, Black Widow, Punisher et al), the brand was so successful that bigger stars of the Marvel Universe were ultimately incorporated, including our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Until, that is, the brand was completely folded into the main Marvel line.

But that is a story for another day.

Ron Frenz & Sal Buscema — Family Ties

Original Art and The Artists

Amazing Spider-Man Family #1, October 2008

Here is a great action page from Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema, one of my favorites superhero art teams of the 21st century.

The story is set in the “Spider-Girl” universe (Earth-982) but May Parker is only a baby in this timeline as Spidey comes out of “retirement” to deal with Curt Connors turning into the Lizard again.

Story is by Tom DeFalco, completing the creative trifecta from the long running solo Spider-Girl title.

Not so fun fact: Normally I’m a fan of painter Avi Granov’s work, but this specific cover? Ooof. Nuff said.