Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

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Brian Stelfreeze — Zero Hour, Plus 30

Original Art and The Artists

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #31, September 1994

Brian Stelfreeze provides this amazing “Golden Age” style cover for a Batman story in the 1994 Zero Hour event. The “original” portly Alfred suddenly reappears (from another timeline) — and, spoiler alert — disappears at the end of the story.

No matter: Stelfreeze’s cover painting is terrific, and Brian purposely added all the stains and scratches to give it an aged look.

Bonus: I can cover up his signature and no one realizes Brian painted it; it’s (obviously) nothing like his traditional painting style.

Zero Hour — The first large-scale crossover event at DC since Crisis on Infinite Earths, is celebrating its 30thanniversary. It’s a timeline event, designed primarily to clean up some continuity holes left behind by “Crisis.” Some get fixed, some don’t, but it’s a fun crossover, regardless. (And of course I’m biased, because pal Dan Jurgens wrote and drew the original mini-series.  A brand new 30th anniversary special featuring a new story by Dan and Ron Marz landed on shelves last week.)

Alfred makes his first appearance in Batman #16; He loses weight a year or so later when a thinner actor is cast in the role in the first Batman movie serial.

Howard Chaykin — ‘Round About Midnight

Original Art and The Artists

Midnight Men #4, September 1993

Howard Chaykin, Original Art page from Midnight Men #4, from the collection of Greg Goldstein

Never let a great idea go to waste.

Howard Chaykin turned an unused Batman pitch into an imaginative new series for the extremely short lived “Heavy Hitters” imprint from Marvel/Epic in 1993.

I’ve seen most of the original art for this title, and each page is beautiful: Great storytelling, terrific draftsmanship, and a generous use of deep India ink and screen tone for depth and effect.  He worked his ass off on these pages, and it shows.

Bonus: Great lettering, as always, by John Workman.

Honestly, the only thing I don’t like about the series is the coloring (not by Howard), but hey, it was the 90s.

The four-issue series has never been collected, but individual issues typically turn up in dollar bins, and are worth seeking out.

Remember, you can’t kill the Midnight Men.

I’m sure I’ve used this photograph elsewhere, but, we are pals, and I like it. Sue me.

Darwin Cooke — Getting In The Spirit

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / The Spirit #1, January 2007

Batman /The Spirit Cover #1 Original Art by Darwin Cooke from the collection of Greg Goldstein.

Darwyn Cooke welcomes The Spirit into the DC Universe with this outstanding cover featuring Will Eisner’s legendary creation, facing off against… well another pretty well-known comic book legend.

Cooke’s take on The Spirit is one of my favorites, and this entire double issue, with inks by J Bone and colors by Dave Stewart is simply wonderful. It definitely deserved its Eisner award (so appropriate) for best single issue of 2007. 

This cover is the only Spirit art that Darwyn penciled and inked himself, since this issue, and the subsequent ongoing, was inked on separate blue-line by Bone.

Fun fact: The cover was solicited for sale in its original version, and then ultimately flipped for actual publication. Makes sense, since the title is Batman/The Spirit, not the other way around.

Happy Will Eisner Week!

Paul Smith — Joke’s On Us

Original Art and The Artists

Joker Speciality Piece, 2020

Paul Smith Joker Speciality Original art from the collection of Greg Goldstein

True Story:

Nearly everyone I spent some time with at NYCC 2023 ended up with Covid-19. I indeed returned from the show feeling a bit under the weather, but when I tested negative, I assumed I had a case of the more common “con-crud” and went about my business. 

Next day, I stopped at a local fast-food taco joint for a seasonal lobster burrito and COULD NOT TASTE IT. So, I went home and took the test again, tested negative, and napped. Woke up, ate dinner, still couldn’t taste a thing, and went back to sleep.

Next morning, tested again. Third time a “charm?” Nope, still negative. Did some homework, and learned the home kits have about a 15 percent false negative result. Called the doctor’s office, and the nurse told me to check back in if I felt worse. I could practically see her shrug through the phone.

Fortunately, I didn’t get worse, and my taste buds returned to normal in a few days. Covid? Maybe. Maybe not. Welcome to the 2020s.

Which makes this great Paul Smith specialty art even greater. In my case, The Joker could have burned the test, and it wouldn’t have mattered.

Oh, and the punchline: Where did I acquire this art? 

NYCC 2023. 

Kismet, no?

Some additional Paul Smith takes on the Batman family…

Neal Adams & Bernie Wrightson — Twice As Great

Original Art and The Artists

Green Lantern #84, July 1971

Neal Adams & Berni Wrightson, Green Lantern #84 Original Art, from the collection of Greg Goldstein

Opinions on Bernie Wrightson’s rare inks on Neal Adams pencils range from “dream team” to “dueling styles.”

Personally, I enjoy the combo, But Neal himself is said to have told Bernie he was better off going his own way. And that, I think, we can all agree upon.

As for this great Green Lantern page from Adams legendary run? The top panel feels more Adams dominant to me, and in the cool final panel I see more of Bernie’s efforts.

Your mileage may vary.

(Pictured below the published Green Lantern comic are a few more examples of the Adams/ Wrightson combo: A terrific Batman cover and the splash page to an El Diablo story from Weird Western #12.)

For more:

https://13thdimension.com/bernie-wrightson-a-birthday-salute-from-frankenstein-to-swamp-thing-and-more/

Neal Adams & Berni Wrightson, Green Lantern #84 Original Art, from the collection of Greg Goldstein
Neal Adams & Berni Wrightson

Herb Trimpe & Danny Bulanadi — Fortune & Glory

Original Art and The Artists

Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #24, December 1984

After the debacle that called itself Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, I hoped they would put the franchise to rest.

Too much money involved, so no such luck. 

That said, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny LOOKS better the last one – at least from the trailers— and hell, he punches some Nazis, so there’s that.

And THAT Said, Raiders of The Lost Ark remains one of my favorite films off all time, and no terrible sequel (or, Heaven forbid, two) will take that away from me.

Meanwhile — Here’s a nice page from Marvel’s original series with story and art by Herb Trimpe, finishes by Danny Bulanadi.

Brett Booth — Time Won’t Let Me

Original Art and The Artists

Flash #40, May 2015

“I only made everything worse.”

Barry Allen arrives from the future to present day and makes a mess of things.

Like Stephen King wrote in 11.22.63, you try to change the past, the past fights back.

I can’t wait to see the Flash film with its similar theme, but truth be told, that’s primarily because Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Batman.

Oh, and it goes without saying, this is a great splash penciled by the terrific Brett Booth and inked with gusto by the equally terrific Norm Rapmund.

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.

Darwyn Cooke — Once Upon A Time

Original Art and The Artists

Recreation/ reimagination, undated, both approximately 2008

The late, great Darwyn Cooke would have turned 60 last week. Not sure what I can say that hasn’t already been said here —or more likely elsewhere — but he was arguably the greatest talent of his generation, and the work and the man are missed.

Legend has it that Darwyn and I got into some pretty heated debates during the course of our business relationship, and I confirm that is a fact. But I always knew that those arguments came from his deep passion for the craft, and, as they say, I never took it personally. The last time we saw each other was at the 2015 Comic-Con and we had a fun — but all too brief — chat about Parker, DC superheroes, and a few other odds and ends before we both needed to move on.

Like I said pal, you are missed. Catch you on the other side.

I just discovered that Sandy Jarrell @sandy_jarrell has taken all the great Darwyn recreations he can find and colored them. Love it!

Cam Kennedy — The Wire

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Judge Dredd: Vendetta in Gotham, January 1994

Earlier this week, we posted a beautiful page from one of two Batman / Punisher crossovers. Today we have a terrific Cam Kennedy action page from the second of four Batman / Judge Dredd prestige format comics by writers Alan Grant and John Wagner.

The complete list as follows, thanks to our friends at the Grand Comic Database — GCD. (This blog would be lost without them.)

Batman / Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham (DC, 1991 series);
Batman / Judge Dredd: Vendetta in Gotham (DC, 1993 series);
Batman / Judge Dredd: The Ultimate Riddle (DC, 1995 series);
Batman / Judge Dredd: Die Laughing 1,2 (DC, 1998 series).

Now all we need is Punisher / Judge Dredd crossover and we’d be all set. Unfortunately, Marvel doesn’t do crossovers anymore. Sigh.