Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Gil Kane & Neal Adams — Face To Face

Original Art and The Artists

Savage Tales #4, May 1974

Thanks to artist Ken Landgraf, I finally get to see the original prelims and pencils — and partial (Neal Adams) inks — to this great Conan page from Savage Tales #4. And as a bonus, we solve one mystery and create a new one. (Ken owns photocopies of Gil’s pencils from this story and others.)

Gil Kane pencilled the story (pretty loosely in some places), and Neal Adams inked some of it as well, supported at a minimum by Vince Colletta, Frank McLaughlin, and Pablo Marcos. (Credits supplied by Roy Thomas in Savage Sword of Conan #2). Marcos also provided the wash tones on the story, necessary to add depth to a black and white, and also provide some consistency to the art style.

Neal, of course, was a pro at collaborative art creation. His “Crusty Bunkers” a group of (ever-changing) artists at his Continuity Studios, filled in many times during deadline crunches for Marvel, DC, Charlton and others during the 70s.

(The specific inking credits here are listed as Diverse Hands, and this appears to reference the fact that some others outside Continuity also worked on the project.)

And now the mystery; when the story is reprinted for the first time in color in a Marvel Treasury Edition, two faces that weren’t in panel three in the Savage Tales version now appear. Turns out they were originally pencilled by Gil — but inked over in the final art, probably to give it more depth for B&W.

Which means — Either Roy, Gil or someone else had to remember that change and go back and pull it from inked copies for the color version.

Wild.

Faces come, faces go…

John Cassaday — Red, White & Blue

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America #6, December 2002

John Cassaday’s great art from Captain America seems like a good way to celebrate Independence Day.

And that makes me Captain Obvious, so that’s all I have to say about that.

Have a great 4th of July! (And if you see me, yes I will be wearing My Captain America shield shirt.)

I don’t know if this is an apocryphal  quote or not from Captain America’s co-creator, and don’t much care, because from what I know about Jack he certainly could have said it. Like they say: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

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.

Odds & Sods

Original Art and The Artists

June 2023

Some photos from the LA Comic Art Show this past June 4.

Veteran comic art retailer Bechara Maalouf runs the focussed convention twice a year in LA (Redondo Beach) — typically May and November — and also one in the SF Bay area in February.

As always, it featured a great selection of original art —- plus a fun group of guests this time around. Pictured: Andy Kubert, David Mack, Mark Texeira, and yours truly with Andy.

If you blinked you missed it department:

I recently raised a glass to our friends at Dollar Bin Bandits (podcast, video) in honor of their second-year anniversary. Much more importantly, they used the occasion to announce that they had joined forces with the gang at Tomorrows Publishing. The fine folks there do a stellar job of publishing books and mags on the history of comics and pop culture.

It’s like combining peanut butter and chocolate: “Two great tastes that taste great together.” Very much looking forward to their joint efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/c/DollarBinBandits/videos

https://dollarbinbandits.buzzsprout.com

Last, and maybe least:

There are at least 10 million opinions about recent comic book superhero films out there (the on-line universe is obsessed with this art of thing) but I will add my own three cents anyway. (Spoiler- free, and ranked in order of my personal preference:)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse:

• A landmark in animation.

• A landmark in comic book stories on film.

• A landmark in cinema, period.

Haven’t yet seen the film and think’s that hyperbole? Check it out — and let me know if you think I’m wildly off base.

Guardians of The Galaxy 3:

Enjoyed it very much, and kudos to the filmmakers and their marketing efforts that managed to tell us what the film was about — without spoiling the story. The efforts worked, because pretty much every internet rumor about the film prior to the release was wrong. (Some just laughable.)

Caveat — I know the High Evolutionary’s animal experiments were needed for the story, but I do wish they had used a little more finesse in the editing room to tone some of it down.

The Flash:

Between the changes in WB studio ownership / management and Ezra Miller’s well-publicized troubles, this was a cursed project that still somehow delivers a fair and occasionally fun superhero product, especially if you are familiar with the Flashpoint storyline.

Yes, the special effects needed a bit more work, but I barely tolerate most CGI anyway, so it didn’t annoy me as much as other fans apparently. As for the cameos?  My only real reaction is where is TV Flash Grant Gustin? (The inter webs have plenty of thoughts on that, too.)

Tony Daniel — Out Of Time

Original Art and The Artists

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #12, July 2007

“Just like that… It’s just gone.”

We complete the hat trick of Flash time travel stories with this knockout double page spread by Tony Daniel from writer Marc Guggenheim’s Flash run in 2007.

What happens when you lose the speed force? Nothing good, apparently. Although we did a great looking piece of art out of the deal.

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.

Sean Chen — Rogue Salvation?

Original Art and The Artists

Salvation Run #1, January 2008

“Stop gabbing and fight!”

After quite a few fits and starts, The Flash feature film is making its way into theaters this week, so naturally here’s a great Flash page… minus the Flash.

But all the classic Flash rogues are here in a story which focusses specifically on them. If you’re a fan of the classic Silver Age Flash (guilty) this splash by my pal Sean Chen is definitely the pen and ink version of comfort food.

As far as I can tell from the trailer, The Flash movie will be light on the rogues, so this is good way to get our fix.

Rogues, nothing but rogues. Comic book professional and historian Peter Sanderson — as a fan — wrote an amazing summary with pros and cons of each character, which Julius Schwartz published in Flash #174

Gil Kane & George Perez — Dinos, Bigger And Better

Original Art and The Artists

Jurassic Park #4, August 1993

Here are two great pages from the final issue of the 1993’s Jurassic Park adaptation, penciled by Gil Kane and inked by the George Perez. As I noted previously, the key Dino action takes place in issue #4 which covers half (or more) of the film. (Thanks a lot, Universal.)

Fun fact: Universal had a giant launch party for the JP licensing and marketing program at New York City’s Museum of Natural History in February 1993 (at the annual Toy fair event) and Topps received several invites. So what happens when I hop out of the Subway to walk to the museum? I run into George Perez, and we make our way in together. I had a great time, but George was even more thrilled. It was clear he was absolutely delighted to be a part of this.

Fun fact #2: Topps also had a few invites to the NY premiere of Jurassic Park at the Ziegfeld Theater and Walter and Louise Simonson were able to accompany us to the theater, and a swell time was had by all. But, apparently, the final version of the shooting script had not made it from Universal / Amblin to Topps to Walter, so naturally he immediately noticed that his script and the Final Cut differed in a few places. (Fortunately, only a few.)

Oh well…

Gil Kane & George Perez — 30 Years of Jurassic

Original Art and The Artists

Jurassic Park #3, July 1993

Jurassic Park opened thirty years ago June 11, so it seems like an ideal time to present some more great Jurassic Park pages from 1993’s adaptation drawn by Gil Kane and George Perez this week. (I still can’t believe it’s been thirty years.)

Here’s a terrific splash from issue three, with George’s telltale detailed inking mostly only evident in the original art; the color obscures many of those fine details in the published page.

Fun fact: Because of licensing restrictions (including embargo dates) and publishing schedules, the film’s script and the four-issue comic breakdown are somewhat uneven. Not that much happens in Issues #1 and #2. Issue #3 has this cool opening, and some cool T-Rex action in the second part, but most of the exciting Dino action happens in issue #4. (Writer Walter Simonson did a terrific job balancing the script under those challenging restrictions.)

For more on that, check back in on Friday.