Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
New York Comic-Con, October 9-12, 2025
Another NYCC — come and gone. Seemed more crowded than ever, and thanks to a few personal scheduling snafus (and some ADD) I missed most of artists’ alley. But… the cosplay, was, as always, fun.
The Funny Pages, The New York Times, October 8, 2006
Here’s a terrific page from the terrific Seth (Gregory Gallant) — and an unlikely source for “indie creators:” The New York Times.
The Times briefly ran weekly comic strips from Seth and other similar storytellers in its Sunday Magazine nearly twenty years ago.
The serialization of Seth’s strips ultimately led to a complete graphic novel: George Sprott: (1894–1975), a biography of a fictional Canadian TV personality.
The large-format originals that appeared in the Times are in glorious black and white. To flesh the story out for the graphic novel, Seth created some beautiful duo-tone color pages book too, and I’m fortunate to own one of those as well.
I’ve said it before: Seth is one of the most underrated indie artists of his generation. His beautifully clean art and his quiet, methodical storytelling (along with a wry sense of humor) are absolutely delightful.
Pro tip: Seek out the hardcover (left) as opposed to the softcover (both technically out of print, but still plentiful) because the much larger trim size is more effective for Seth’s storytelling style utilizing smaller panels.
House of Mystery #251, April 1977
Dear DC:
Please collect all the random and misc. (and typically GREAT) stories from the legendary Wallace Wood in one place — omnibus, compendium, DC Finest, whatever. I’m constantly discovering “new” storiesI’ve missed like this one, aptly titled “The Collector.” (Pencils and inks by Woody, blueline breakdowns by Al Sirois.) Reprinted only once, 40 years ago, in a cheapie digest.
Woody deserves better treatment.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yr. Pal,
Greg
PS That middle panel page is such a great throwback to Woody’s classic EC days, isn’t it? The coloring doesn’t quite do it justice.
Batman Commission, 2018
Did Neal Adams create the “Batman perched on a building gargoyle” trope?
In my mind’s eye, I was a positive I had seen a golden age illustration of the caped crusader on a stone carving — but when I scanned through the Batman and Detective covers through the decades, these early bronze age beauties were the first two examples I found: Batman in May 1970, Detective in May 1971, both by Neal. I guess he liked it enough the first time to revisit it exactly a year later.
Of course, since then, it’s been done countless times — including this 2018 commission from the great Paul Smith. (Striking colors below by Frank Cuonzo.)
And maybe because I’ve seen the image so many different times, I’ve convinced myself it existed earlier.
If someone has reference on earlier piece of Batman gargoyle art, I’d love to see it.
L.A. Comic Con, Saturday, September 27, 2025
Even more great cosplay from Tinseltown, including crazy group shots of Marvel (mostly) characters and the Doctor Who Family. (See yesterday’s post, too.)
L.A. Comic Con, Saturday, September 27, 2025
Hadn’t been to L.A. Comic Con in a few years; always a blast seeing some very creative cosplay on display. But we should expect nothing less from Tinseltown, right?
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 48, August 1993
Will they… or won’t they?
Doug Moench and the legendary Russ Heath have some fun with that question in this well-done four-part tale entitled “Heat” from Legends of The Dark Knight in 1993. The page itself is one of the best from this third part of the story, in which the frenemies team up to stop a serial killer.
Did Batman become permanently romantically entangled with Catwoman? No spoilers from me, but since the Bat and the Cat didn’t get engaged until more than 25 years later, that might provide a clue in itself.
The real question? When are these and other stories from LOTDK going to be collected? Many great talents contributed to this series, and very, very few have been reprinted. It’s a lot of material, but a series of compendiums could do the trick.
As for the history of their on and off again romance, this DC blog entry offers an insightful —if not incomplete — look at 85 years of will they or won’t they:
https://www.dc.com/blog/2022/03/03/the-forbidden-love-of-batman-and-catwoman
The story of Earth-2’s (successful) romance between Bruce and Selina is told in The Brave and the Bold #197, from 1983.
Batman: The Dailies, 1944-1945 (TPB, 1990, Kitchen Sink)
Here’s yet another great piece of art by the extraordinarily talented Pete Poplaski.
Poplaski has been called an “artist’s artist” by many of his peers. He might not have a household name among art buffs, but his talent is formidable and undeniable.
Pete, who broke into comics in the 70s underground movement, ultimately became Kitchen Sink’s art director, and, among many accomplishments helped give some of Robert Crumb’s projects just the right design touch.
Kitchen had the rights to reprint the DC Batman and Superman Golden Age comic strips in the early 1990s, and Pete created brand new covers that evoked the classic style of those strips.
When we acquired those rights at IDW in 2012, we went back to Pete to see if he would be interested in picking up where he left off, and fortunately he was.
Dick Sprang. Al Plastino. Carmine Infantino. You name it. Pete’s remarkable ability to create brand new material in any and all of these classic styles is astonishing.
Interestingly enough, many if not most of Pete’s covers (front and back) feature hand drawn lettering, but this one does not. Also, the final crop for the book cover is tighter, so the end result of both of these elements is that there much more art visible on the original than in the final published version.
I’m fortunate enough to own a few of these covers — and many of them are prominently displayed.
The Brave and The Bold #174, May 1981
Here’s a great page from Jim Aparo featuring Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary and the Guardians of the Universe! It’s the concluding page of a flashback to the historic Denny Oneil and Neal Adams Green Lantern / Green Arrow run, 10 years prior.
I always loved Jim Aparo’s Batman and especially enjoyed his amazing 100-issue run on Brave and Bold where he had the opportunity to have fun with nearly all of the key characters in the DCU.
But confession time: I missed most of the last third of his B&B output the first time around. College — both logistics and budgetary concerns — kept my acquisitions in the late 70s and early 80s limited.
Which is likely why I missed the very cool two-part story that provides some follow-up to the specific Guardian of the Universe (“Old Timer”) who travelled around with Green Lantern and Green Arrow back in the day.
Excellent, clever writing from Gerry Conway, and to repeat the obvious, great art by Aparo.
Betty and Veronica # 2, January 2017
Here’s a great page from the Betty and Veronica “reboot” series written and drawn by Adam Hughes from 2017.
Re-reading the 3-part story, I’m amused by the irony more than anything else — one of comics’ most talented and compelling artists created a dialogue heavy series that takes away from his own visual storytelling and covers up some of his own glorious art. (This page is an exception, fortunately.)
The story does have its charms at moments, (albeit with some odd narrative choices), and ultimately not much in terms of depth…
But, oh, that original art.
