Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Wallace Wood — Stripped (Part 1 Of 3)

Original Art and The Artists

Cannon, Strip #61, 1973

Happy (almost) Independence Day! Welcome to our second annual month-long celebration of the “Independents” — Independent creators and projects that continue to impact the comic book medium.

Celebrating both Comic strips AND independent artists and their creations, we present Wallace Wood… and Cannon, an action strip series that is somehow both ludicrously serious and deadly satirical at the same time.

Cannon, first appearing in Wood’s own Heroes Inc. comic book (1969), ran from 1970 to 1973 in Overseas Weekly, a newspaper produced for American servicemen.

The single best overview of the strip I have ever read comes from writer Rocko Jerome via the website Sequart. Excerpts below:

“There’s no greater proof of (Wood’s) mastery than Cannon, which feels like the perfect and most truly, thoroughly “Wallace Wood” product imaginable. In lesser hands, the material could’ve sank into seedy Tijuana Bible territory, but the work is so beautifully rendered and put together that it’s impossible to assail the craft involved. There are those who will call these drawings on paper misogynistic and gratuitously violent, and it’s hard to argue that it is not, but the tightly rendered imagination on display will tell you what you need to know. Wood could make ugly things beautiful and beautiful things gorgeous…

“The jokey animated television series Archer feels like a dumbed down, considerably less risky version of Cannon, which is several decades its senior. Cannon simply doesn’t let up on the throttle, its gloriously illustrated Id running roughshod over its pages.”

Read the entire review — it’s worth every minute of your time.

And my own, succinct review:

This is some great Wood artwork.

Jack Kirby & Wallace Wood — Blastoff

Original Art and The Artists

Sky Masters, Daily Strip, June 15, 1959

What if…

Jack Kirby’s 1958 Sky Masters newspaper comic strip — about the nascent space race — had turned into a giant hit for Jack, and partner Dave Wood.

What if…

Kirby had been able to easily solve any financial dispute with DC editor Jack Schiff about the strip’s royalty terms. (The News syndicate had originally approached Schiff about the creation of the strip, and Schiff appears to be the intermediary between the syndicate and writer Dave Wood.)

What if… 

Despite any financial acrimony over the strip, Schiff didn’t fire Kirby from Challengers of the Unknown… and all of DC comics.

You can see where this is going —

Jack continues to draw Sky Masters, fits in some DC comics work whenever possible, and never finds any time to return to Atlas/Marvel.

And “The Marvel Age of Comics” takes a completely different turn, if it even manages to leave the launching pad.

For those interested in the nitty gritty of dispute, Wikipedia has done a good job of assembling an overview (and sources) here.

Writer Jon B. Cooke provides an even more detailed summary, from the Jack Kirby Collector.

Fun fact: For many years, like most fans, I thought the “Wood” on Kirby/Wood signature referred to Wallace Wood as inker. It actually referred to Dave Wood and his brother Dick who co-wrote the strip. This, despite the fact that that Woody actually did ink the strip for about the first year, including the example above. (Dick Ayers eventually came on the strip as inker, and ultimately Jack inked it himself, likely with help of wife Roz.)

Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
Week 1: Superheroes
Week 2: Detectives
Week 3: SF
Week 4: Comic Book Giants

Gil Kane — The Star Wars Effect

Original Art and The Artists

Star Hawks, Sunday Strip, August 12, 1979

Here is a nice (Sunday) example of Ron Goulart’s and Gil Kane’s Star Hawks, the short-lived SF adventure strip which ran from 1977-1981. (Extra nice in that it includes both the strip header and the color proof.)

“Inspired – as so many things were in the late 70s – by the tremendous success of Star Wars, the newspaper feature syndicate NEA (Newspaper Enterprise Association) got it into their heads that a space opera comic strip that evoked the cosmic high adventure and swashbuckling derring-do of George Lucas’ movie might be a popular addition to the nation’s comics pages.” — Christopher Mills

Perhaps most interesting thing about the strip was the that the initial dailies were double tier as well as the Sunday’s — a risky gambit that allowed Kane to showcase his strengths in storytelling and layout. Unfortunately, newspapers weren’t in love with devoting that much real estate to the quirky SF adventure, and it ultimately dropped to the traditional one-tier.

Goulart ultimately left the strip and Kane enlisted frequent collaborator Archie Goodwin, who wrote the one above. He also left after a few arcs, and Roger Mackenzie wrapped things up.

All of the series is available in a three-volume set from The Library of American Comics and IDW Publishing.

Worth every penny, but of course, I’m biased.

Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
Week 1: Superheroes
Week 2: Detectives
Week 3: SF
Week 4: Comic Book Giants

Neal Adams — Happy (Belated) Birthday

Original Art and The Artists

Ben Casey, Daily Strip, April 15,1966

Neal Adams turned 80-years old last Tuesday, June 15.

I’ve been planning for months to pay tribute to great strips, and great strip artists, in the month of June.

Had I been able to logically put two and together, this post would have run last week, not today.

In other words, I’m a week late… and a more than a dollar short. Ack.

As for Dr. Ben Casey? From Neal’s own website:

“When charming and talented Neal Adams was just 21, he was awarded the art chores of the comic strip based on the popular TV show Ben Casey staring Vince Edwards. One of the youngest, syndicated strip artists, Neal started his groundbreaking work on November 26, 1962 and the Sunday strip was added on September 20, 1964. Four years later, the strip ended as the television show did, but Neal’s career was just starting.”

I have a lot of “favorite” artists, but the one who had the most impact on me as a youngster was — you guessed it — Neal Adams. 

And the charming side of him can indeed be charming as hell.

Fun fact: A collection of all Neal’s Casey strips should be considered a holy grail of archival reprints. 

We tried. We really tried. 

Can’t win them all.

Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
Week 1: Superheroes
Week 2: Detectives
Week 3: SF
Week 4: Comic Book Giants

Mac Raboy — Conquers The Universe

Original Art and The Artists

Flash Gordon, Sunday Strip, July 30, 1961

Alex Raymond created Flash Gordon and set the standard for comic strip illustration.

Mac Raboy worshipped Raymond, and created his own impeccable standards for illustration during the Golden Age of comics with his astonishing craftsmanship on Captain Marvel Jr.

And then… serendipity takes a hand, and Raboy becomes the Sunday artist for Flash Gordon.

That Sunday run, started in 1946, and only ending with Raboy’s death in 1967, deserves consideration among the best looking SF strips of all time.

As for Captain Marvel Jr.?  Raboy’s covers are still among the greatest ever to appear in the medium.

Dark Horse has collected the complete Raboy Flash Gordon run into four attractive volumes.
Nearly 50 years later, Jim Steranko’s History of the Comics (Vol.2) features the best overview of Mac Raboy’s amazing Golden Age comics work on Captain Marvel Jr. These two pages © Jim Steranko, 1972, 2021.

George Tuska — In The 25th Century

Original Art and The Artists

Buck Rogers Daily Strip, July 5, 1965

George Tuska closes out Buck Rogers’ run as a comic strip — at least the first time around. 

The strip had lasted nearly 40 years, debuting in 1929 and ending in 1967.  The earliest strips have been collected, but it seems doubtful that commercial considerations will allow for the entire run to be reprinted. (I’d like to be wrong about that.)

Ironically, Tuska’s depiction of Rogers is 15 years ahead of its time. Gil Gerard, who played Buck in the 1979 -1981 television series pretty much matches the likeness of Rogers that Tuska employed.

Well, they do say science fiction often becomes science fact.

(When the strip returned to newspapers to capitalize on the TV show in 1979, Tuska was already re-established in comic books. Gray Morrow picked up the illustration chores for that run.)

Take the helmet off, and Tuska’s Buck Rogers looks a lot like… TV’s Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard), 15 years ahead of the fact.

    Al McWilliams — Futurist

    Original Art and The Artists

    Twin Earths, Daily Strip, April 14, 1958

    Al (Alden) McWilliams gives us an uncanny glimpse of a cool flip phone — about 40 years ahead of its time.

    (Of course, there’s the terrific use of shadows and light to admire as well. But, as always, we digress.)

    Twin Earths was one of the few strip collections that we could never make happen at IDW and The Library of American Comics. (For reasons involving both rights and availability of materials.) It’s too bad, because it was a fun and well-rendered adventure strip — one of the few that dealt with “flying saucers.” Capatilizing on UFOs in the news headlines, it was part of an overall more realistic trend in SF post World War 2.

    Also, McWilliams is a terrific artist who never quite achieved the fame of some of his contemporaries — seemingly never quite being in the right place at the right time.

    Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
    Week 1: Superheroes
    Week 2: Detectives
    Week 3: SF
    Week 4: Comic Book Giants

    Sporadic reprints of Twin Earths have appeared from time to time, but as of now (2021) the full run has yet to be collected.

    Al Williamson — Flight To Glory

    Original Art and The Artists

    Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9), Daily Strip, October 17, 1969

    As noted in a previous post, the amazing Al Williamson spent 13 years illustrating Secret Agent Corrigan as a daily strip. (With writing by Archie Goodwin — also great.) 

    Here’s a nice example from the earlier period of Al’s strips with a gorgeous final panel. 

    (Of course as I also previously noted, Williamson could have illustrated a guide to Windows XP, and I would have devoured it anyway.)

    Al’s Corrigan strips are relative bargains in the original art market today: Nice examples can often be found in the $400-$500 range.

    The complete five-volume collection of Williamson’s Corrigan (Also referred to as X-9) is one of my favorite series form the Library of American of Comics (LOAC), and one of my favorite projects at IDW Publishing. 

    Yes, that makes me biased. So?

    Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
    Week 1: Superheroes
    Week 2: Detectives
    Week 3: SF
    Week 4: Masters Of The Form

    Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9) has an outstanding pedigree: Created in 1934 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond for King Features, he was quickly featured in two movie serials. (1937 and 1945, pictured here.)

    Chester Gould — The Trusty Detective

    Original Art and The Artists

    Dick Tracy, Sunday Strip, March 12, 1961

    One panel. That’s all it took to get my attention on this page.

    Which one? Trust me, it’s not a quiz: It’s panel three, featuring the CLASSIC Dick Tracy profile by creator Chester Gould

    And, as a bonus, our trusty detective is holding a gun.

    Of course, it’s an overall great Sunday page with nice action to complement all that detecting. But that specific panel is iconic to a strip and creator that were inexorably tied together for nearly 50 years.

    IDW Publishing and The Library of American Comics collected the entire Gould Tracy run — 29 volumes in all.
    The New York News water no time promoting the return of Dick Tracy — and the rest of the comics — after a devastating NYC newspaper strike in 1962/1963.

    Alex Raymond — Watching The Detectives

    Original Art and The Artists

    Daily Strip, December 11, 1950

    Every so often, I have this daydream, that I will sell most, if not all, of my art and use the proceeds to buy just one piece: An Alex Raymond Flash Gordon Sunday.

    First time I ever saw that art as a kid, I recognized that I was looking at something extraordinary.

    Nearly 50 years later, I still feel that way.

    In the meantime, I have this great Raymond Rip Kirby to enjoy. Frankly, they are all pretty great, but this one especially spoke to me because of the terrific use of light and shadows. (And smaller word balloons than typical means more art to enjoy.)

    Publishing the complete Raymond Rip Kirby — and Flash Gordon, with the Raymond Jungle Jim toppers — at IDW was a joy. An absolute joy.

    And I’m still thinking about saving my pennies…

    Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
    Week 1: Superheroes
    Week 2: Detectives
    Week 3: SF
    Week 4: Masters Of The Form

    Fun fact: This is Volume 2 of the complete Alex Raymond Rip Kirby, despite the fact that the years contained within are misidentified here.