Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Paul Smith — A Bat, A Gargoyle & A Trope

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Russ Heath — The Bat, The Cat & The Endless Tease

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Pete Poplaski — Bat-Blast From The Past

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Happy Batman Day, 2025

Jim Aparo — Past Is Prologue

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Adam Hughes — Schooled

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Jaime Hernandez — Love & Other Strange Tales Of Summer

Original Art and The Artists

“Love and the Space Phantom,” Strange Tales II #2, January 2011

Jaime Hernandez writing and drawing a light-hearted story with the women of Marvel? In their beach best? How did I miss this one?

Scott Eder broke up the originals to the complete short story back in this past Spring and I happened to see it just as it became available.

All the pages are fun, and the cover (with the goofy supervillains lurking in the background) is naturally terrific —and priced accordingly — but I think I did pretty well with this great one-of-a-kind splash.

Extra dividend: The published story features spot-on coloring by the uber-talented Laura Allred.