Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Drew Friedman — Mars Attacks, Live, On Film

Original Art and The Artists

Cover, Mars Attacks #3, 1994 & Trading Card, Mars Attacks Archives, 1994

Wallace Wood. Norm Saunders. Robert Crumb. Basil Wolverton. Jack Davis. Art Spiegelman. Bill Griffith. Gil Kane. Jay Lynch. John Pound. Bob Powell. Tom Sutton. Bhob Stewart.

Topps (staff and freelance alike) artistic line-up of the late 20th century reads like an unbeatable all-star team of talent. (And that’s not even close to a complete list.)

The list of course also includes the incomprable Drew Friedman, who among other assignments, drew the hilarious Toxic High trading card series for Topps, using his trademark stipple effect.

I’ve been looking for a good Friedman original and found this great cover completely by accident browsing in a flat file at Scott Eder’s gallery in New Jersey.  It became a must -have. Scott loves it as well, so it took some heavy duty haggling to pry it away.  But…I published the damn thing, so it must have been fate. Like I said, a “must-have.”

I believe this Mars Attacks cover is the only comic book cover Drew created for us. 

Hey Scott, find out if the Hollywood mogul is based on an actual person. 

I’ll keep it between us.

(Happy Halloween, everyone!)

In addition to the comic book cover, we included Drew’s art on a trading card — part of a series of new images that were included in the 1994 Mars Attacks Archives set.

Jack Davis — Stage Fright

Original Art and The Artists

Tales From The Crypt #27, December 1951

I love dynamic panel pages like this from Tales From The Crypt and EC’s other horror titles: Dark, foreboding, and yes, murderous — but without the gore. More film noir than horror, Jack Davis once again crafts the dramatic scene with a terrific balance of shadows and light.

Since I can remember, the prolific Davis has been one of my favorite artists, and he should absolutely be on any list of best commercial illustrators of the 2nd half of the 20th Century.

Side note: As one of EC’s youngest artists, he hadn’t quite turned 27 years old when he drew this. 

EC’s creators discuss the legendary Jack Davis for his profile in the 1972 EC fan convention. Art by Marie Severin.

New York State Of Mind, 2025 (Part 2 Of 2)

Original Art and The Artists

New York Comic-Con, October 9-12, 2025

Some more fun pics from this year’s NYCC…

Photo of Roy Thomas And Greg L Goldstein at New York Comic-Con, 2025

I didn’t see half the people I wanted to see, But I was very happy to run into (rascally)Roy Thomas who I’ve known as a fan, professional and colleague the last 50 years or so, give or take. Random fun fact: About 30 years ago, Roy, Len Brown, Jim Salicrup and I went in a Topps chauffeured-driven car to grab hot dogs at Nathans in Coney Island.

Another fun fact: Nearly all of the buildings outside the convention center in the pic on the right existed 10 years ago. In some places, that’s an entire city. In New York, it’s a neighborhood.

Seth — Friday Night Frights

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Wallace Wood — Creature Feature

Original Art and The Artists

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.

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.