Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Chris Sprouse — Hauled Away

Original Art and The Artists

Daredevil #601, April 2018

Daredevil, beaten and bruised, is hauled away by the NYPD in this cool cover by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story.

It’s an apt metaphor for the part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that briefly resided on Netflix.

Daredevil, along with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Punisher anchored an ultra-violent “Marvel Knights” style universe on the steamer for three years. Pretty good television shows, ultimately victims to the battles between the giant entertainment behemoths.

Daredevil was my personal favorite of the group, leaning very much into Frank Miller’s work on the “Man Without Fear” and “Born Again” story arcs. Terrific cast, well-written scripts, and a definitive, stunning performance by Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin.

In about six months, the moratorium on rights reversion ends, so Marvel will be free themselves to use the characters in the MCU. In fact, there is a dedicated group of fans campaigning for the cast, if not the entire show, to return in some form under the Marvel banner.

A long shot of course, but the group has worked tirelessly to make its opinion known. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile this cover is an oddity in that it highlights a scene that took place in the previousissue. Just in case you missed it, I guess.

Doesn’t matter from an art standpoint of course. It is a striking image. Regardless. And as mentioned in a previous post, I’m always happy to see Sprouse and Story on… pretty much anything.

Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Al Williamson — Fearless

Original Art and The Artists

Daredevil: Man Without Fear #1, October 1993

Frank Miller returns to Daredevil and brings an all-star art team with him in the origin story, “Man Without Fear.”

Ok, easy to call “all-star” an oft-overused cliché, but in this case, no exaggeration. The artistic team of John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson is a stunning compliment to Frank’s storytelling. 

This is Romita’s best work up until this point in his career, and Al certainly still had his inking chops as well.

I’m guessing (and strictlyguessing) that Miller provided a full script or close to it, because the layouts and storytelling are so “Milleresque.” Either that, or Romita Jr. channeled his inner Miller.

Probably a combination of both.

In this page, young Matt Murdoch discovers his true powers for the first time in a sink or swim training session provided by his tutor, the mysterious “Stick.”

The page layout cleverly and beautifully uses the nine-panel grid to show the development of Matt’s reaction time to Stick’s attack.

A great page from one of the all-time great limited series.

David Mazzucchelli — Devil Noir

Original Art and The Artists

Daredevil #217, April 1984

55 years ago, Wallace Wood emphasized the “devil” in Daredevil with a dramatic costume change for the character in issue #7. The series, which had floundered early on, started to gain some traction with Woody’s work just a few issues prior. Issue #7, featuring Daredevil hopelessly outmatched by the Sub-Mariner, is considered a silver-age classic.

Our next three posts celebrate this anniversary with a look at the “modern” man without fear.

I love classic film noir. Dark streets, shady characters, two-faced femme fatales, dimly lit apartments, et al. All great. 

At one point, there was not a sign of comic art in my office — just classic noir posters.

So it’s no surprise that that some of my favorite takes on Daredevil are those same noir tropes applied to comics by outstanding storytellers like David Mazzucchelli.

And great pages like this one, featuring Daredevil in every panel, playing the (blind, but super-powered) detective. Mazzucchelli’s use of cinematic camera angles and shadows and light creates a deeply moody page, especially when seen in its original form.

Mazzucchelli keeps nearly all of his original art, and he both penciled and inked this page, so it’s a fantastic rarity as well. Only a handful of Daredevil pages that he is fully responsible for have appeared for sale on the secondary market.

Daredevil #217 features a dramatic cover by the amazing Barry Windsor-Smith.
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli would collaborate on one of the best loved comic book story arcs of all time: “Born Again.” At IDW, we were fortunate enough to put together an Artist’s Edition of the series with beautiful scans provided from Mazzucchelli himself.

Scott Kolins — Fearsome

Original Art and The Artists

Wonder Woman #600, June 2010

Concluding for now our celebration of Wonder Woman, in anticipation of the much anticipated (and delayed) superhero film, Wonder Woman 1984.

Scott Kolins creates a fierce “in-action” pin-up of Wonder Woman using only graphite. (The page is colored and published directly from the pencils.)

DC has created some terrific celebratory issues and this one is no exception. Plenty of other pinups in the oversized issue from 2010, featuring art by Adam Hughes, Jock, Ivan Reis and many more.

We will back with one more Wonder Woman post, whenever the film finally opens.

Whenever.

Gene Colan — Rumble

Original Art and The Artists

Wonder Woman # 295, September 1982

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few posts — no matter when the new film finally releases.

Gene Colan delivers an outstanding splash in an offbeat story involving t video-game mania. Well, it was 1982. Think Atari 2600. Only here we have a cast-off villain –General Electric — from Jack Kirby’s Sandman (I kid you not) who uses a kind of mass hypnosis… oh never mind.

As mentioned previously, I’m a passionate fan of Gene’s work and picked up nearly everything he did at Marvel. By the time he jumped ship to DC I was less interested in superhero comics in general and paid little attention to his work on Wonder Woman. (Batman was another story, as I thought he was a great choice for the dark detective.)

Turns out it was a short but memorable run on WW (artistically at least) and Gene is actually responsible —under the direction of publisher Jeanette Kahn — for her very first costume re-design, replacing the eagle on her chest with the “WW.” (Not including a brief stint in “mod” civilian attire in 1968- 1973.)

The exact new design may have been a work in progress, because the halter on this original has an art patch on it.

Wonder Woman gets an updated halter, logo and creative team, as previewed in DC Comics Presents #41, and ultimately launching in Wonder Woman #288.
Gene’s work at Marvel looked nothing like the other “bullpen” artists, yet somehow fit in perfectly. Where he went, I typically followed.

Chris Sprouse and Karl Story — Sensational

Original Art and The Artists

Sensation Comics, (digital) #26, (print) #9, June 2015

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few posts — no matter when the new film finally releases.

Plenty of reboots. Rebirths. New universes. New timelines. Old characters return. New characters die. Old characters becomenew characters.

Rinse. Repeat.

And yet somehow, through all of this, the dynamic duo art team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story are not illustrating a mainstream superhero comic book on an ongoing basis.

The ONLY —and I mean ONLY – reason this should be possible is speed. Plenty of talented art teams have trouble with long-term monthly output. (As they say, I have the gray hair to prove it.)

But that can fixed with some long-term creative planning and execution.

Meanwhile, even if it’s a rare sighting, it’s definitely a welcome one.

Like this Wonder Woman splash, from a “digital First” Sensation Comics series featuring multiple creative teams.

The pages have to work in both digital and print format, and that’s certainly not a problem here. Good, clean storytelling from a fun tale featuring Diana and Lois Lane.

More, please.

Aaron Lopresti — Nouveau

Original Art and The Artists

Print, 2016

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few posts — no matter when the new film finally releases.

As noted previously, I’m a passionate admirer of Alphonse Much and the Art Nouveau period of the late 19thand early 20th century.

Aaron Lopresti captures the style flawlessly with his print “Warrior Nouveau,” — Wonder Woman as if developed during the Nouveau period.

In addition to the print, Aaron is using the graphic on his personalized convention banner as well. (I wonder — only half-kidding — if he will sell it to me when he’s done with it.)

Not much to add here other than I’m certainly glad I happened upon the original when I did. It’s one of those pieces that typically disappears deep into a collection, not to be seen again for a long time, if ever.

A work in progress: Rough and finished pencils.
Alphonse Mucha’s renderings are astonishing, even if his ladies are less battle ready than Wonder Woman.

Jim Lee — Rescue

Original Art and The Artists

Superman #211, January 2005

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few weeks — no matter when the new film finally releases.

Jim Lee’s 12-issue run on Superman, “For Tomorrow”, is classic. Even though the story itself is not as highly regarded as his Batman “Hush” storyline, the art and storytelling start off pretty great and quickly proceed to spectacular.

Comic Book Resources summed it up:

“Superman: For Tomorrow” is an uneasy mixture of introspection, lamentation, and explosive action (think “Hamlet” mixed with “Godzilla”), Lee’s art only increases in spectacle as the story unfolds.”

Case in point, this issue featuring Wonder Woman: Epic action, glorious detail, creative and dynamic storytelling. Do you get the sense I like the art?

Inks on this page are provided by the talented Sandra Hope, filling in for Scott Williams. Based on high quality of the finished story, I’m certain there were some deadline struggles along the way.

Re-reading the entire story today, it’s also better than I realized the first time around. That said, the Absolute Edition is definitely worth owning for the art alone.

David Finch — Iconic

Original Art and The Artists

Wonder Woman #48, March 2016

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few weeks — no matter when the new film finally releases.

David Finch provides us with a beautifully illustrated, classic splash page of Wonder Woman in flight. An iconic pose, it could easily be used in a DC licensing style guide. 

She’s wearing her “2011” costume, which disappeared with much fanfare in issue #41 — and then mysteriously reappeared, without explanation, a few issues later. (The interim issues had featured a brand new costume design by Finch and his writing partner and wife, Meredith.)

Finch’s detailed and lush artwork speaks for itself, of course. He is easily one of the most well regarded artists of the 21stcentury.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing quite a few of his originals from his inkers (this piece is inked by the terrific Scott Hanna) and their art reps. 

All great.

Wonder Woman media costumes through the ages.

Tony Daniel — Wonderous

Original Art and The Artists

Teen Titans #29, December 2005

We should all be getting ready to go see Wonder Woman 1984, the follow-up to the mega hit original Wonder Woman, this week.

Well, actually, we should have seen it back in June.

Ummm… actually, we could have seen it last fall. It’s been in the can for quite some time. The first delay was because of strictly commercial scheduling reasons, while the next two are due to COVID.  I’m pretty certain Warner would like to go back in time and release it on its original schedule. (Come to think of it going back in time is a good idea for pretty much every reason.)

Its currently on the schedule for October 2, and If I were guessing, it will arrive then no matter what, even it means some sort of weird combo of theatrical and Video On Demand (VOD).

But that’s just an educated guess.

In the meantime, we’ve moved the Wonder Woman art posts around a few times to accommodate the film’s timing, and they can’t be moved anymore, as we’ve run into to other scheduling roadblocks. (Just like the film studios, except we don’t have millions of dollars on the line.)

And, were starting off our next two weeks of Wonder Woman blogs with not only a great piece of art by the terrific Tony Daniels, but a very appropriate one as well: That’s Maxwell Lord she’s got under control, and he apparently plays a major role in the film.

I don’t know much more than what I’ve seen in the trailer, because if I’m not actually working a project, I try to avoid any spoiler details, whatsoever. And the more this film gets delayed, the more difficult that becomes.

Fingers crossed, it’s only two more months.

Fun Fact #1: This is the only appearance of Diana in the entire issue. As the published page clarifies, Cassandra (Wonder Girl) is viewing Wonder Woman’s confrontation with Max on a TV.

Fun fact #2: The printed page is reversed, but I’m wondering if a last minute page layout change (because of an advertisement) renders the change moot. It appears on the left side of the spread and, in my mind, works better with its original direction if it’s a “lefty.”