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John Byrne — World’s Fair(est)

Original Art and The Artists

Superman & Batman: Generations #1, January 1999

It happened at the World’s Fair.

Sort of.

Superman and Batman — along with Robin — first appeared together on the cover of the 2nd annual issue of World’s Fair Comics in 1940, issued to commemorate the 39/40 World Fair in New York City.

Shortly thereafter, that comic morphed into the ongoing World’s Finest Comic, and Superman and Batman appeared together on the covers all time.

But inside? Separate stories featuring DC’s most popular characters.

It wasn’t until 12 years later (1952) that The Caped Crusader and The Man of Steel actually met in one story. (More on that in our next post on Thursday.)

Meanwhile…

John Byrne creates an adventure that involves the aforementioned World’s Fair in his clever Generations series from 1999. 

This is my favorite page from the series. It features all three heroes, plus Lois Lane, and sure enough, in that top inset panel, Lex Luthor as well.

Has there ever been another page this iconic in nature? All five characters in one small panel. And a gigantic splash of the four main ones. I missed acquiring this page once previously,  but fortunately, I didn’t make the same mistake the second time around, albeit with a bit more pain in the wallet.

Worth it.

Joe Kubert — Tarzan, Unvarnished

Original Art and The Artists

Tarzan #234, January 1975

2022 is the 110th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ jungle icon, Tarzan.

This year has at least two-other important Tarzan-related anniversaries:

The first is 1932, the release year of the first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan feature film. Tarzan existed on screen prior to the Weissmuller film, of course, but his 12 features likely did more to enshrine the character in the popular imagination than any other media representation.

The second is 1972, the year DC took over the comic book license from Gold Key and re-established Tarzan as a savage lord of the Jungle. Joe Kubert’s comic art work on the character was the first that took the sheen of the character and returned him to his literary roots.

Long before “reboot” became part of the pop culture vocabulary, Kubert’s Tarzan was a stunning new look for comic book readers.

DC, as part its licensing deal, had to provide all the original art to the Burroughs estate. It’s still there in the archives, in excellent condition, and we used it to create three beautiful Artist’s Editions volume at IDW.

Ultimately, thought, this means that Kubert Tarzan pages are among the rarest of the last 50 years. With the exception of a handful, none of them have ever been offered on the open market.

Joe originally gifted this splash, part of a DPS, to a friend. 

I happened to see it the day it the day it came up for sale, and despite a lofty price, I acquired it then and there. 

I knew I wouldn’t likely see another one.

Typically, Kubert’s full double-page spreads from this period could be broken up without ruining the art.
Three different Tarzan anniversaries in 2022: DC’s Tarzan celebrates its 50th, Weissmuller’s film series celebrates its 90th, and the character himself celebrates his 110th.
The final issue of Gold Key’s Tarzan series is almost as far from Kubert’s interpretation as The Batman 1966 TV series is from Christopher Nolan’s. Coincidentally, that issue also featured an adaptation of “Tarzan and the lion man.”

José García-López — Deadmen DO Tell Tales

Original Art and The Artists

Deadman #2, April 1986

Our third annual Halloween tribute continues now through October 31. 

1986 was arguably DC’s finest year. In fact, it may be one of the most of critical years in any company’s history. (DC’s entire two-year period of 1985-1987 is unmatched in terms of quality projects.)

Watchmen. The Dark Knight Returns. The Superman reboot by John Byrne, Man of Steel. Not too mention Crisis the year earlier, Batman: Year One a year later. Etc. Etc.

Occasionally lost in all of these amazing titles is the astonishingly gorgeous Deadman mini-series by Jose Garcia Lopez (Written by Andy Mangels).  Every page looks great, and some are breathtaking. (A word, I rarely, rarely use, at least as far as comic art is concerned.)

Don’t trust my word here. Read the series, finally collected in the recent Deadman Omnibus. (Which also collects most of the Silver and Bronze Age Deadman material including the earliest stories by Neal Adams.)

It’s just beautiful wok by Lopez, who is often referred to as an artist’s artist. Ask just about any professional artist to name the top talents in the industry and Lopez’s name is invariably near the top of the list.

I’m grateful I acquired this cool page earlier this year.

1986: DC’s finest hour?

Mike Parobeck — Double Trouble

Original Art and The Artists

Batman Adventures #8, May 1993 & Batman Adventures #13, October 1993

Two great pages from the late Mike Parobeck wrap up our 2021 celebration of “Batman Day.”

As I’ve written previously, I was a big fan of Mike’s work; he was terrifically gifted from the start. Most of his art shares the same terrific qualities: Simple. Clear. Clean. Powerful.

He died much, much too early from diabetes at age 31.

Bob Hall — Bat Noir

Original Art and The Artists

Batman: DOA, December 1999

September 18 was DC’s annual  “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.

So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight….

Bob Hall launches the new Millennium with a pretty cool Batman graphic Novel, Batman DOA.

Infected with a lethal virus unleashed by the deadly trio of Joker, Penguin and Two-Face, the rapidly deteriorating Batman has only 24 hours left to live… precious little time (as they say) to find a cure andrescue a kidnapped little girl whose life is on the same timetable.  Its over-arching plotline (and title) is borrowed from the classic 1950 film noir “DOA” — albeit (spoiler alert) with a much happier ending.

Bob had already delved into a Frank Miller Sin City art style in the late 90s with his own creation Armed and Dangerous for Acclaim / Valiant/ Armada Comics. Although it was occasionally a bit too derivative for my own tastes, it was definitely evolving, and I would have liked to see more material in this vein. He ultimately did a few more comics before he mostly retired from the industry to focus on playwriting and theatre directing.

Bob Hall’s noir creation Armed and Dangerous borrowed generously from Frank Miller’s Sin City.
Edmond O’Brien in the absolute classic film noir DOA (1950).

Matt Wagner — Holy…Trinity?

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, September 1993

September 18 was DC’s annual  “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.

Batman shows off his typically charming personality — to Wonder Woman and Superman — in this iconic bat-panel from Matt Wagner’s Trinity 2004 series. 

(And the Amazon princess is not amused.)

The overarching plot of this deluxe three-parter involves Ra’s al Ghul enlisting Bizarro to create… well, chaos. 

But the critical (and very entertaining) theme of the title is how DC”s three iconic heroes reconcile their personality and philosophy differences and figure out a way to work together without defeating each other, instead of the bad guys.

It ain’t necessarily easy. Trust me on this.

Don Newton — Valley Of The Dolls

Original Art and The Artists

Detective Comics #506, September 1981

Last Saturday (September 18) was DC’s annual  “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.

So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight….

Here’s a terrific page by the late, great Don Newton, who drew some of my favorite Batman stories of the era.

Newton made turned complex stories into smooth storytelling, and he always accomplished it with quality draftsmanship and artistic flair.

This was yet another early find for me when I came back to original art collecting about 15 years ago.

Newton passed away much too young just shy of fifty, felled by a heart attack in 1984.

Tom Mandrake — Dark Detective

Original Art and The Artists

Detective Annual #5, 1992

This past Saturday (September 18) was DC’s annual  “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.

So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight….

This Tom Mandrake Batman page was among the first pieces of original art I acquired when I re-entered collecting again about 15 years ago.

In many ways, it’s the perfect Batman page. It’s dark and moody, and Batman is actually “detecting”, something his many writers occasionally forget is actually one of his primary skills.

Mandrake delivers some knockout art in this issue. And Sam Kieth’s terrific cover is the cherry on top.

Detective in the first panel, and Dark Knight mysteriously swooping over the wrecked car in the last.  Yes, definitely pretty perfect.

Eduardo Risso — A Dark Night

Original Art and The Artists

Dark Night: A True Batman Story, August, 2016

Today, Saturday, September 18, is DC’s annual  “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.

So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight… and a special doubleheader today from a unique Batman story.

In more than eighty years of Batman stories, there is nothing quite like Paul Dini’s Vertigo graphic novel, based on a brutal mugging that happened to him personally in 1993: Batman and the rogues gallery become imaginary voices helping and hindering Dini’s state of mind as he attempts to physically and emotionally recover from the horrific beating.

Listening to Paul describe the incident in detail on a podcast at the time of the book’s publication was harrowing.

And the art pages, while gorgeous from start to finish, took an initial emotional toll on the Emmy-winning writer. As he told the Hollywood Reporter in 2015:

“When I first downloaded the pages from the attack, I looked at them very quickly once, horrified. Then I put them away for a week,” Dini recalls. “I burst into tears. I couldn’t look at them.”

The two-page sequence here, which I acquired last year, is a critical part of the story. (The pages are even specifically called out on Wikipedia). The  “imaginary” Joker taunts Dini’s misery, until Batman shows up in the final panel of the sequence, and dispatching the clown prince of crime, tells Dini to stop feeling sorry himself, and get back to work.

Fortunately, for him (and us), get back to work he did.

JH Williams III — Pulp Hero

Original Art and The Artists

Batman Annual #21, July 1997

As noted previously, DC’s annual “Batman Day” is tomorrow Saturday, September 18. Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner use the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products. 

So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight….

Despite its initial appearance, this page is not from a lost Shang-Chi/Batman crossover. (Nor is it Batman in the world of Big Trouble in Little China. But as always, we digress.)

It’s from a pulpy crossover in DC’s annuals back in 1999. A clever editorial idea that produced a handful of fun stories, including this one from Doug Moench, who appropriately, had written an acclaimed eight-years worth of Master of Kung-Fu (Shang-Chi) comics for Marvel.

The key note about this page of course is that’s it’s a terrific looking example from the criminally underrated JH Williams III. (Promethea). I overpaid for it (at least it was a part of a trade) but I don’t focus on that. It’s beautifully rendered, and like much, if not most, of Williams work, Mick Gray, his traditional inking partner, gorgeously embellishes it to boot.

That closeup panel of Batman is pretty much perfect. Who would want to argue with that guy?