Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery – Page 57 – Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…

John Romita Sr. — Belated Birthday Bash (I)

January 30, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Kingpin (One-Shot), November, 1997

John Romita Sr. turned 90(!) the other day, and we would be remiss if we didn’t celebrate the amazing artist — even belatedly.

This great action page is from the one-shot Kingpin and it represents the final comic book story collaboration between Romita and Stan Lee (with help from Tom Delfaco and inker Dan Green).

What’s great about this story — and this page, specifically — is that it features three important Romita icons in one place:

Daredevil, Romita’s first pencil gig at Marvel after eight years of DC romance comics.
Spider-Man, the character that Romita will always be most associated with, and the one he brought to new heights of popularity.
Kingpin, the all-too-familiar super-villain that John co-created, and who will likely vex DD, Spidey and others for the rest of time.

This page is obviously not from the classic Romita era — in fact, it comes 30 years later, but it’s still a great example of Romita’s superb draftsmanship and storytelling.

And all it’s missing is Mary Jane Watson.

You can’t have everything.

Early key Romita comics: His first Daredevil action page (over Kirby layouts) from DD #12; the first Romita Spider-Man, crossing over with Daredevil in DD #16; and Kingpin’s first splash appearance (Amazing Spider-Man #51) from his multi-part debut.

Romita on his Spidey assignment:

“I was hoping against it, believe it or not. People laugh when I say this, but I did not want to do Spider-Man. I wanted to stay on Daredevil. The only reason I did Spider-Man was because Stan asked me and I felt that I should help out, like a good soldier. I never really felt comfortable on Spider-Man for years. … I felt obliged to [mimic] Ditko because … I was convinced, in my own mind, that he was going to come back in two or three issues. … I couldn’t believe that a guy would walk away from a successful book that was the second-highest seller at Marvel. … After six months, when I realized it wasn’t temporary, I finally stopped trying to [mimic] Ditko. … “

–From Alter Ego #9

Matt Wagner — Oliver Queen Bows Out

January 28, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Green Arrow #20, March 2003

Tonight is the final episode of the extremely well-done Arrow, lasting eight seasons on the CW and successfully launching the “Arrowverse” which now includes Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and more. I doubt anyone could have predicted that these shows would create a well-crafted and (mostly) unified TV DCU, much like Marvel has created a unified film universe.

I’ve seen some (unjust) criticism that ultimately, these shows feel like any other show on the CW, just with more spandex. I think some of that criticism comes from grading these Greg Berlanti produced shows against the more mature (and expensive) shows that are running (less frequently) on premium cable and streaming services.

Its difficult to imagine something like this unified DCU coming together even just 10-years ago, and kudos off to Berlanti and company for creating quality shows with just enough (hopefully not too much) fan service. And the shows will continue on even without the launch series, and star Stephen Amell.

Matt Wagner created a terrific series of painted covers for this Brad Meltzer run of Green Arrow in 2002 and 2003, including this very dramatic portrait of Oliver Queen. (In this story arc, Ollie is dealing with a Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) sub-plot, hence the green illumination.) And speaking of Green Lantern, will he (they) crossover from the upcoming HBO Max series? Very much looking forward to seeing how this all plays out .

Gil Kane / Neal Adams — Night Of Diverse Hands

January 25, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Savage Tales #4, May 1974

Conan celebrates its 50th anniversary in comics this year, and we conclude our anniversary recognition with our final of three Conan-themed posts.

Night of the Dark Gods is a great example of Roy Thomas’ ability to adapt an Robert E Howard story without Conan, into one.

Given the artistic talent that worked on the story, clearly some deadline problems ensued. Not surprising, since at this point in Marvel’s 70s expansion, (comic books and “mature magazines”) deadlines were whizzing by a the speed of light.

Neal Adams assisted Gil Kane on the pencils, and inked some of the story as well, supported by Vince Colletta, Frank McLaughlin, and Pablo Marcos. Marcos also provided the wash tones on the story, necessary to add depth to a black and white, and also provide some consistency to the art style.

The inking credits are listed as Diverse Hands, and this appears to be the only time that the credit is employed, meaning it’s likely that this specific group of professionals never contributed jointly again on one story.

Neal, of course, was a pro at collaborative art creation. His “Crusty Bunkers” a group of (ever-changing) artists at his Continuity Studios, filled in many times during deadline crunches for Marvel, DC, Charlton and others during the 1970s.

It’s easy to be fondly nostalgic about something you missed entirely, but, based on everything I’ve heard, it sounds like a hoot. Stop by, ink some pages, spot some blacks, and make your deadline, head to the pub. (It was probably much more stressful than that, but I digress.)

The story is ultimately also printed in color, in a Marvel Treasury Edition, and although the coloring itself is okay, many of the inking and wash details are obscured, likely in an effort to get the job done quickly.

(And see below for the mystery of the extra face.)

Night of the Dark God, in glorious black and white, and a bit later on in color. But wait a moment…

…Where did the extra face in the color version come from? It balances the panel a bit more, I guess, but still…
I wish had the time right now to compare every panel of this story to see what other “Where’s Waldo” attributes I can find.

John Buscema — Legendary Run

January 23, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Savage Sword Of Conan #63, April 1981

Conan celebrates its 50th anniversary in comics this year, and we continue to celebrate the anniversary with our second of three Conan-themed posts this week.

“This guy used to eat, sleep and breathe drawing. It didn’t matter what was going on around him. He would get bored with it and start sketching. … He just couldn’t stop drawing. [His back-of-board sketches were] better than some of the stuff that he did on the front. … He’d get a spark of inspiration and turn the page over and draw whatever was in his skull.” — Sal Buscema, speaking about his late brother John.

Roy Thomas had wanted John Buscema to draw Conan.

Roy knew that John’s artistic style and storytelling skills (and interests) could perhaps best capture the Conan character —- and most remind readers of the amazing eight Frank Frazetta covers that graced the Lancer paperbacks of the last few years. Those images had helped Conan rapidly turn into a phenomenon among fantasy readers.

But budgetary concerns forced Thomas to work with the mostly unknown Barry Windsor Smith, and a different kind of Conan developed. Younger, sleeker, a bit more handsome. And after a slow start, (it was nearly cancelled after issue #7) the book caught fire, and inspired a sword and sorcery age in comic books.

But Smith, frustrated by the deadlines of the comics periodical business, ultimately left Conan.

And so fate called again, and Roy got what he wanted the second time around.

Under Buscema’s pencils, the burly, muscular, often-raging Conan ultimately epitomized by Arnold Schwarzenegger, emerged. This was an older Conan with more experience (and world weariness) under his belt.

Buscema has rightfully become identified with the character, rendering more than 100 stories each for both the Conan comic book and the more “mature” Savage Sword of Conan magazine.

I’ve owned and traded many Buscema Conan pages over the years, and this splash remains one of my favorites. After a long fought series of adventures and battles, Conan is taking a break, and celebrating his victory.

Nothing wrong with that.

The story itself is an odd one. Michael Fleisher is the scribe, having come on board a just a few months earlier after Roy Thomas bolted for DC. Given the varying art styles of the story, the story length (46 pages) and the multiple inkers (Ernie Chan, Tom Palmer and Bob McLeod are all credited) it’s entirely possible it was originally destined to be a shorter story, and fleshed out when something else fell through.

If so, it’s a feat that John Buscema could pull off — while most others couldn’t even attempt it.

*The printed page by Buscema, and the story-driven cover by Joe Jusko, who often cites Buscema as his most important influence.* Had this story actually ever been reprinted in comic books, they would have added an undergarment. This was the height of risqué for Marvel at the time, although over at Warren Magazines, (partial) nudity had already crept in.

Eight images worth millions of words — the original Frank Frazetta covers on the Lancer paperback editions of Conan (starting in 1966). In a short time, both Conan and Frazetta would be embedded in the popular culture.

Barry Windsor-Smith — Slayer Of The Status Quo

January 21, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Conan # 7, July 1971

Conan celebrates its 50th anniversary in comics this year, and we celebrate the anniversary with three Conan-themed posts this week.

Barry Winsdor-Smith was not the first choice to draw Conan. Legend has it that Roy Thomas knew that John Buscema was the idea artist for the job. But Publisher Martin Goodman nixed the idea, citing budget and schedule, and told Stan/Roy to find someone less expensive.

The solution? The young British-born Smith, who had been a fill-in artist on a handful of super-hero titles with an unmistakable Kirby influenced style, and who was both cheap — and available.

And so Barry drew Conan for 21 of the first 24 issues — and the comic book world promptly grew up.

Smith, one of the many “young guns” of similar age, and breaking in at around the same time, (Chaykin, Kaluta, Simonson, Wrightson among the many others) ultimately developed an inimitable style. Yes the Kirby influence was there, especially early on. But so is Steranko. And Alphonse Mucha, the best-known stylist of the Art Nouveau period (late 19^th – early 20th century), provides much of the inspiration for the intricate designs and beautiful women that populate those early Conan stories.

Smith’s run on Conan is unlike any other in professional comics at that time. And Baby Boomers, who had grown up on the simple stories of DC, and had segued into the cosmic soap operas of Stan and Jack, were primed for these comics. The Boomers were growing older, and now, the comics were growing up with them.

Smith’s style developed rapidly over his three year run on Conan, culminating in the extraordinary “Red Nails” that first appeared in 1973/1974 in Savage Tales. And of course, the work was always best when Smith was inking himself, but both Sal Buscema and Dan Adkins did excellent work, and interestingly, both are credited on this issue. Sal is credited on this specific page, but without all 20 original pages together, it’s difficult to tell.

Either way, it’s a stunning page, and only a small harbinger of things to come.

Conan launches in comic books and the more “mature” Marvel magazines.

And early try-out story by Smith and Thomas features “Starr the Slayer,” published just a few months prior to Conan in Chamber of Darkness #4. Smith also developed a Kull Black and White proposal for a paperback graphic novel. (Similar to Gil Kane’s Blackmark) that ultimately was published (unfinished) much later in Savage Sword of Conan #3. Both prototypes look nearly identical to Smith’s Conan.

Smith’s early Marvel work on Avengers is pretty much straight from the Jack Kirby handbook — except for the wild Vision splash page (Avengers #66) which adds some Steranko and Alphonse Mucha into the mix; a sign of things to come.

Watchmen — Odds and Sods

January 18, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Random Thoughts and Observations

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons early concept art for Watchmen

The Price Of Greatness

Each time I consider a purchase of an original Watchmen page, the price becomes too rich for my taste and I get cold feet. And then, each succeeding time, the price is much higher. Lesson learned? Not yet.

That said, at IDW, we published a beautiful Watchmen Artifact Edition, so I did get to browse quite a few pages and see some impressive scans.

Archie’s Efforts

The MLJ/ Archie superhero universe is fascinating: Since the 80s there have been multiple attempts to launch and sustain the characters, and none have quite worked. Fingers crossed for the most recent efforts, although I’m not certain any new titles featuring the latest iterations were published last year. It’s also interesting that Archie has licensed them to DC a few times.

DC’s Appetites

And speaking of DC, it’s fascinating to me that they would own so many superhero characters, add more, and then license even more. To wit: They purchased the Quality library, the Marvel family, The Charlton superheroes, and Wildstorm. At one point or another, they’ve licensed the Archie superheroes, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, The Spirit, The Conde Naste pulp characters and Fighting American. And a host of other ones I’m likely overlooking. Whew.

Moore’s Luck

Did Alan Moore’s familiarity with the Charlton and Archie characters come from childhood? Or later perhaps when he attends some fan gatherings/ early UK conventions? You could barely find some of those comics in New York, so it’s intriguing (and ultimately fortunate) that they made their way into the UK.

Morisi Gets His Rights

Why did Peter Cannon Thunderbolt revert back to creator Pat Morisi? Why was his deal so different than Steve Ditko’s? Or, did he manage to find a copyright loophole later on? Questions, so many questions…

Not Too Desolate:

If Bob Dylan receives a royalty for the Desolation Row lyrics included in the Watchmen comics, it’s probably the easiest and most surprising money ever. If his people took a flat fee, all I can say is… oops.

Frank McLaughlin — Charlton’s Atomic Age Ends

January 16, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Captain Atom # 89 (1967), Re-creation By Frank McLaughlin, 2012

Concluding our series on the roots of the Watchmen characters.

Charlton’s haphazard and often erratic publishing strategy certainly didn’t help sustain its line of superheroes. (Or “Action Heroes,” since technically, superhero is a joint trademark of Marvel and DC. But I digress.) Captain Atom #89 is the final issue of that series, and within a year all of the (mostly short-lived) action heroes were toast.

They wouldn’t return until about seven years later, when Charlton deciphered the burgeoning fan market. The company endorsed the superhero-themed Charlton Bulletin in 1975, a fanzine that included among other things, Steve Ditko’s unpublished penciled story for the cancelled Captain Atom #90. They asked a young Charlton freelancer by the name of John Byrne to ink it.

Byrne is among many talents with early careers at Charlton. Others include Dick Giordano, Jose Garcia Lopez, Jim Aparo, Bob Layton, Denny O’Neill, and Mike Zeck, Also on that list: Inker (and Charlton Art Director) Frank McLaughlin, who inked Ditko’s original #89 cover and re-created this version above.

As for Captain Atom? DC purchased him and the rest of the Charlton superheroes from the financially struggling Charlton in 1983, and they made their first DC appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985). Since then, he (and the rest of the gang) ultimately lived on in the pages of DC, of course, which was the point of Editor Dick Giordano not letting Alan Moore use those exact characters for Watchmen.

Alan, as we have discussed, was not deterred, and created his own versions of the characters.

Ironic, since those original Charlton characters could barely raise an eyebrow, and yet we are still talking about Moore’s Watchmen today.

*The original and published art for Captain Atom #89. Frank’s red-do is faithful, but makes a few changes.*

*The first and last pages of Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle re-do, from a backup story in captain Atom Atom #83.*

*The introduction of Nightshade. 1966 or not, the handling of the character earns an “ouch.”*

Thunderbolt makes an entrance, and exits a short time later. He precedes the re-dos of Captain Atom and Blue Beetle in 1965. (And he takes over the Son of Vulcan title, who is never truly considered part of the Charlton main superhero universe.)*Meanwhile, the rights reverted back to creator Peter Morisi, and Thunderbolt now has a home at Dynamite Publishing, where he feels a lot like… Ozymandias.*

The Peacemaker steps up and Captain Atom celebrates his new uniform and power abilities. And The Question makes his final appearance in Blue Beetle #5 (1968), which inexplicably appears on the newsstand nearly a year after issue # 4.

Final tally Watchman —

Nite Owl 2 – Blue Beetle 2
Silk Spectre 2 – Phantom Lady/Black Canary/Nightshade
Comedian – Peacemaker/Shield
Dr. Manhattan – Captain Atom
Rorschach – The Question
Ozymandias – Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt

Steve Rude — Gone In 60 Seconds

January 14, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill #1, March 2013

Steve Rude delivers a nicely designed splash page for the one-shot Dollar Bill comic from the Before Watchmen series. Len Wein wrote the issue, and Steve penciled, inked and hand-lettered the entire issue himself, a definite rarity. It’s one of the better-looking Before Watchmen comics.

As Watchmen fans know, Dollar Bill is a member of the Golden Age Minutemen — tragically gunned down when his cape gets caught in a revolving door, as described/depicted in the comic book, film and television series.

His role in the series is pretty much limited to that one tragic moment, so this one-shot gives the creative team a nearly blank slate to flesh out his character.

Definitely a unique creation, he is sponsored and employed by a bank as an actor, and pressured by his employer to work with the Minutemen as an actual costumed crimefighter. Any derivation from an existing character would be in design only — and his costume is in fact similar to Archie’s (MLJ’s) Golden Age Captain Flag.

And Flag did reappear in the Archie superhero revival (Mighty Crusaders #4 and #5) in the 1960s, so Moore would have definitely seen him since he has already discussed his interest in those characters.

Not that aren’t enough patriotic-themed red and blue costumed superheroes to go around.

*The published splash page flanked by the Rude painted cover and by a variant cover by the late, great Darwyn Cooke.*

Captain Flag in three different incarnations: Golden Age introduction, Silver Age introduction, and in an ironic Modern Age introduction he stands front and center. Why ironic you ask? This 1989 version of the MLJ/Archie superheroes, despite the ad, never actually appeared. Archie’s management got cold feet over the potential mature themes conflicting with the company’s wholesome image and pulled the plug.
.

Mike Sekowsky — Road To Minutemen

January 11, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Mighty Crusaders #2, January 1966

Continuing our series on the roots of the Watchmen characters.

Alan Moore, on his original idea for Watchmen:

“I wanted more average super-heroes, like the Mighty Crusaders line … [the] original idea had started off with the dead body of the Shield being pulled out of a river somewhere.”

Although the Watchmen eventually morphed out of Charlton heroes instead, elements of the Crusaders and the other MLJ/Archie Superheroes found their way into Watchmen lore. Perhaps most notable is the Hangman, a Golden age Archie character who along with Black Hood, becomes the obvious inspiration for Hooded Justice, a member of the original Golden Age Minutemen in the Watchmen series. (And has a critical role in the Watchmen HBO show.)

Also notable is the Mothman, an obvious derivation of Archie’s (Simon and Kirby’s) Fly / Flyman.

The original MLJ superheroes disappeared into the mists after World War 2, which didn’t impact Archie financially as the title character and his teenage friends transformed the company, including the published actual name which changed from MLJ to Archie in 1946.

But Archie’s management seeing the giant superhero success down the road at DC and Marvel took another stab starting in 1959 with the Shield and the Fly. Ultimately, many of the golden age characters reappeared, forming a team, the Mighty Crusaders.

Superhero artist Mike Sekowsky was first a Timely (nee Marvel) staffer and then a long-time DC mainstay. He is perhaps best known for his work on Justice League of America, where he could draw almost any character.

So he is well suited to tackle the Mighty Crusaders, a team-up book developed to compete with Justice League and other superhero team books of the day.

But Jerry Siegel’s (yep, Superman’s creator) writing style had most definitely not kept up with the style of the day, and the book was cancelled after seven issues. In fact, the entire Archie superhero experiment fizzled out by late 1967.

But… not before they managed to bring together nearly all the dusty MLJ heroes and put them in one comic book. Issue #4 of Mighty Crusaders, is a goofy favorite, entitled “Too Many Heroes.”

Too many, perhaps, but certainly enough to reach into for character ideas twenty years later.

Issue #4 of the Mighty Crusaders is a… gas. Pretty much every MLJ/Archie hero (as seen twenty years later in this house ad) mysteriously reappears to apply for membership into the Crusaders. The Crusaders themselves disappear after a short-lived series in 1966, but re-emerge multiple times starting in the 80s.

*The classic Minutemen team shot as drawn by Dave Gibbons and recreated by the late Darwyn Cooke 25 years later, and the nearly identical PR photos from the 2009 film and 2019 television series.*

Final Scorecard — Minutemen and their original counterparts:

Silhouette = Completely unique. (Maybe an amalgam of Black Canary, Black Cat and a female version of the Fox if you want to stretch out the derivations…)

Mothman = Flyman

Dollar Bill = Captain Flag

Nite Owl 1 = Blue Beetle 1 (Dan Garrett)

Captain Metropolis = Shield (with some Steel Sterling thrown in)

Silk Spectre 1 = Phantom Lady (with some Black Canary thrown in)

Hooded Justice = Hangman (with some Black Hood thrown in)

Comedian = Peacemaker (with some Shield thrown in)

Mike Mayhew — Lady Of Quality

January 9, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Starman #44, July 1998

Continuing our series on the roots of the Watchmen characters.

Isn’t the Silk Spectre actually Nightshade, the only female superhero in the Charlton superhero line-up? After all, all the other main characters are derived from silver-age Charlton heroes.

Or, if not, perhaps she is an altered version of DC’s Black Canary, who, thanks to retconning, became a mother/daughter Golden Age/Silver Age legacy character?

What does Alan Moore say? He said at one time that she’s based on the Phantom Lady (Sandra Knight), created by the Eisner Iger studio in 1940, and first published by Quality Comics in 1940. (Moore says Nightshade was “boring.” I’m not sure what, if anything, he’s said about Black Canary.)

Phantom Lady had quite a few incarnations in the Golden Age, moving from publisher to publisher, ultimately becoming yet another casualty of the Golden Age.

She is perhaps best known for the cover of Fox Features issue #17 (by Matt Baker), prominently featured in Frederic Wertham’s infamous anti- comics tome Seduction of the Innocent as an example of titillation (costume) and sadism (bondage.)

She first appeared in the DC universe as part of the Freedom Fighters, a group of superheroes fighting Nazi domination of an alternate Earth (“X”), in Justice League #107 (October 1973.) The rest of the Freedom Fighters are also superheroes from Quality Comics — DC obtained Quality’s characters in 1956, but with the exception of Plastic Man, had kept the characters in limbo.

Between her multiple iterations and publishers in the Golden Age, and her (at least) four incarnations at DC, there are likely more versions of Phantom Lady than any other secondary character in comics history.

In this post-crisis version, she is retconned as Starman’s cousin, helping him fight crime in the “Golden Age.” In fact, this great action page by Mike Mayhew is from the classic James Robinson Starman series.

As for Charlton’s Nightshade? She can’t catch a break. She was briefly introduced as a partner for Captain Atom and received a short-lived back-up feature in his title just prior to its cancellation. Despite some fine early art by Jim Aparo, those stories have never been reprinted — other than public domain press.