Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Batman

Carmine Infantino — Batman’s New Look

Original Art and The Artists

Detective Comics #329, July 1964

Carmine Infantino Batman art (Detective Comics #329) From the collection of Greg Goldstein.

I always wanted an early Carmine Infantino Batman page, and I couldn’t resist this one: four tall vertical panels on a large-art 1964 page, from only the third issue of the “New Look” Batman.

I love the layout. Infantino uses those narrow panels beautifully, moving Batman steadily downward through the page until that terrific final shot of him dropping into the darkness. (And, as a bonus, we are essentially looking at the cover scene.)

As Robin might have said: “Far out.”

Large-art Infantino Batman pages seem much tougher to find than his Flash work. There were simply fewer of them to begin with, and unless somebody is sitting on a hidden stash, they’re pretty scarce.

This page is from Detective Comics #329, published just a few months after DC decided Batman needed a bit of an overhaul.

By 1964, most of the company’s superhero line had moved pretty decisively into the Silver Age — the Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, along with the Challengers, Adam Strange, Doom Patrol and plenty of others.

Batman, meanwhile, was still dealing with goofy space aliens, mutant creatures, time travel, color variations of his costume — and whatever else somebody could dream up that month.

To be clear, as a very young kid, I loved those stories in the 25-cent reprints. But sales suggested readers at the time were a little less enthusiastic.

DC handed the Batman reins to Julius Schwartz, and the result was the “New Look” — more grounded stories, a redesigned costume, and a renewed emphasis on mystery and crime.

Infantino’s art made the change feel immediate. His Batman was sleek, elegant and modern, and this page is a great example of why I’ve always wanted one.

As for the stories?

Well, of course, not long after that, the TV show came along.

Things got silly again.

But that’s another tale.

Batman Day, an annual event, is Saturday, September 19.

Batman went from a specimen in an interplanetary zoo to a somewhat more grounded superhero, complete with the new Bat-symbol — and a bigger, bolder logo for the comic itself. (It’s obvious from those early issues that consistency in the placement of the Bat-symbol was still a little sketchy.)

Gil Kane — Not Pulling Punches

Original Art and The Artists

Detective Comics #374, April 1968

Nobody threw a punch quite like Gil Kane.

Not John Buscema. Not John Romita Sr.. Not even Jack Kirby.

When Gil’s heroes—or villains—cut loose, the poor victim didn’t just get hit. They came flying out of the panel toward you, arms and legs flailing, like they were trying (and failing) to stop themselves from being launched right out of the comic book.

A few years ago, Howard Chaykin—who got his start as Gil’s assistant—and I did a convention panel on swipes. We put together dozens of examples of Gil’s signature punch. Each one choreographed like he was inventing a brand-new dance.

Some of them were almost identical.

Sometimes in the same issue.

Sometimes on the same page.

Didn’t matter.

What mattered was this: when Gil threw a punch… it landed.

And this past Monday would have been Gil’s 100th birthday. Feels like a good time to remember how hard those punches still hit.

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

Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella — Batman Of Two Worlds

Original Art and The Artists

DC Comics Presents: Batman #1, September 2004

Batman meets… Batman?

In this goofy, but fun 2004 comic tale, why not?  (It’s a tribute to DC Editor Julius Schwartz who died earlier that year.)

It’s the final published Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella Batman artwork (story by Geoff Johns) and this cool page features both the “real” Batman and the TV version.

A nice pick-up from fellow collector Steve Lipsky.

I apparently missed these Schwartz tribute comics when they first appeared 20 years ago, so now I’m going down that rabbit hole. (There were eight one-shot issues, and they’ve never been collected together.) This specific Batman one-shot does however appear in the 2014 Infantino Batman hardcover collection.

Maybe I would change my mind if I saw the original art without the coloring, but as of now, this might be my least favorite Adam Hughes cover of all time. Robin looks like a bizarre cross between Tim Drake and Carrie Kelley.
Classic comic book circulation numbers are wild. Nearly 500,000 copes sold, BEFORE Batman had his own TV show.

Matt Wagner — Roping In Bizarro

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, September 2003

Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, 2003

Here’s a great Matt Wagner splash featuring Wonder Woman doing her best to rein in Bizarro. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t go all that well.

Wagner delivers page after page of visual dynamics and terrific storytelling in this underrated series featuring DC’s “Big Three.”

The only thing I don’t like: The “official” book title, which is a bit long and definitely not obvious. (Publishers occasionally forget that readers have to be able easily find the title at retail. Trust me on this.)

Happy Halloween —all month long!

Paul Pope — The Cat, Sans Bat

Original Art and The Artists

Catwoman #7, July 2002

Black and white — and read all over:

Paul Pope delivers a stunning Catwoman cover for Ed Brubaker’s great run from the early aughts.  Smartly, the art/editorial decision makers kept the published cover in its original black and white state, with just a hint of red color applied after the fact. (Blood, naturally.) Pope did a series of these covers for the Brubaker run — all terrific.

Pope’s best known “mainstream” comic book is Batman Year 100 (2006), a wild ride into the bat-future; it would be lovely to see him return to the character at some point.

Looks like the new updated version of the out-of-print Pope art book (coming later this year from Boom!) has a cover with same black/white/red color scheme! Nice.

(Pro tip: Don’t want to draw feet? Bleed the legs off the page…)
A great series — with terrific coloring by the masterful Jose Villarrubia. (In case you thought we ONLY liked B&W.)

Batman Day, 2024

Original Art and The Artists

September 21, 2024

In honor of Batman Day — and the caped crusader’s 85th birthday — here’s a link to all the posts that have featured Batman and his cast of colorful allies — and even more colorful villains:

https://greggoldsteincomicartgallery.com/?s=batman

We’ve been celebrating the Dark Knight throughout the month of September; one more bat-post to load next week, and then it’s off to October and monsters and ghouls, et al.

Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Berni Wrightson — Batman Redo, Aliens Too

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Aliens #1, March 1997

Swamp Thing #7 is one my favorite single issues, ever.

Don’t get me wrong: I loved all of Wrightson’s Swamp Thing through the first six issues, each of which I bought directly from the candy store or newsstand. (And #8-10 are just as good.)

But Batman?! Drawn by Berni?  Wow. That Cape. Those ears. Just… wow.  

I knew we would likely never see Wrightson on a conventional superhero title, so this was one special book. Flash forward nearly 25 years, and Berni revisits Batman once again with this cool Aliens crossover. It’s not Berni circa 1973 of course, but still great. I’m delighted that I stumbled onto this large art page last year. 

And that half splash bottom panel? I knew that Batman pose looked familiar…