Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Batman

Dan Jurgens / Norm Rapmund — No Joke

Original Art and The Artists

Booster Gold #21, August 2009

Part five of a multi-part series celebrating Batman’s 80th birthday.

Booster Gold goes back in time to save Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) from being crippled as depicted in Alan Moore’s classic Killing Joke. Of course it doesn’t work, and of course, this being a Booster Gold comic, things go from bad to worse. Batman (at this point in the timeline, Dick Grayson) is none too happy.

Jurgens wrote much of this Booster Gold series, and he plays to his own specific artistic skills and interests. I enjoy the storytelling here, as well as the expression on Booster’s face, a combination of dismay and disappointment as he explains his failure to Batman. And extending Batman’s “ears” into the upper panel is a clever and splashy touch.

The New 52 reboot ended this series a few years later, which was unfortunate. It combined action and wit (and mind-bending time paradoxes) avoiding outright camp or satire while providing a joyful and thoughtful ride through the DC time stream. 

John Byrne — Riddle Me This

Original Art and The Artists

Batman 3D Graphic Novel, May 1990

Part three of a multi-part series celebrating Batman’s 80thbirthday.

I missed this story, published nearly 30 years ago, the first time around. I don’t care much for 3D in media — comics, film, etc. And this cover didn’t do anything for me. I probably never even noticed that it contained a new story by Byrne, since his credit is poorly noted at the bottom. I’m guessing I thought it was a straight reprint collection at the time.

Well, the joke is on me. This is great Byrne Batman art, a fact that’s pretty obvious when examining the original pages.

The story itself is fine and, in support of plot, Byrne brings in Two-Face, Joker, Penguin, and of course, the Riddler. Art-wise though, the 52-page story is gem, featuring many catchy and dynamic pages. Byrne may have created the story to take advantage of 3D effects, but it works perfectly well in traditional form, as evidenced by its recent black and white reprinting in the DC Universe by John Byrne Omnibus (2017).

But… Black and White? No budget for color? Batman? John Byrne? Really?

Hey DC — how about coloring it for its 30thanniversary next year and issuing it in deluxe format one-shot?

If that doesn’t make a few nickels, nothing will.

Enrique Alcatena — Haunting Homage

Original Art and The Artists

Batman of Arkham #1 (Elseworlds one-shot), June, 2000

When you think of homages — or outright swipes — to classic comic book covers, a few classic and obvious issues come to mind:

  • Action #1
  • Fantastic Four #1
  • X-men #141

But there’s an issue slightly less obvious that  may be the record holder with the most homages, especially with the same character:

Detective #31 (1939) by Bob Kane is just the third Batman cover ever, and a great one. It inspired Neal Adams to create his own version about thirty years later, and at that point, the floodgates opened. See below for as near a complete gallery as I could assemble. (Some are looser than others, but they all aim to capture the spirit of original cover.)

Meanwhile, on this gorgeous original cover by Alcatena (why isn’t he doing more comic book work?!) third time was a charm for me. I was under-bidder when it came up at auction. Shortly thereafter, when a major art dealer had it for sale, I missed it, and it sold again.

But that owner only had the cover a short while before he sold (or traded) it back to the same dealer, and this time I quickly managed to stake my claim on this beautifully detailed cover.

  • Original homage by Adams
  • Neal adams homage to… Neal Adams
  • Matt Wagner
  • Tony Harris
  • Klaus Janson
  • Freddie Williams III
  • Michael Cho
  • Joe DeVito
  • Frank Quietly
  • Recreation by Murphy Anderson
  • Brian Stelfreeze
  • Commission — Unpublished
    by Marc Hempel
  • Commission — Unpublished
    by Sheldon Moldoff
  • Commission — Unpublished
    by Kelly Jones
  • Commission — Unpublished
    by Dave Devries
  • Anniversary Litho by Tim Doyle

And a few from non-Batman titles…

Tim Sale — “Mrrow!”

Original Art and The Artists

Batman: The Long Halloween, #6, June 1997 

Wait.

It’s November 1, and we’re still discussing Halloween?

Of course — we are talking about Batman: The Long Halloween, one of the greatest long-form (13 issues) Batman stories ever created. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale craft an inventive and gorgeous story that takes place early in Batman’s career, centered on a serial killer who only kills on holidays. 

The story also features the Calendar Man, once a silver age joke, who taunts the caped crusader in the manner of Hannibal Lechter. He knows who the murderer is, but will only provide tantalizing and taunting clues, not the killer’s actual identity.

On this great action page, Catwoman attacks Poison Ivy in an attempt to break her spell over Bruce Wayne, but the somewhat hypnotized Bruce breaks Catwoman herself from the attack.

Mrrow indeed!

(And happy anniversary Mr. Wayne. Our next few posts are in honor of your 80th year as the Caped Crusader.)

Neal Adams — Happy Batman Day

Original Art and The Artists

Convention Commission, 2012

We interrupt our multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio in honor of today’s “Batman Day” (9/21) celebration. Our regularly scheduled programming will continue tomorrow.

Neal Adams first Batman story appeared more than 50 years (!) ago in World’s Finest Comics #175. The art blew my mind then, and still does today. Happy Batman Day, Neal, and thanks for all of it!

Tomorrow, we conclude our multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio with none other than “the Dude” — artist Steve Rude.

Kevin Altieri — Happy New Year!

Original Art and The Artists

Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1, January 1995

This is a terrific three-page Batman / Joker sequence from the amazing Batman Animated team: Story by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, art by Kevin Altieri. Kevin is primarily known for his role as an award-winning director and storyboard artist for Batman and other animated series. As such, Kevin’s done little actual comic book work. As this sequence clearly illustrates, that’s a shame.

Kevin Altieri:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0022828/