Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Captain America

Shaky Kane — Of Bubblegum & Kings

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America, Jack Kirby Tribute, August 2024

Marvel’s superhero business “blew up” in 1966. A cliché, maybe. But thanks to the Marvel cartoons airing in nationwide syndication that fall, Marvel’s licensing and merchandising business went from pretty much from negligible to ubiquitous, overnight.

I loved those cartoons. I didn’t fully understand that they were pretty much “animating” on the cheap by mostly directly lifting and moving around the actual comic book pages and panels, and at six-years old I didn’t care. (Technically, these cartoons are not much more than primitive motion comics.)

I bought a lot of that merch. The comics of course, were the main thing. But the cards. And the stickers. Dumb gags I admit. But I loved the Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al, art in miniature.

So, when I saw Shaky Kane’s original painted tribute to Marvel “bubblegum” cards at the Jack Kirby art exhibit in LA this past summer, it knocked me out, flooding me with (literally) sweet memories.

Unfortunately, it had already sold. This bummed me out of course, until one of my pals with me that day, the brilliant (and extremely logical) designer Stan Madaloni, said to me:  

“Why don’t you reach out to him see if he’ll make another one for you.”

Uh. Duh.

Shaky agreed, and, although I hate to use another cliché, the rest, is in fact, history.

The second one is now fortunately, and gratefully, in my possession.

Both Donruss and Philadelphia Gum (“Swell”) beat Topps to the punch in the Marvel business in 1967, with cards and stickers respectively. Topps found a way in with the odd Marvel Flyers collection (designs from Wally Wood’s studio) and the mini-comics satire “Krazy Little Comics”, with art by Wood, Gil Kane and others. (Scripts by Roy Thomas.)

Final thoughts: If I could go back in time and tell seven-year Greg that he would one day work for both Topps AND Marvel, he’d probably tell me I’m nuts and chase me away.

What a trip.

John Cassaday — Red, White & Blue

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America #6, December 2002

John Cassaday’s great art from Captain America seems like a good way to celebrate Independence Day.

And that makes me Captain Obvious, so that’s all I have to say about that.

Have a great 4th of July! (And if you see me, yes I will be wearing My Captain America shield shirt.)

I don’t know if this is an apocryphal  quote or not from Captain America’s co-creator, and don’t much care, because from what I know about Jack he certainly could have said it. Like they say: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

John Buscema — Avengers Melee

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers #44, September 1967

The legendary John Buscema took over the regular art chores on The Avengers a few issues prior to this one, and quickly makes the series his own. 

In this second part of the story that introduces the Red Guardian to the Marvel Universe, we present a terrific action page that pretty much captures the melee madness of the cover.

(Spoiler alert: Turns out the Black widow wasn’t really a widow. But, as always, we digress.)

Welcome to the 60th anniversary (!) of the Avengers, who debuted as a team in 1963. 

To be continued…

Ron Garney — Hero Worship

Original Art and The Artists

Amazing Spider-Man #537, February 2007

Here’s a key splash page from Marvel’s Civil War. Captain America has convinced Peter that the resistance is on the “right” side of this epic crossover conflict.

When the conversation is over in this tie-in , Garney treats us to an epic splash of Spidey swinging into action.

Birds, and all.

John Romita Jr. — Does The Costume Make The Hero?

Original Art and The Artists

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #3, July 2007

“Classic” Hawkeye (Clint Barton) — briefly takes on the guise of Captain America, while Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye looks on disapprovingly in this terrifically moody page by John Romita Jr. (With the Patriot — Eli Bradley — in the mix for good measure.)

Confused? You might have to catch up to a few storylines to get this point including the first Young Avengers series, as well as the Civil War and Death of Captain America stories and follow-ups. Ultimately, the resolution of this story leads to some additional key plot points in Hawkeye’s modern career.

Given Kate’s star billing in the new Hawkeye series, along with the other character intros we’ve already seen in the MCU, I have a feeling we will be hearing from the entire “Young Avengers” team in the near future.

Trust me on this.

George Perez — Infinity… And Beyond

Original Art and The Artists

Infinity Gauntlet #3, September 1991

George Perez delivers what George Perez does best: Multiple characters with terrific detail, and imaginative “camera angles” on this great page from the original Infinity Gauntlet mini-series.

It’s almost impossible to believe that this week marks the 2-year anniversary of Avengers Endgame, which wrapped up the Gauntlet saga, and the “early” phases of the MCU. Except for the December 2019 Spider-Man: Far from Home flick (which although in the greater MCU, is a SONY production) no Marvel films in two years just seems… wrong. Thanks, pandemic.

The good news is that we’ve had two quality TV series in recent months, with another one launching in a month.  And if my math is correct, because of delays and rescheduling, there are four Marvel films to debut this year, and four more scheduled for next year.

Whew.

The bad news — if there is any — is that Marvel is setting up so many potential storylines at this point that we are going to have to keep a character encyclopedia and Gantt chart with us at all times.

Dark Avengers?

Thunderbolts?

Young Avengers?

House of M?

Kree Skrull War?

Secret Invasion?

A Multiverse thread in both Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, at a minimum.

Plus, Kang as the next “big bad?”

Like I said… whew.

It’s one thing to accomplish all of this in 80 or so monthly comic books. It’s another to do it in filmed media. But if anyone can, I think Marvel and Disney might pull it off.

Fasten your seat belts…

Despite the comics inclusion of many characters that are not in the MCU version of Infinity Gauntlet / Endgame, this Perez page does highlight three of the films’ most important heroes: Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man.

Steve Rude — American Idol

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America: What Price Glory #4, May 2003

Concluding our tribute to Captain America’s 80th anniversary.

Ah Las Vegas.

The only place where you are likely to find a giant statue of Captain America, yes? But even Las Vegas wouldn’t have accepted a giant statue of the Red Skull — swastikas and all. (Imagine a giant Patton statue facing off against a giant Rommel sculpture. It does not compute. ) It’s a rare slip in an otherwise fun Cap mini-series penned by Bruce Jones with beautiful visual storytelling by Steve Rude and Mike Royer.

And the good news is that the Skull statue that gets blown to smithereens on this great splash page, anyway.

Happy 80th Mr. Rogers!

In addition to the obvious Jack Kirby references throughout, Rude manages to work in a Steranko homage on the opening page of the issue. Meanwhile JG Jones delivers a surprisingly boring and stiff painting of Cap on the cover, which, to make matters worse, looks like it belongs to a completely different series altogether.

Mike Zeck — Will The Real Captain America Please Stand Up?

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America #279, March 1983

Captain America vs.… Captain America?

The “impersonation” trope is one of my favorites in comics, and a long-standing tradition in Marvel’s history. In fact, the first time Captain America “appears” in the Silver Age in Strange Tales #114, it’s not Captain America at all. It’s a Human Torch villain, The Acrobat, in disguise. 

And this trope was consistently employed throughout the early Marvel Comics. The Skrulls impersonate the Fantastic Four in issue #2, The Chameleon impersonates Spider-Man in ASM #1, and the Avengers are nearly defeated by the shape-changing Space Phantom in issue #2 of their launch title. 

Stan was obsessed with this concept, apparently.

For the record, here on this terrific action page by Mike Zeck and John Beatty, the uniformed Cap is the “real” one.  The clown impersonating Steve Rogers is Primus, The Mutate. 

File that under: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Zeck drew one of the most iconic images of the era: Captain America vs. Wolverine.

Dan Jurgens — Classic Melee

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America #37, January 2001

Dan Jurgens delivers a dynamic and powerful splash of Captain America fighting the hordes of Hydra. Whenever I look at this page, I’m reminded of Jim Steranko’s great double page spreads of Cap in action against similar — or — greater odds. 

Dan’s splash is not a swipe — and possibly not even a purposeful homage — but its energy captures the spirit of that great Steranko run. 

This is the part where I should swipe Stan Lee and say “Nuff said, “ except I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other main figure on the page who appears at first glance to be The Red Guardian. 

He is not. He is, in fact, “Protocide,” an early super soldier experiment retconned into Cap’s continuity — and pretty much retconned out, after the Jurgens run ended.

Now I can say it:

“Nuff Said.”

Steranko’s great splashes always had Cap in mid-air, performing improbable acrobatics against impossible odds!

John Cassaday — The First Avenger

Original Art and The Artists

Fallen Son: The Death Of Captain America #5, August 2007

John Cassaday — a fan favorite artist if ever there was one — delivers a striking double-page splash of the Silver Age Avengers, with Captain America dominating the scene.

In the original comic, it was the Avengers that discovered the World War 2 legend floating in suspended animation in (essentially) a large ice cube. Of course, they never would have found him if it wasn’t for another Golden Age icon, Namor the Sub-Mariner, but as always, we digress.

This rendering actually combines multiple 60s Avengers line-ups into one image; The Hulk quit in a huff at the end of issue #2, fought against the team in issue #3, and was MIA by the time Cap thawed out in issue #4.

Cassaday’s art is stunning throughout this issue, but, biasedly perhaps, I think this is by far the best page(s) among many great ones.

The spread has appeared as both a poster and a limited edition Giclee, so, clearly it’s had some impact.

Assemble indeed!

In short order, Cap returned to the Marvel line-up, received his own solo feature, and then a few years later, his own series. (Picking up the numbering from Tales of Suspense.)