Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Catwoman

Darwyn Cooke & Mike Allred — Cat Got Your Tongue?

Original Art and The Artists

Catwoman #3, March 2002

Darwyn Cooke drew only four “regular” issues of Catwoman.

Four.

Yes, there was also “Trail of the Catwoman” in Detective Comics, and the terrific Selina’s Big Score. But still, it wasn’t nearly enough.

Ed Brubaker and Darwyn gave us a terrific version of Selina Kyle. Smart, stylish, funny and noirish, with a costume that was both sexy — and, for a change, a bit more practical.

She finally looked like someone who could actually leap across rooftops without losing parts of her wardrobe.

This page, inked by Mike Allred, is a great example of Darwyn’s storytelling. Two small panels to set things up, followed by one big payoff.

Simple. Clear. Terrific.

And, of course, Catwoman owns the page.

I’ve featured Darwyn’s work on the blog many times: Parker, The Spirit, and those wonderful classic comic-book reinterpretations he apparently created to “relax.”

(Most of us relax differently. But I digress.)

Darwyn’s Catwoman run was much too short. Sadly, so was Darwyn’s time on planet Earth. He died in 2016 at the age of 53.

He was one of the greatest cartoonists of his generation, despite entering the field relatively late, and I was fortunate to know him and work with him. I might be biased, but his Parker graphic novels (IDW Publishing) are some of the best ever published.

The man and his talent are very much missed. Fortunately, the art and the stories are still very much with us.

I’m thrilled that DC is finally publishing Batman by Darwyn Cooke: The Absolute Edition, collecting all of his extraordinary work with the Batman family in a format it deserves.

DC asked me to provide images of several pieces of Darwyn’s original art from my collection, and I happily obliged. Which pieces did they actually use in the finished book? Excellent question.

Apparently, even with a $125 cover price, their budget didn’t quite stretch far enough for a contributor copy. As a former publisher, I definitely recognize fiscal discipline, although this might be pushing that philosophy a bit too far.

No worries. I’ll contribute to the Warner Bros. bottom line as soon as I can get a copy.

Meanwhile, this page is a pretty good reminder of just how much Darwyn could accomplish in a very small amount of space.

And how much more we wish there had been.

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.

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.)

Jennifer Graves & J. Bone — Bats And Cats

Original Art and The Artists

Gotham Girls #1, October 2002

Batgirl fighting Catwoman? — seems like a great way to celebrate Halloween (upcoming) and Batman Day (belatedly) within a terrific action page by Jennifer Graves and the equally terrific J.Bone.

And, always a pleasant surprise to have a 21st Century piece of art with the word balloons hand lettered on the page.

Call me “old-school” all you want. It’s a compliment.

Fun fact: It took nearly 20 years for DC to collect this mini-series, and when they did they renamed it “Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls to capitalize on — you guessed it — Harley Quinn, who is by no means the centerpiece of the original series.

I can hear the Joker’s cackle from here.

Howard Chaykin — Breaking & Entering

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Catwoman: Follow The Money #1, January 2011

Batman picking a lock while Catwoman looks on?

Just perfect.

(And with dialog even more so, but I had not read the issue when I acquired the page.)

Such a fun page by my pal Howard. (In a one-shot issue edited by one of oldest friends, Joey Cavalieri. But as always, we digress.)

It is “Batman Day” today — and we’ll pay tribute to that with a few more Bats-related posts through the rest of the month.

Its also our 500th post(!) and there will more to say about that in the next few weeks as well.

HC and GG — At Long Beach Comic–Con Two weeks ago

The Batman — Random Thoughts, (Mostly) Spoiler Free

Original Art and The Artists

Much of “The Batman” is brilliant. It’s not necessarily my personal cup of Joe, but Matt Reeves has delivered an inventive and occasionally extraordinary film that incorporates elements of some great “contemporary” Batman comic book story lines and motifs. (Batman Year One, The Long Halloween, Cooke and Brubraker’s Catwoman, et al.) 

It’s nice to see the world’s greatest detective actually detecting again.

The cast is superb. Robert Pattinson as Batman was excellent.  I didn’t much care for his emo version of Bruce Wayne, but we hardly see him in the Bruce persona anyway.  (He also wins for best bat-jawline). Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano are also excellent, and Colin Farrell as the Robert DeNiro/Al Capone (Untouchables) version of the Penguin was good fun.  He definitely has enthusiasms.

Jeffrey Wright as “Lt. Gordon” also great. 

As for the story — I didn’t think it would be possible to incorporate Catwoman, Riddler and Penguin into one film without creating a bit of a mess; but the filmmakers made it work, and it worked pretty well.

And of course, developing the Riddler character as a serial killer is amazingly effective. Those real-life maniacs are always writing letters and taunting law enforcement so it was more than a logical character choice. Much of the first act of the film channels David Fincher’s Se7en and Zodiac. (Later on, it throws in elements of LA Confidential and Chinatown for good measure.)

As for the scarred side of the Two-Face coin?:

Upping the ante on Gotham as a modern Sodom and Gomorrah is wearying, even when done well.  Why does anyone with more than 50 cents to their name live there? What the hell is the draw? It rains all the damn time, the nights last 16 hours or more, and it apparently has the most ineffective police force in urban history. It’s clearly the most dangerous and corrupt city in the USA, and it makes NYC in the 70s seem like a gleaming paradise. It’s becoming its own cliché.

(I’m beginning to think Ra’s al Ghul was right. Wipe Gotham off the map and start over.)

And riddle me this? Why are the non-“rouges gallery” villains always portrayed as one-dimensional cartoon characters? From Burton to Nolan to Reeves: The mobsters in these films are mostly not believable as mobsters. (Not to mention the cops, especially “senior management.” Also cartoons.)

And the bodies… just keep piling up… and up… and up. Maybe someone should call the state police. Or the FBI. Or… anyone.

As for the length of the film…

“I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter. I didn’t have time to write you a short one.” – Blaise Pascal.

Seriously… it needed to be 20-30 minutes shorter. Do that and I think you not only have a terrific “superhero film”, but also a much more effective film, period.   (No offense, it’s not the Godfather, which clocks in at about the same length.) And I would have watched the “extended” version on HBO a year from now anyway.

One final thought. A few film critics and fans have called this movie a “film noir.”  

Nope.

Does it contain some of the tropes? Of course it does. So do a lot of films. (The whole dark and rainy thing again.) But, In actuality, you could argue the Batman’s arc in this film is the complete opposite of a film noir. 

If it really was a noir, Batman would have completely fallen for Catwoman, done something really stupid because of his infatuation, and ended up floating face down in Wayne Manor’s swimming pool or dying in a hail of bullets. 

Or, conversely, Bats would have done something “heroic” on Catwoman’s behalf that ultimately causes her to end up in a pool of her own blood.

And, spoiler alert (ok, I fibbed) they’re both alive at the end of the film.  

The franchise lives on.

Your father’s rogues gallery. (Mine, too.)

Kurt Schaffenberger — Golden Age Marvel

Original Art and The Artists

Whiz Comics # 129, January 1951

This week we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original Captain Marvel, (cover dated in 1940, although the issue likely appeared on most newsstands in late 1939) now known as Shazam.

Captain Marvel (Shazam to you kids) appears in every panel in this ebullient page pencilled and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger.

Schaffenberger went to work as an assistant in the Jack Binder studio in 1941 just as Fawcett’s Captain Marvel was soaring, eventually outselling DC’s Superman. When Schaffenberger returned from World War 2 military service, he ultimately penciled and inked complete stories.

His wholesome, uncluttered and often whimsical style was a perfect fit for Captain Marvel, who was nothing if not wholesome and whimsical.

Schaffenberger drew many of the stories that capped the end Captain Marvel’s amazing run — and 10 years of legal battles with DC.

In fact, despite the seemingly never-ending copyright lawsuit that alleged that the Big Red Cheese was a knockoff of Superman, The Captain outlasted many of his spandex-attired peers, publishing longer than most competitive superhero titles.

But, by 1954, declining sales meant that Fawcett no longer had the will to fight. They settled with DC, and called it a day for Captain Marvel.

As they say…  To Be Continued.

Fun Fact: After Fawcett left the superhero business, Schaffenberger ultimately went to work for DC, and became best known for his 10-year run on the Lois Lane series, setting the DC house style for the character for much of the silver age.

From the first issues to the last, Captain Marvel proved to be an immensely popular character.
Schaffenberger’s well-remembered run on Lois Lane includes the 1966 return of Catwoman (still wearing her Golden Age costume) to the DC Universe, (She was immensely popular on the Batman TV show at that point.) It’s a wild and wooly story with Lois hypnotized into thinking she’s Catwoman, and Superman transformed into a… black cat. No, really.
How far was DC behind Marvel editorially in 1966? Across town, the Fantastic Four had already tangled with the Silver Surfer, The Inhumans, Galactus, and oh, introduced a black cat of their own. A princely superhero from Wakanda called the Black Panther. Nuff said.
Captain Marvel became the very first superhero to appear on the silver screen, edging out Superman, Batman and others for the honor. It’s a pretty good serial featuring Tom Tyler and still very watchable today.

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.)