Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Chuck Dixon

Butch Guice — Alternate Vision

Original Art and The Artists

Storming Paradise #5, July 2009

General Patton dramatically fires on… Japanese soldiers? 

In this alternate reality version of World War II, anything is possible. America’s atomic test goes horribly wrong in New Mexico, and the US is unable to produce a working A-Bomb. So the only way to attempt to defeat the Japanese forces is to invade.

Created by Chuck Dixon and Jackson “Butch” Guice the series ran into some scheduling and deadline challenges. At a minimum, there was a six-month gap between issues #4 and #5.

Hence, other artists were called in to help out. Some pages — like this one — look 100 percent Guice, and others, less so. Rich Burchett gets credits for pencils this issue but I’m guessing that many pages are rough breakdowns only.

But like I said, that’s a guess.

Guice ‘s art style has changed dramatically over the years. I enjoyed his early superhero work, but I find his contemporary “photo-realistic” style more appealing.

And perfect for a series that features the aforementioned General Patton, Harry Truman, George HW Bush and other recognizable historical figures.

Even if that history actually never happened.

Paul Gulacy — Toys For The Holidays (Part 3)

Original Art and The Artists

GI Joe Special Missions #4, June 2013

When I was a kid, G.I. Joe never looked like this.

Of course, there’s an easy explanation for that.  I grew up with the original Joe’s somewhat vanilla representations of America’s fighting forces. I loved them, as did most of my friends, but character development was not in the 60s line-up.

Characters like “bad girl” Baroness here were the result of Hasbro’s re-introduction and revamp of the brand in 1982.  Marvel Comics was essentially paid to create colorful heroes and even more colorful bad guys. And they delivered, mainly with the creativity and guidance of writer Larry Hama.

The rest, as they say (Ok, I say it a lot) is history.

IDW became publisher of record shortly after I cane on board in 2008, and has had some terrific success with various iterations during the last dozen years.

This Special Missions series is a fine example, with script by Chuck Dixon and terrific visual storytelling by fan favorite Paul Gulacy. 

I acquired a few pages from this series, including this dynamic splash, but another one of these pages comes with a unusual annecdote, which I will share down the road. (I’d bet you can’t wait, but I’d lose.)

And so, 2020 finally comes to an end. Whew. Here’s looking forward to a much better 2021. We will be back on Thursday, January 7, with a special year-opening series on… well… that will be telling. See you soon, and thanks again for visiting.

The original G.I. Joe included a desert jeep and related gear, capitalizing on the brief success of the Rat Patrol television series. I was obsessed with this vehicle.
Cobra’s Baroness started out as a sexy character back in the 80s, but became even sexier as figure design and sculpting moved into the digital age.

Graham Nolan — Widescreen

Original Art and The Artists

Detective Comics #0, October 1994

Graham Nolan delivers an action-packed three-panel page from the peak period of the his and Chuck Dixon’ Batman run in the early 90s. This is of course the same dynamic duo that brought us the supervillain Bane a year earlier.

(I still break into a cold sweat from that page where Bane breaks Batman’s back. But I digress.)

I’m fascinated that 100 percent horizontal panel layouts took such a long time to become more commonplace, especially given the frequent storytelling relationship between comic books and film. Although Hollywood introduced widescreen in the 50s (a marketing ploy primarily to lure audiences away from their TV sets) the square format panel was standard for many years.

Now of course the horizontal panel layout is ubiquitous, but even in 1993 it stood out among the crowd. And this one specifically is a dynamic example of how it can enhance the action.

(All The Batman books had “Zero” issues as part of the broader Zero Hour DC crossover event.)

Fun fact #1: 

The first bar I ever (illegally) hung out at as a kid in my Long Island hometown was built by Graham’s grandfather — who had sold it by then. (Pub still there, by the way, hopefully it will survive Covid.)

Fun fact #2:

My pal Joey Cavalieri and I both had an English HS teacher who was a classic barfly at said bar. (Good teacher though).

But these are stories for another day.