Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery
Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
The World Around Us #30 — Undersea Adventures, February 1961
A salute to all veterans, past and present. Thank you. Happy Veterans Day.
(This cool page is from a a multi-issue story on D-Day that ran in this Classics Illustrated sister title. Which is how you end up with a a back-up story on paratroopers in a book titled “Undersea Adventures.” Lovely pencils and inks by the talented Evans.)
Corriere dei Ragazzi (Italy), July 7, 1974
Sean Connery’s likeness as James Bond has only appeared onceofficially in comic book storytelling. Classics Illustrated adapted Dr. No, the very first Bond film, into a comic book in 1962, and only published in the UK. It was ultimately licensed to DC and appears in the US as Showcase #43.
In 1974, Connery’s Bond makes an unofficial — an absolutely unauthorized — comeback in an Italian comic book series Gli Aristocratici (The Aristocrats) featuring the lounge and cheek gentlemen thieves who play a modern vision of Robin Hood’s merry men, donating their thefts to charity.
In this story, from the second year of the long running strip beautifully illustrated by the late Ferdinando Tacconi, the gang helps out Bond —and foils a familiar-looking villain along the way.
After an 18-month delay, No Time To Die, the fifth — and final— Daniel Craig installment of the franchise, launches this Friday, October 8. And no offense to Mr. Connery — or to my childhood — but at this point, Craig’s version of Bond is my personal favorite.
Don’t shoot me.
War of the Worlds Poster, Preliminary Concept, 2019
Continuing a two-week series celebrating Halloween with the best in monsters, mystery and mayhem.
Greg Hildebrandt turned 80-years old this year, and from his creative output, enthusiasm, and energy, you would absolutely not know it. He can run circles around many creators half his age.
Any age, actually.
Greg’s striking painted covers for Marvel Comics, and his retro-but-contemporary American Beauties pin-up series are just a few examples among the many recent works that prove the point – with an exclamation mark. One of the world’s best-known and accomplished fantasy artists continues to dazzle.
Among the many, many projects he is developing involves film posters. Greg is taking horror and SF movie classics he loves, and reimagining their posters as if he had painted them in the first place. War of the Worlds (1953) is one of those, and this piece is one rough concept (color pencils) for his painted version, date TBD.
And of course, Greg knows a few things about movie posters. He and his late brother Tim painted one of the most iconic posters in movie history — The “B” Poster for Star Wars. (Greg reimagined that poster solo last year.) More on that next month.
I had the good fortune to spend time with Greg at NYCC and Baltimore Comic Con this year and he anecdotally summed up his amazing career:
“As an eight-year old, I loved to draw monsters, girls and rockets — and I still do.”
Sing along with Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money” and swap out the words. You may never get that earworm out of your head.
Footnote: Ok, so I know that the reimagining of a classic film poster is not actually original comic book art, but War of The Worlds has a solid legacy in comics ...
Footnote Extra: War of The Worlds will be forever linked with Halloween — On October 31,1938 Orson Welles broadcast a live radio dramatization, treating the HG Wells classic as a breaking news story out of New Jersey. It scared the daylights out of radio listeners, especially New York metro area residents. Fake news for real.
Twilight Zone #64, July 1975
Stay with me here:
I’ve always wanted to own an original cover painting by the amazing George Wilson, whose covers graced Magnus Robot Fighter, Turok, Doctor Solar and so many others, primarily for Gold Key and Classics Illustrated. In fact, the original art of my favorite painted cover — The Classics version of H.G. Wells Time Machine — appeared at auction just a few years ago. And rapidly escalated out of my price range.
Soon after, waves of other covers attributed to Wilson were also offered at auction. Many of these were selling at much more affordable prices. Vague provenance. Lesser titles. Later issues. Etc.
I glanced at many of the covers for sale, appreciated them, but pretty much overlooked them.
Then this one caught my eye — a cover for Twilight Zone. A subway scene creatively composed and nicely lit. Made me nostalgic for my New York City days. The “killer graffiti” concept seemed a bit out there, even by Twilight Zone standards, but, so what? Even if not actually “deadly,” graffiti was a giant problem during that period in New York… I remember it all too well.
I examined the painting closer. The train’s design is clearly based on an actual NYC subway car of that era, not a “generic” one. It’s the Number 7 train. Runs cross town Manhattan to Queens — a subway I had taken many times as a kid to comic book conventions at the landmark Commodore Hotel at Grand Central Station. The Commodore was the home of many historic fan conventions. Funny coincidence.
Date of the published comic book: July 1975.
July 1975? That was the final appearance of Phil Seuling’s New York Comic Art Convention at the financially struggling Commodore. It’s a convention I remember fondly. The Industry was still buzzing about Jack Kirby’s return to Marvel Comics, announced just a few months earlier, at Marvel’s own convention, also at the Commodore.
Ok, owning this painting was meant to be, whether Wilson actually painted it or not. The actual story in the issue mattered not at all, but this specific cover image, at this specific time and place, certainly did. Sold.
What ultimately became of the struggling Commodore Hotel you ask? Well… The young son of a very successful New York real-estate developer, looking for his first project he could call his own, persuaded NYC to give him a 40-year tax abatement if he renovated and re-opened the landmark hotel. Abatement in hand, he took the deal to the Hyatt corp., and convinced them to partner with him to make the deal a reality.
His name? Donald Trump.
And this is a story that could only happen…in the Twilight Zone.
