Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Dan Jurgens

Stuart Immonen — Bizarro Returns

Original Art and The Artists

Superman #87, March 1994

Stuart Immonen — guest penciling in Dan Jurgen’s regular slot — has some fun with Bizarro, and the rest of the Superman cast in this two-part story from 1994.

This is only the second appearance of Bizarro in the “modern” superman era. John Byrne used the character in the Man of Steel mini-series (#5) and promptly destroyed him.

Spoiler alert: Lex Luthor resurrects the Superman cloning idea in this issue, and things don’t go much better. (Although I guess Bizarro lasts two issues instead of just one this time around, so there’s that.)

I definitely dig Immonen’s art — but if you thought Jurgens drew Mr. Kent with a big mane of hair, definitely check out Stuart’s version. Superman’s hair starts big in issue #87 and might even be fuller and longer by #88. 

Definitely ready for a time-travel trip to the Hyborian age.

Happy Halloween —all month long!

Superman was in his long hair phase in these days and artist Immonen was not messing around. (Pages from issue #87 and #88.)
John Byrne’s reboot of Superman brought Bizarro back for one issue in the original Man Of Steel mini-series, but he was toast by the end of the issue.

Brian Stelfreeze — Zero Hour, Plus 30

Original Art and The Artists

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #31, September 1994

Brian Stelfreeze provides this amazing “Golden Age” style cover for a Batman story in the 1994 Zero Hour event. The “original” portly Alfred suddenly reappears (from another timeline) — and, spoiler alert — disappears at the end of the story.

No matter: Stelfreeze’s cover painting is terrific, and Brian purposely added all the stains and scratches to give it an aged look.

Bonus: I can cover up his signature and no one realizes Brian painted it; it’s (obviously) nothing like his traditional painting style.

Zero Hour — The first large-scale crossover event at DC since Crisis on Infinite Earths, is celebrating its 30thanniversary. It’s a timeline event, designed primarily to clean up some continuity holes left behind by “Crisis.” Some get fixed, some don’t, but it’s a fun crossover, regardless. (And of course I’m biased, because pal Dan Jurgens wrote and drew the original mini-series.  A brand new 30th anniversary special featuring a new story by Dan and Ron Marz landed on shelves last week.)

Alfred makes his first appearance in Batman #16; He loses weight a year or so later when a thinner actor is cast in the role in the first Batman movie serial.

John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson— Heroes Return!

Original Art and The Artists

Thor #1, July 1998

It’s the Avengers vs. the Destroyer in this great action page from the first issue of the underrated reboot of the Thor mythos. Dan Jurgens wrote the series and John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson provided the visual storytelling for the launch.

Cool bonus feature: Both artists signed the page the year the issue was published.

Marvel definitely floundered after the Image exodus in 1991, but by the late 90s stated putting the comic book pieces back together as evidenced here and in the launch of the Marvel Knights imprint, produced by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. The Ultimate universe came along a few years later, and the rest, as they say is history.

Dan Jurgens & Bill Sienkiewicz — Doomed, Again

Original Art and The Artists

Superman: Day of Doom #3, January 2003

Marking the 10th anniversary of the Death and Return of Superman, Dan Jurgens and Bill Sienkiewicz tackled a four-issue retrospective mini-series titled, appropriately, Day of Doom.

Bill’s unmistakable inks make the situation even more horrific this second time around. (This is one of the best pages in the series, as it features all four Superman characters who “returned.”)

Happy Halloween indeed — and welcome to the 30th anniversary of the Death of Superman.

How did that happen?

Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund— Infinite Supermen

Original Art and The Artists

Countdown #40, September 2007

Dan Jurgens drawing Superman? Excellent. 

Dan Jurgens drawing seven different Supermen on one splash page? Absolutely terrific.

I’ve lost the thread on the DC multiverse. Is it infinite these days or finite? Do all versions exist simultaneously, or at different points in the timeline? 

It doesn’t really matter. As a long-ago former CEO of mine would say, this kind of pondering can make you reach for the Excedrin. 

(And, trust me on this, he had the largest bottle of Excedrin I’ve have seen to this day. It must have been a special order. But, as always, we digress.)

Fun fact: In Dan’s and inker Norm Rapmund’s original art, the Superman just to the left of “our” Superman, looks a bit like Jimmy Olsen to me. The coloring clearly modified the face in the published version.

Dan Jurgens & Jerry Ordway — Chewbacca, RIP

Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars: Chewbacca #1, January 2000

A long time ago, in continuity far, far away, Chewbacca apparently does not make it to the conclusion of the Star Wars Saga.

And the classic team of Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway beautifully illustrate this mournful moment in a rare departure from their more common DC team-ups.

I realize we can be broken records about this, but the coloring obviously doesn’t do the art true justice. It might look good on a computer screen, but as for the final printed version… not so much.

This was a DF exclusive to this Dark Horse comic published in 2000.

Of course any storyline that Chewbacca died flies out the window with all the other post Return of The Jedi continuity, once Disney purchases Lucasfilm and declares all the previous “cannon,” non-canonical.

Which is good for Chewie, of course, but not necessarily the rest of the Star Wars Saga.

(As a side note, Marvel has indeed done some terrific comics since reacquiring the license. But tossing out 30 years of stories, in comics and novels, some of them quite excellent… well… I have no words.)

Dan Jurgens And Bob McLeod — Flashback

Original Art and The Artists

Domination Factor: Fantastic Four #1and #2, December 1999

Dan Jurgens has some fun with time travel in this clever interlocking mini-series featuring the FF and The Avengers.

The part of the story that takes place in the contemporary era (1999) sees Dan storytelling in his traditional artistic style. But when time travel is involved, Dan and inker Bob McLeod purposely ape Jack Kirby. (And Joe Sinnot.) As you can see from the pages below, Dan and Bob re-do the top panel from FF 94, 30 years prior. And then the story takes a turn — literally — as The Thing realizes that Dr. Strange’s time spell has worked.

Bonus points: The pages are hand-lettered by the talented John Costanza. Although John came on board at Marvel too late to work on the original Lee and Kirby Fantastic Four run, he did in fact letter the Lee and Kirby “reunion” Silver Surfer graphic novel. Close enough in my book to at least earn a no-prize.

  • Kirby Original
  • Jurgens and McLeod

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!