Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Dark Horse Comics

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.)

Facundo Percio & Dan Parsons — My Old Master, Revisited

Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars #14, February 2014

Here’s an absolutely iconic scene from the original Star Wars film. (“New Hope.”) Darth Vader faces his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, on the Death Star.  As any Star Wars fan knows, things don’t go well for old Ben. 

Or do they? 

It depends on a certain point of view, I suppose.

If you scan the word balloons, you’ll see that there’s a slight twist to this Dark Horse storyline, although I’m not going to be the one to spoil it for you.

Classic imagery

Impactful.

And, it bears repeating — iconic.

Paul Gulacy & P. Craig Russell — Empire In Crimson

Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars: Crimson Empire #1, December 1997

Paul Gulacy and P. Craig Russell provide creative storytelling (I love the top sequence) and excellent draftsmanship (of course) for the 1997 Dark Horse Series, Crimson Empire.

This is one of my favorite pages in the first issue, with Darth Vader landing and bowing before his master, The Emperor.

In other words, what’s not to like?

Classic. Just classic.

Jim Balkie — Empire’s End

Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars: Empire’s End #2, November 1995

Here’s a stunning Jim Balkie page from the Dark Horse mini-series, Star Wars: Empire’s End, a fitting sequel to the acclaimed Dark Empire saga.  

Both stories feature the writing of the talented Tom Veitch, although Cam Kennedy illustrated the Dark Empire series.

Each page — by either artist — is fully painted, and most of the originals I’ve seen, including this one, are terrific.

Nice Star Wars iconography on this page too, featuring Han and Leia, a great action shot of the Millennium Falcon, and of course the Emperor frying one of his officers who displeased him.

How did the Empire ever get anyone to sign up for the officer’s school?

Fun fact: The Emperor “lives” in this 90s saga because of — you guessed it — clones. If this storyline didn’t influence at least some of The Rise of Skywalker, well, we can chalk up to: “Great minds think alike.”

Ryan Kelly & Dan Parsons — Leia Flies In

Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars #8, August 2013

Once again, Leia takes control in this terrific page from the art team of Ryan Kelly and Dan Parsons.

The Princess grabs a ship and heads off on her own in this final classic saga series from Dark Horse (written by Brian Wood) before the rights reverted back to Marvel. 

Even If Lucas retconned his own work in the making of the original Trilogy, and decided that Leia was Luke’s sister after the fact, she’s the baddest ass of the bunch. She’s not to be taken for granted or trifled with, even if she doesn’t have “Force Powers.”

But I will say this: Her resistance to Vader’s torture droid on the Death Star makes more sense if she does.

Back here next week with more Star Wars.

Fun (or not-so fun) fact: We never actually see Leia pilot a ship in the classic trilogy, and we never see her Mom Padme fly on her own in the prequels either. But I guess Princesses typically have drivers?

Marvel rebrands the original Dark Horse comics with its own trade dress for print and digital collections.

Terry & Rachel Dodson — Leia Steps Up

Original Art and The Artists

Princess Leia #5, September 2015

Of all the characters in the classic (original trilogy) Star Wars Universe, Leia is the most intriguing.

Nearly all of the other characters in the saga are archetypes found in dozens, if not hundreds of myths, fables and tales. George Lucas revered the late author Joseph Campbell who dissects these concepts ad nauseum in in his brilliant and well-known tomes on mythology.

But Leia… She’s a bit off model, certainly from a Hollywood depiction of a damsel in distress. (Possibly with the exception of Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, who gets her act together in similar but less assertive fashion.)

As one pop culture podcaster put it recently: “She (Leia) hijacked her own rescue.”

And from there, it only gets better. She’s clearly the smartest, most pragmatic member of the Star Wars gang.  She’s also strong, decisive and strategic. And she can out wise-ass Han, no easy feat.

After Alderaan goes boom, Leia is the one holding entire rebellion together. No offense, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, or anyone else in the rebellion ruling class. It’s pretty clear Leia is a — pun intended — driving force of the story.

Here we have a knockout Star Wars page from Terry and Rachel Dodson featuring a lovely half splash of Leia. It’s from the eponymous — and terrific — Mark Waid-authored series, published not long after the franchise reverted back to Marvel from Dark Horse.

More on Leia on Thursday and Saturday.

See you then.

Paul Gulacy — Shaken…

Original Art and The Artists

James Bond 007: Serpent’s Tooth #2, August 1992

Until the last few years, James Bond’s appearances in comic books are rare. Added all together prior to 2016, they most definitely would not fill an omnibus.

Rights issues are always tricky with this franchise; although Eon Productions —and its merchandising arm, Danjaq — manages film rights, the literary property itself remains controlled by the Ian Fleming Estate. 

Which explains why this run at Dark Horse features a James Bond who doesn’t in fact look like any other Bond we’ve seen previously. In fact, here he looks a little bit like — Paul Gulacy.

Regardless, It’s great Gulacy page from a good-looking miniseries; even if this specific example looks like it would be more at home in an Indiana Jones comic book.

James Bond through the years in comics. (The experience was so distasteful for Howard Chaykin on For Your Eyes Only that he left Marvel Comics.)

Frank Miller — Deadly Tar

Original Art and The Artists

Sin City: The Big Fat Kill #4, February 1995

We continue with our month long celebration of the “Independents” — independent creators and projects that continue to impact the comic book medium.

Drowning in tar pits seems like a pretty rough way to go.

Then again, this is Frank Miller, and in the hardboiled world of Sin City, that form of murder might be preferable to some alternatives.

(In fairness, our “hero” Dwight ultimately makes it out alive. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but the Big Fat Kill is from 1995. 25 years seems like a fair amount of time to catch up on these things.)

Big Fat Kill (BFK) is the fourth of Miller’s Sin City sagas, and one of the three stories featured in the first Sin City film. I can’t recall if the tar pit scene made it into the movie or not. Guess it’s a good excuse to watch it again.

As for actually drowning in tar pits? According to my anecdotal research and sources, It’s harder than you might think.

But it makes for one very cool original art page, and, in this case, that’s what counts.

Clive Owen as Dwight McCarthy in the first Sin City film.
Miller’s Keynote address at the 1994 Diamond Conference is reprinted in issue #5 of BFK. It’s still impactful and important more than 25 years later. © Frank Miller, of course.

Mac Raboy — Conquers The Universe

Original Art and The Artists

Flash Gordon, Sunday Strip, July 30, 1961

Alex Raymond created Flash Gordon and set the standard for comic strip illustration.

Mac Raboy worshipped Raymond, and created his own impeccable standards for illustration during the Golden Age of comics with his astonishing craftsmanship on Captain Marvel Jr.

And then… serendipity takes a hand, and Raboy becomes the Sunday artist for Flash Gordon.

That Sunday run, started in 1946, and only ending with Raboy’s death in 1967, deserves consideration among the best looking SF strips of all time.

As for Captain Marvel Jr.?  Raboy’s covers are still among the greatest ever to appear in the medium.

Dark Horse has collected the complete Raboy Flash Gordon run into four attractive volumes.
Nearly 50 years later, Jim Steranko’s History of the Comics (Vol.2) features the best overview of Mac Raboy’s amazing Golden Age comics work on Captain Marvel Jr. These two pages © Jim Steranko, 1972, 2021.

Geof Darrow — Godzilla Forever

Original Art and The Artists

Godzilla (and Shaolin Cowboy) Commission, 2015

Geoff Darrow imagines the crossover (via commission) that you will never see anywhere else. Darrow’s own Shaolin Cowboy attacking Godzilla.

Geof’s intensely detailed line art is perfect to capture all the scales, fins and bumps on Godzilla’s figure.

Perfect.

And as mentioned previously, he is also one of the nicest and most entertaining creators you will ever meet.

Crossovers you are unlikely to see again include Godzilla vs. The Avengers and Godzilla vs… Charles Barkley?!
This student film made us laugh at festivals and midnight features every single time.