Dark Horse Comics – Page 3 – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Shannon Wheeler — Per Se

June 2, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

New Yorker Cartoon, Unpublished, 2015

Terrific cartoonist. Brilliant humorist. Funny guy.

Also, my pal — at least most of the time. (Creators and publishers have differing points of view on occasion.)

I’ve loved his work since I met him and his wacky alternative comic Too Much Coffee Man at the 1993 San Diego Comic Con. (Also, I drink too much coffee.)

One of the many things I will miss about Comic Con in 2020 is rummaging through his originals, printed and unpublished alike. I find many of them funny as hell.

But you can buy some on-line. And they are terrific deals as far as I’m concerned.

I love gags that apply specific word choices as a chief component of the humor. To me, there is absolutely nothing that would make the cartoon funnier than “per se.”

But, maybe that’s just me.

The National Cartoonists Society would be poised for their annual awards event this month if it wasn’t for the COVID pandemic, so it’s a good week to celebrate cartoons.

See you again on Thursday with an example from the late great Gahan Wilson.

*An award winning winning collection of cartoons, plus some very funny illustrations taken direct from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.*

*The first appearance of Too Much Coffee Man in a mini-comic (1991) and the most recent giant omnibus collection.*

Russ Manning — The Last Command

December 16, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars Daily Comic Strip, June 16, 1980

At first glance, Russ Manning’s clean art style is an unusual choice for Star Wars. The saga (the original film specifically) is a bit rough around the edges, with scorch marks, dusty landscapes, dirty uniforms, and beat-up droids.

Manning, best know for his beautiful art on Tarzan and Magnus Robot Fighter, is anything but.

His work is crisp and polished. Magnus lives on Earth 4000 AD, a world populated by handsome men and gorgeous woman inhabiting a shiny futuristic city. The battle against the sentient robots? Terminator this is definitely not.

But, Russ’ imagination and enjoyment for Star Wars is obvious on these strips.

Even if the stories themselves, like those in Marvel comics, were often “B” level because they weren’t permitted to do very much with actual film-related plots, his storytelling and renderings provided more than enough visual interest to keep the strips engaging.

This specific example, which features most of the Star Wars main cast, comes at the conclusion of Russ’ penultimate story. He died of cancer too young at 52, a few months after this strip was published.

Had he lived, I’m certain he would have come back to Star Wars at some point.

After all, he created a city-covered planet, very much like Coruscant, years before George Lucas did. In fact, when Magnus debuted, George Lucas was still a teen who, among other interests, had a passion for comic book art.

Wait a minute… (*)

*Dark Horse colored and reprinted the strips as comic books in the Classics series. Marvel has since reprinted those versions as well.*

*A little bit of Manning’s love for Tarzan appears in a Star Wars Sunday strip.*

*Russ Manning referred to Magnus Robot Fighter as his Tarzan of the future.*

*Ok, Lucas (definitively) and Manning (likely) were influenced by Fritz Lang’s ground-breaking film Metropolis, and this is just a fun coincidence. But still.

Eric Powell — Field of Screams

August 31, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

The Goon, One For The Road (One-Shot), 2014

Imagine if the legendary cartoonist Jack Davis suddenly appeared —as a young man— and promptly joined you on a fantastical adventure.

Eric Powell imagined it, and realized it, in a special one-shot issue of the Goon. When Joe Jackson shows up in your story, you call it “Field of Dreams”. When Jack Davis, one of the all-time great EC horror artists (among many) pops in — I say we call it “Field of Screams.” (Even though the correct title is “Goon One For The Road.” Sue me. I couldn’t resist the pun.)

Davis was easily one of America’s most talented 20th-century illustrators, and one of three main influences Eric cites in his artistic career. See here for a personal story of Powell getting a dream fulfilled by getting Jack to do the cover.

And how great is this page?!? The gorilla is wearing a friggin’ Prussian war helmet! A helmet!