Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: DC Comics

Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella — Batman Of Two Worlds

Original Art and The Artists

DC Comics Presents: Batman #1, September 2004

Batman meets… Batman?

In this goofy, but fun 2004 comic tale, why not?  (It’s a tribute to DC Editor Julius Schwartz who died earlier that year.)

It’s the final published Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella Batman artwork (story by Geoff Johns) and this cool page features both the “real” Batman and the TV version.

A nice pick-up from fellow collector Steve Lipsky.

I apparently missed these Schwartz tribute comics when they first appeared 20 years ago, so now I’m going down that rabbit hole. (There were eight one-shot issues, and they’ve never been collected together.) This specific Batman one-shot does however appear in the 2014 Infantino Batman hardcover collection.

Maybe I would change my mind if I saw the original art without the coloring, but as of now, this might be my least favorite Adam Hughes cover of all time. Robin looks like a bizarre cross between Tim Drake and Carrie Kelley.
Classic comic book circulation numbers are wild. Nearly 500,000 copes sold, BEFORE Batman had his own TV show.

Russ Heath — Watch It!

Original Art and The Artists

Battlefront #17, March 1954

Here’s a terrific early and rare Atlas war page form the legendary artist, Russ Heath.

This page’s great dogfight reminds me of some of Russ’ later DC work, including the classic “Aces Wild” in All-American Men of War #89, otherwise known as Roy Lichtenstein’s favorite comic book. Lichtenstein, the renowned pop art pioneer, “appropriated” (swiped / repurposed / purloined — take your pick) two Heath panels from that story, as well as others in that issue. (See below.)

Those paintings are worth millions of dollars. Multi-millions.

The best 12¢ anyone ever spent.

Happy Veterans Day to all who served!

Fun Fact: Russ, a veteran, used himself as reference for the role of Major Leo Grabeski (also below) in this extremely multi-cultural group of airmen.

Two Heath panels from the same page from “Aces Wild” story (All-American Men of War #89, 1962) became the basis for two well-known Roy Lichtenstein war paintings: “Brattata” and “Blam.”.

A panel from an Irv Novick’s story in the same issue was the basis for Lichtenstein’s “Whaam.”

Eric Powell — Bizarro Alive, Alive

Original Art and The Artists

Action Comics # 855, October 2007

Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Eric Powell creating a multi-part Bizarro story? 

Sign me up.

Spoiler alert: It’s absolutely terrific — fun and affectionate — start to finish. Powell knocks the art out of the park. Many mainstream superhero readers tracked down Powell’s Goon series after they saw this.

You can bet the farm — Kent’s or otherwise — on that.

One final time — Happy Halloween, 2024!

Screenshot
Silver age comic book readers first encountered Bizarro in Superboy #68, and then another version shortly thereafter in Action #254. But sharp eyed comic strip readers may have caught an even earlier appearance in Supes’ daily newspaper strip. Also above — the house ad in Superboy #67, with the alternative costume logo.

Matt Wagner — Roping In Bizarro

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, September 2003

Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, 2003

Here’s a great Matt Wagner splash featuring Wonder Woman doing her best to rein in Bizarro. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t go all that well.

Wagner delivers page after page of visual dynamics and terrific storytelling in this underrated series featuring DC’s “Big Three.”

The only thing I don’t like: The “official” book title, which is a bit long and definitely not obvious. (Publishers occasionally forget that readers have to be able easily find the title at retail. Trust me on this.)

Happy Halloween —all month long!

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.

Paul Pope — The Cat, Sans Bat

Original Art and The Artists

Catwoman #7, July 2002

Black and white — and read all over:

Paul Pope delivers a stunning Catwoman cover for Ed Brubaker’s great run from the early aughts.  Smartly, the art/editorial decision makers kept the published cover in its original black and white state, with just a hint of red color applied after the fact. (Blood, naturally.) Pope did a series of these covers for the Brubaker run — all terrific.

Pope’s best known “mainstream” comic book is Batman Year 100 (2006), a wild ride into the bat-future; it would be lovely to see him return to the character at some point.

Looks like the new updated version of the out-of-print Pope art book (coming later this year from Boom!) has a cover with same black/white/red color scheme! Nice.

(Pro tip: Don’t want to draw feet? Bleed the legs off the page…)
A great series — with terrific coloring by the masterful Jose Villarrubia. (In case you thought we ONLY liked B&W.)

Batman Day, 2024

Original Art and The Artists

September 21, 2024

In honor of Batman Day — and the caped crusader’s 85th birthday — here’s a link to all the posts that have featured Batman and his cast of colorful allies — and even more colorful villains:

https://greggoldsteincomicartgallery.com/?s=batman

We’ve been celebrating the Dark Knight throughout the month of September; one more bat-post to load next week, and then it’s off to October and monsters and ghouls, et al.

Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Berni Wrightson — Batman Redo, Aliens Too

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / Aliens #1, March 1997

Swamp Thing #7 is one my favorite single issues, ever.

Don’t get me wrong: I loved all of Wrightson’s Swamp Thing through the first six issues, each of which I bought directly from the candy store or newsstand. (And #8-10 are just as good.)

But Batman?! Drawn by Berni?  Wow. That Cape. Those ears. Just… wow.  

I knew we would likely never see Wrightson on a conventional superhero title, so this was one special book. Flash forward nearly 25 years, and Berni revisits Batman once again with this cool Aliens crossover. It’s not Berni circa 1973 of course, but still great. I’m delighted that I stumbled onto this large art page last year. 

And that half splash bottom panel? I knew that Batman pose looked familiar…

Jock — Bat-Joker

Original Art and The Artists

The Batman Who Laughs #2, March 2019

“A Batman who laughs is a Batman who always wins.”

I don’t try to acquire too many modern pages. 

Especially story pages.

I miss the ballons lettered directly on the art boards. The modern pages look “incomplete” to me. (And often exacerbated by backgrounds that are digitally added later as well.)

And great modern pages (like this one) are often priced a bit expensively by the artist — or the artist’s rep. For similar prices, you can often find some great vintage art.

But… I’m definitely a fan of Jock’s art, and this page was much too cool to pass up. It’s from the Dark Universe spinoff, “The Batman Who Laughs.” One part Batman. one part Joker. Bat-Joker indeed.

And of course, it’s a fight page — without the dialog, you still get the basic idea.

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.