Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery
Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
Mad # 170, October 1974
One punch line panel of the iconic Spy vs. Spy gag strip often sported more violence than an entire episode of Looney Tunes. (That’s saying something.)
And we loved it.
Prohias, a Cuban refugee, was a genius. He didn’t speak very much English. And he didn’t have to. Humor is a universal language.
And me personally? I love wordless gags. After all, cartooning is a visual medium.
Mad #154, October 1972
I heard the best story recently:
When artists Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres were creating those amazing Mad movie parodies (especially the earlier ones) they often had trouble acquiring official photo references. The solution? Torres would sneak a camera into the movie theater and quietly snap some photos for himself or Drucker.
In other words, the Mad artists were the original film pirates.
You have no idea how much I love that.
This classic Drucker page from a parody of the film “The Hot Rock” comes with a personal anecdote as well:
I discovered my pal Stuart Ng had three original pages from this story for sale about six or seven years ago. I didn’t want all three, I only wanted one (they’re huge — about 18×24), but even if I did, we couldn’t agree on price. (Hot Rock is one of my favorite films, and it’s one of Stuart’s also, and besides, it’s not like Drucker pages are lying around.)
So of course, every so often, I would revisit the pages, and of course, following the rest of the original art market, the price would increase and I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger.
(Insert emoji of me slapping myself here.)
Finally… A few months ago, we had a meeting of the minds. He sold me one, and he knows it’s going into a good home. I paid more than I wanted to, he sold it for less than he wanted to, and that seemed like the making of a decent compromise.
And I think he still has the remaining two available, in case other Hot Rock fans see this post. Tell him Greg sent you.
Adventure #422, August 1972
The Golden Age hero The Vigilante (Greg Sanders) returns to his own feature in The Bronze Age — albeit briefly — in a two back-up stories in Adventure Comics in 1972.
Like some other back-up features from that ran in the oversize 25-cent issues and the “supersize” 100 pagers, this material has never been reprinted. (This specific story ended up in a regular size issue after the larger format was eliminated) It’s too bad, because some of it, including this rare Gray Morrow Vigilante art is quality material.
I always thought the great Gray Morrow was stronger at illustration than storytelling but his two DC Vigilante stories showcase his talents across the board.
Jonah Hex #19, Unused Cover, December 1978
No contest — this Luis Dominguez unused Jonah Hex cover is much nicer than the final published version.
The main problem appears to be that the unused version doesn’t match (no pun intended) the editorial narrative of the story. In fact, spoiler alert, the cover actually suggests the complete opposite. Based on the story (see below) Hex isn’t really interested in saving our explosive friend at all.
It’s fascinating that this cover was completely ready to go, with DC production logos and type fully pasted up when it was changed. Equally fascinating is that DC changed formats (reducing page count and lowering price) of the issue before the final version was printed, apparently at the last minute
Which leads me to wonder if it was cart before horse:
“Hey Luis, we have to redo the cover anyway, so how about you make the art better match the story. Sorry about any confusion. Also, we need it yesterday.”
All idle speculation, of course. But to reiterate the main point: The unpublished version is much better, and a keeper.
Welcome to our second annual “Out West” week. See you on Thursday.
Action Comics #406, November 1971
Our third annual Halloween tribute continues now through October 31.
Remember that time hat Superman lost his head?
You don’t?
I do, and I was pleased to see this page come up at auction earlier this year.
I was mostly done with the Superman Family by the time this issue appeared in 1971, but occasionally something off the wall (pun NOT intended — this time, anyway) would grab my attention, and this was one of those issues.
It’s rare (although not impossible) to find a title page that has such a literal cover interpretation, and of course the fact that it was drawn by the great Superman art team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson is a giant selling point for me.
Also rare: The cover is taken from the back-up story instead of the main feature. Obviously, someone at DC knew how to grab attention — at least mine, anyway.
Fun fact: On both Superman stories in this issue, the “Swanderson” art team gets top billing in the credits. They deserved it, as the art was light years ahead of the story material.)
Deadman #2, April 1986
Our third annual Halloween tribute continues now through October 31.
1986 was arguably DC’s finest year. In fact, it may be one of the most of critical years in any company’s history. (DC’s entire two-year period of 1985-1987 is unmatched in terms of quality projects.)
Watchmen. The Dark Knight Returns. The Superman reboot by John Byrne, Man of Steel. Not too mention Crisis the year earlier, Batman: Year One a year later. Etc. Etc.
Occasionally lost in all of these amazing titles is the astonishingly gorgeous Deadman mini-series by Jose Garcia Lopez (Written by Andy Mangels). Every page looks great, and some are breathtaking. (A word, I rarely, rarely use, at least as far as comic art is concerned.)
Don’t trust my word here. Read the series, finally collected in the recent Deadman Omnibus. (Which also collects most of the Silver and Bronze Age Deadman material including the earliest stories by Neal Adams.)
It’s just beautiful wok by Lopez, who is often referred to as an artist’s artist. Ask just about any professional artist to name the top talents in the industry and Lopez’s name is invariably near the top of the list.
I’m grateful I acquired this cool page earlier this year.
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.
Batman Adventures #8, May 1993 & Batman Adventures #13, October 1993
Two great pages from the late Mike Parobeck wrap up our 2021 celebration of “Batman Day.”
As I’ve written previously, I was a big fan of Mike’s work; he was terrifically gifted from the start. Most of his art shares the same terrific qualities: Simple. Clear. Clean. Powerful.
He died much, much too early from diabetes at age 31.
Batman: DOA, December 1999
September 18 was DC’s annual “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.
So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight….
Bob Hall launches the new Millennium with a pretty cool Batman graphic Novel, Batman DOA.
Infected with a lethal virus unleashed by the deadly trio of Joker, Penguin and Two-Face, the rapidly deteriorating Batman has only 24 hours left to live… precious little time (as they say) to find a cure andrescue a kidnapped little girl whose life is on the same timetable. Its over-arching plotline (and title) is borrowed from the classic 1950 film noir “DOA” — albeit (spoiler alert) with a much happier ending.
Bob had already delved into a Frank Miller Sin City art style in the late 90s with his own creation Armed and Dangerous for Acclaim / Valiant/ Armada Comics. Although it was occasionally a bit too derivative for my own tastes, it was definitely evolving, and I would have liked to see more material in this vein. He ultimately did a few more comics before he mostly retired from the industry to focus on playwriting and theatre directing.
Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, September 1993
September 18 was DC’s annual “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.
Batman shows off his typically charming personality — to Wonder Woman and Superman — in this iconic bat-panel from Matt Wagner’s Trinity 2004 series.
(And the Amazon princess is not amused.)
The overarching plot of this deluxe three-parter involves Ra’s al Ghul enlisting Bizarro to create… well, chaos.
But the critical (and very entertaining) theme of the title is how DC”s three iconic heroes reconcile their personality and philosophy differences and figure out a way to work together without defeating each other, instead of the bad guys.
It ain’t necessarily easy. Trust me on this.
