“Bombshell, ” Spirt Vol. 2, #18 (Unpublished) DC Comics, December 2011
The first week of March is “Will Eisner Week,” an annual event celebrating the life and works of one of the fathers of graphic storytelling.
And that means… it’s time for our own contribution to Will Eisner Week as well.
This year, we feature a terrific unpublished Spirit story by Chip Kidd and Dave Bullock featuring Bombshell. Unpublished… because DC cancelled its First Wave version of The Spirit before the story saw the light of day. (And shortly thereafter, the Spirit moved to Dynamite.)
Great storytelling along with beautiful wash tones by Bullock make this an especially unfortunate casualty of commercial considerations.
Part one of this great story appears today, part two on Thursday, and the conclusion on Saturday.
As for the dialogue?
Let your imagination soar.
I see a possible theme here — Bullock contributed this great Deadman story to DC’s Wednesday Comics in 2009.
2022 is the 110th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ jungle icon, Tarzan.
This year has at least two-other important Tarzan-related anniversaries:
The first is 1932, the release year of the first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan feature film. Tarzan existed on screen prior to the Weissmuller film, of course, but his 12 features likely did more to enshrine the character in the popular imagination than any other media representation.
The second is 1972, the year DC took over the comic book license from Gold Key and re-established Tarzan as a savage lord of the Jungle. Joe Kubert’s comic art work on the character was the first that took the sheen of the character and returned him to his literary roots.
Long before “reboot” became part of the pop culture vocabulary, Kubert’s Tarzan was a stunning new look for comic book readers.
DC, as part its licensing deal, had to provide all the original art to the Burroughs estate. It’s still there in the archives, in excellent condition, and we used it to create three beautiful Artist’s Editions volume at IDW.
Ultimately, thought, this means that Kubert Tarzan pages are among the rarest of the last 50 years. With the exception of a handful, none of them have ever been offered on the open market.
Joe originally gifted this splash, part of a DPS, to a friend.
I happened to see it the day it the day it came up for sale, and despite a lofty price, I acquired it then and there.
I knew I wouldn’t likely see another one.
Typically, Kubert’s full double-page spreads from this period could be broken up without ruining the art.
Three different Tarzan anniversaries in 2022: DC’s Tarzan celebrates its 50th, Weissmuller’s film series celebrates its 90th, and the character himself celebrates his 110th.
The final issue of Gold Key’s Tarzan series is almost as far from Kubert’s interpretation as The Batman 1966 TV series is from Christopher Nolan’s. Coincidentally, that issue also featured an adaptation of “Tarzan and the lion man.”
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.
Spy vs. Spy made its debut in a classic issue of Mad — the infamous election flip cover. Newsstand proprietors could face out whoever actually won the election. (Spoiler alert: It was JFK.) Also above are the first three Spy gags, all appearing in the same issue.
I was fortunate to visit Mad’s offices in 1976 and received the classic Cheap, Crummy Souvenir. More importantly, I met many of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” including the fearless leader himself, Bill Gaines.
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.
Although somewhat forgotten today, The Hot Rock is a classic caper film, written by the legendary screenwriter William Goldman and based on the first book in the “Dortmunder” series by (the also legendary) Donald Westlake. Filmed on location in New York, including some neighborhoods I was personally familiar with, I’ve loved it since it was released 50 years ago.
The first(?) of endless Abbey Road swipes and homages is featured in Hot Rock promo art. I love that George Segal copied George Harrison’s outfit entirely, right down to the footwear. I will bet that somewhere in that photographer’s archive is an even more exact mirror of the Abbey Road cover.
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.
Vigilante started as a back-up feature in Action Comics #42 (with art by the great Mort Meskin), and finally made a rare cover appearance along with the rest of the Action gang 10 issues later.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
