DC Comics – Page 19 – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

George Pratt — Comics Noir

April 30, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Sandman Mystery Theatre #1, 1994

Continuing our celebration of the 80^th anniversary of the Justice Society of America, with each new post featuring a different classic JSA character.

Neil Gaiman’s extraordinary success with his Sandman series, had an additional and welcome consequence. DC added a retro Sandman title to its line-up featuring a retconned version of the original Sandman, with great noir-ish stories written primarily by Matt Wagner and Steven Seagle.

This terrific action splash page comes from the often overlooked annual, drawn by George Pratt. It’s a rare pen and ink example by the award-winning Pratt, who is known for his terrific painted graphic novels on Enemy Ace, Batman, and Wolverine.

The “original” Sandman never looked so good.

Fun fact: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created often over-looked version of Sandman in the 1970s. Simon dropped out after one issue, Jack took a few issue break, and the final issue, #7, featuring Santa Claus (yes, you heard right) was cancelled prior to publication and didn’t appear in print until a few years later.

That Simon and Kirby Issue, originally intended as a one-shot, was their final collaboration.

This version of Sandman makes an unexpected comeback appearance in Wonder Woman #300, with versions by both Gene Colan and Kirby fanatic Keith Giffen. More on all of this in a future post.

*The Sandman’s first appearance back in 1939, and his re-appearance in the Silver Age in 1966.*

Dan Jurgens — Unfair Fight

April 28, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Booster Gold #8, June 2008

Continuing our celebration of the 80^th anniversary of the Justice Society of America, with each new post featuring a different classic JSA character.

Today’s riddle: What do comic art collectors miss the most that comic book editors and publishers miss the least?:

A: Word balloons on the art board themselves.

Digital lettering is an amazing boon for comic book production, and a disappointment for many art collectors, myself included.

If you work in the editorial department, of course, no one misses the endless FedEx packages trafficking from penciller to letterer to inker, and back. Ugh.

But… the art boards themselves feel less complete without them. These are, after all, comic book pages. Comic books are pictures AND words.

Modern comic book original pages are analogous to silent films. If the visuals communicate well enough, you can interpret the storytelling without words. (And there shouldn’t be too much of that anyway. But I digress.)

Which finally gets us to this page by the great Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund. Superman is about to break the neck of fellow hero Wildcat, while Maxwell Lord looks on gleefully.

Pretty easy to figure out that Superman is either under some sort of mind control — or he’s not Superman at all. (Spoiler alert, it’s the former, and Wildcat survives.)

This is a great splash from a great art team on a great series. As mentioned in a previous post, I’m definitely a fan of this run of Booster Gold, which ended perhaps a bit prematurely because of “The New 52” reboot in 2010.

*First appearance of Wildcat in Sensation Comics #1(January 1942), plus earliest appearances in the Silver Age in Brave and Bold and The Spectre.*

Alan Davis — There Goes The Neighborhood

April 25, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

JSA #19, February 2001

I have a sweet spot for the Spectre, and I love the way he dominates this Alan Davis cover of this issue of the Justice Society. Despite the fact that I am an enthusiastic fan of Davis’ work, this is the first (and only) cover he drew that I own. I should rectify that one of these days.

As a young teen, I was the perfect age for the crazy, but brief, Bronze Age version of the character written by Michael Fleisher and wonderfully drawn by Jim Aparo, which featured woeful fates for the character’s antagonists. This version of Spectre arrives (early 1974) at nearly the exact same time as does another anti-hero, the Punisher, across town at Marvel comics.

Justice is served, indeed.

Comic book historian Les Daniels discussed the origin of this version of the character in DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes:

“Joe Orlando was mugged and decided the world needed a really relentless super hero. The character came back with a vengeance … and quickly became a cause of controversy. Orlando plotted the stories with writer Michael Fleisher, and they emphasized the gruesome fates of criminals who ran afoul of the Spectre. The Comics Code had recently been liberalized, but this series pushed its restrictions to the limit, often by turning evildoers into inanimate objects and then thoroughly demolishing them. Jim Aparo’s art showed criminals being transformed into everything from broken glass to melting candles, but Fleisher was quick to point out that many of his most bizarre plot devices were lifted from stories published decades earlier.”

I had only recently discovered the classic EC Comics horror tiles, and these gruesome fates seemed to meld together the supernatural, horror and superhero tropes into one wonderful blended margarita of storytelling.

Definitely worth my 20 cents.

Fun fact: 1974 is indeed the year of the anti-hero. Wolverine appears for the first time a few months later. It took a while, but in 1982, a catchphrase summed up his personality. “I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn’t very nice.” Snikt!

*The Spectre appears… and reappears. First appearances, Golden Age, Silver Age and Bronze Age.*

Wallace Wood — All Star

April 23, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

All Star Comics #59, 1976

All Star Comics, featuring The Justice Society, returned for the first time in 25 years, and the legendary Wallace Wood returned to superheroes for the early issues as well.

“Return” for Woody is a bit of an overstatement, since outside of his own creation, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Wood’s work in superheroes was limited. Ironically his most lauded superhero work in the DC universe is Superduperman, an EC Mad Comics parody from 1953.

In All Star, editor Joe Orlando (and Wood’s former protégé at EC) provided Woody the chance to play with many of DC’s classic characters, including Superman, and he was given a chance to help set the look and feel of at least one enduring new one, Power Girl, the “Supergirl” of Earth Two. On this great battle page, we have Hawkman, The Star-Spangled Kid, and Doctor Mid-Nite in all out action.

As demonstrated by the art itself, Wood is responsible for the pencils and inks on this “second” issue, with Rick Estrada providing rough breakdowns and receiving credit as “designer” on this issue.

Woody left the title after less than a year’s worth of issues, but the work he left was behind was definitely “all star” material.

Fun fact: Hawkman was the only original member of the JSA to appear in every issue of the original All Star comics as part of the team.

Fun fact: Despite the fact that All Star had originally continued as All Star Western in 1951, DC re-started the series using the Golden Age numbering. Today it would be #1 issue with more than a few variant covers…

Fun fact: “Super Squad” is just… ugh.

*The first original Golden Age cover appearances of Star-Spangled Kid, Spectre and Hawkman.*

*All Star Comics returns with art by the legendary Wallace Wood. Bam!*

The new Justice Society launches on CW in a few weeks with the premiere of Stargirl on May 11.

Rich Burchett — Flashy Team-Up

April 21, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Justice Society of America #1, April 1991

2020 marks the 80^th anniversary of the very first super team in comic book history, The Justice Society of America.

Superhero comics were barely two years old, when a gaggle of heroes appeared on the cover All Star Comics #3. Imagine the reaction of a young comic book reader at his local newsstand or candy store seeing Doctor Fate, Hourman, The Spectre, Green Lantern, The Atom, The Sandman, Hawkman, and of course, The Flash all seated at the one table.

Brain blown.

During the various “Comic Book Ages” (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Modern, et al) the original Flash seems to symbolize the Society more than any one character. This is partly due to the fact that he is the very first Golden Age superhero to be reintroduced into the Silver Age (Flash #123).

In this 1991 JSA mini-series, one classic character receives solo billing in each issue, and the Flash leads off in issue #1, with art (pencils and inks) by the often under-appreciated Rich Burchett. This is a fun and dynamic page of the Flash in action, with the action taking us through the page.

And, I find it amusing that Flash’s helmet and the construction workers are not that dissimilar. If only those guys could run at super speed…

(My pal Mike Gold edited the series, and he provides a lovely history of the JSA, and an origin of this specific series, which is provided below.)

*The first appearance of the Flash, and the first appearance of the JSA a short time later.*

*The history of the JSA, plus some backstory to this mini-series, courtesy of editor*
*Mike Gold.*

John Paul Leon — Spirit In The Sky

March 12, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Spirit #16, September 2011

Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

David Hine (Spider-Man Noir) authors a clever tale where pretty much every page is a splash — with the Spirit title included as part of the art. John Paul Leon hits the concept out of the park successfully homaging Will Eisner’s original brilliant splash pages with innovations of his own.

On this page, the final one of the story, Leon perhaps finds inspiration for the logo from 1946 — from the classic tale, “The Man Who Killed The Spirit” AKA “The Last Trolley.”

Fun fact: This issue — and this entire series — was edited by the ultra-talented Joey Cavalieri, a pal of mine for nearly 50 years. Joey and I first met as kids hunting down comics in the candy stores, newsstands and luncheonettes of the lovely seaside town of Long Beach, New York.

*Variations on a theme: The original 1946 Spirit strip with the blowing letters — and two later (and slightly different) reprint versions.*

Mike Ploog — PS, I Love You

March 10, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Spirit # 31, September 2009

Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

Perhaps the artist with the most specific style similarities to Will Eisner is Mike Ploog, who worked for Eisner briefly in the early 1970s, on Eisner’s PS Magazine for the military. Ploog credits his initial Eisner influence on the 10 years he himself spent in the Marines reading and copying the magazine.

Ironically, as a kid, Ploog was not a comic book fan, so he had no idea who Eisner was, or the history of the Spirit.

But that obviously changed as Ploog discovered Eisner, The Spirit and comics’ lore in general. On this page from 2007, Ploog, aided by inks from vet Dan Green, captures Eisner’s Spirit — and adds his own taste for a horrific milieu.

Ploog spoke with journalist Jon B. Cooke about the early part of his career in an interview for Comic Book Artist #2 in 1998. Read the full interview here.

CBA: How’d you get the call from Will?
Ploog: I was working for Hanna-Barbera, and the guy in the room with me belonged to the National Cartoonist’s Society. He got a flyer Will had put out, looking for an assistant. He looked at it and said, “Ploog, this looks like your stuff.” I looked at it and said, “It is my stuff.” [laughter]. I called Will, and two days later he was in L.A. and interviewed me…the following week I went to work for him.

CBA: When you first burst upon the scene in comic books, you had a style very reminiscent of Will’s work. Did you start developing that style through osmosis, just being around him?
Ploog: It was very difficult for me, because I hadn’t done that much work. I really didn’t know what a “style” meant. When Will saw my work, he said, “This guy can adapt to what I’m doing easily.” Obviously whatever I had, it was adaptable to him. I could emulate Will right down to a pinpoint on an occasion…I’m sure from working with Will, it developed in that direction…

I love Will; he’s a dear, dear old friend. He’s been an enormous influence on my work both in comics and film.

-Mike Ploog, 1998

*Early Ploog Marvel work — he was a breakout star from pretty much the beginning of his comics career, although he ultimately spent more of his professional life working in film.*

*The Ploog art book is a must have for any fan of Mike’s — or simply for those who like great looking art books.*

Jerry Ordway — Shazam!

February 22, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Power of Shazam #42, September 1998

Sometimes the stars and planets line up harmoniously.

Case in point: Jerry Ordway on Shazam, who managed to keep the spirit of the original Captain Marvel intact, while making the character more relatable to contemporary late 20th century audiences. Not an easy feat.

Ordway launched the Captain Marvel “reboot” with a brilliant Graphic Novel in 1994 that he wrote drew and colored entirely himself. Shortly thereafter, Ordway wrote a new ongoing series, the Power of Shazam, and then drew a few stories at the end of its run five years later.

This brilliant splash page is from the first issue that he penciled, and is inked lovingly by the late, great Dick Giordano. It’s a textbook example of storytelling and composition, and it’s contrasting use of light and dark brings the entire scene together in an extraordinary way.

I love the use of the art deco design on the movie theater as well. The “7 Arts” name is likely an easter egg. Seven Arts acquired Warner Brothers in 1967, setting up the initial steps that led to the Warner / DC conglomerate that exists today.

Every once in a while we have to remind ourselves that nearly all art is essentially an illusion — three dimensional narrative on a two dimensional plane. This illusion? Pretty great.

Fun fact: With few exceptions, Jerry keeps his published art, so pretty much the only way to acquire something he’s created is from his collaborator — if there is one. That makes acquiring such a cool page even more challenging.

*The original graphic novel, that captured the spirit of Captain Marvel for a contemporary audience.*

As a marketing gimmick for Blackest Night in 2009, DC brought back Ordway’s Shazam (and a handful of others) for one “final” issue. Above, Ordway’s original black and white in washtones, color and final with trade dress.

Kurt Schaffenberger — Still Marvelous

February 20, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Shazam #26, December 1976

We continue to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the original Captain Marvel, now known as Shazam.

In 1972, with a nostalgia craze in full swing in the US, DC shocked the fan world by announcing that they had acquired the rights to the original Fawcett Comics characters. So… after 20 years, the Captain was back. Unfortunately for DC, a little company called Marvel had added its own Captain Marvel character and title to its line-up, and so at first the DC comic’s title was called Shazam. Ultimately, the character himself became named after his own magic word to avoid additional legal battles.

Title aside, Shazam presented a challenge for DC. The audience that had grown up on 50s and 60s comic book stories had in fact… grown up. And in a universe of Kirby, Steranko, Adams, et al, the golden age Captain Marvel was simply too quaint. Shazam #1 sold like proverbial hotcakes, because of the nostalgia craze and curiosity factor — and the burgeoning collectors’ market — but it was clear that the struggle to keep the character true to his roots AND somehow contemporize him created enormous editorial and commercial challenges. (One that’s challenged DC for nearly 50 years.)

In this terrific page by Schaffenberger, we see the classic Captain Marvel art style, only updated very slightly from the stories that Kurt had drawn 20 years previously. Although Schaffenberger was a more accomplished artist at this point, his clean and uncluttered style is still his trademark.

Fun fact: As you can see from the inscription, this page was originally acquired from Kurt by my friend and former colleague Len Brown (Mars Attacks, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents). Len ultimately sold it, and it made its way through the collectors market until I spotted it about 10 year ago and purchased it. I offered it to Len in case he had any regrets, but he doesn’t collect art anymore, so he declined.

Leaving it in my hands, with some interesting provenance as a bonus.

DC made a major marketing effort for Captain Marvel — announcing the title at the 1972 NYCC in July, and working closely with fanzines for support, including Jim Steranko’s Comixscence (Ultimately Mediascene).

Schaffenberger provided the cover for the first issue of the Isis spinoff, showcasing both his spot-on anatomy and his willingness to borrow inspiration from a previous DC comic — the first appearance of Green Lantern (by Gil Kane) about 15 years prior.

*Shazam and Isis — remembered fondly by many — in their television incarnations.*

Kurt Schaffenberger — Golden Age Marvel

February 18, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Whiz Comics # 129, January 1951

This week we celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the original Captain Marvel, (cover dated in 1940, although the issue likely appeared on most newsstands in late 1939) now known as Shazam.

Captain Marvel (Shazam to you kids) appears in every panel in this ebullient page pencilled and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger.

Schaffenberger went to work as an assistant in the Jack Binder studio in 1941 just as Fawcett’s Captain Marvel was soaring, eventually outselling DC’s Superman. When Schaffenberger returned from World War 2 military service, he ultimately penciled and inked complete stories.

His wholesome, uncluttered and often whimsical style was a perfect fit for Captain Marvel, who was nothing if not wholesome and whimsical.

Schaffenberger drew many of the stories that capped the end Captain Marvel’s amazing run — and 10 years of legal battles with DC.

In fact, despite the seemingly never-ending copyright lawsuit that alleged that the Big Red Cheese was a knockoff of Superman, The Captain outlasted many of his spandex-attired peers, publishing longer than most competitive superhero titles.

But, by 1954, declining sales meant that Fawcett no longer had the will to fight. They settled with DC, and called it a day for Captain Marvel.

As they say… To Be Continued.

Fun Fact: After Fawcett left the superhero business, Schaffenberger ultimately went to work for DC, and became best known for his 10-year run on the Lois Lane series, setting the DC house style for the character for much of the silver age.