Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery
Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #12, July 2007
“Just like that… It’s just gone.”
We complete the hat trick of Flash time travel stories with this knockout double page spread by Tony Daniel from writer Marc Guggenheim’s Flash run in 2007.
What happens when you lose the speed force? Nothing good, apparently. Although we did a great looking piece of art out of the deal.
The Flash #224, December 2008
“The Reverse Flash tries to reverse time.”
I’m beginning to sense a theme here.
Regardless, Howard Porter and John Livesay deliver a stellar page featuring The Flash and Reverse Flash.
What’s not to like?
Flash #40, May 2015
“I only made everything worse.”
Barry Allen arrives from the future to present day and makes a mess of things.
Like Stephen King wrote in 11.22.63, you try to change the past, the past fights back.
I can’t wait to see the Flash film with its similar theme, but truth be told, that’s primarily because Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Batman.
Oh, and it goes without saying, this is a great splash penciled by the terrific Brett Booth and inked with gusto by the equally terrific Norm Rapmund.
Salvation Run #1, January 2008
“Stop gabbing and fight!”
After quite a few fits and starts, The Flash feature film is making its way into theaters this week, so naturally here’s a great Flash page… minus the Flash.
But all the classic Flash rogues are here in a story which focusses specifically on them. If you’re a fan of the classic Silver Age Flash (guilty) this splash by my pal Sean Chen is definitely the pen and ink version of comfort food.
As far as I can tell from the trailer, The Flash movie will be light on the rogues, so this is good way to get our fix.
Rogues, nothing but rogues. Comic book professional and historian Peter Sanderson — as a fan — wrote an amazing summary with pros and cons of each character, which Julius Schwartz published in Flash #174
Formerly Known As The Justice League #3, November 2003
Mary Marvel beats the nuclear daylights out of Captain Atom in this innovative, and terrific action page, by Kevin Maguire.
Everything about this page works for me: Storytelling, composition, movement, and the absolute rage on Mary’s face.
She’s pissed.
Of course, since it’s comics, and we know Mary is an otherwise lovely person, she’s clearly under some sort of mind control. Everything will eventually be fine, yes? Well, in this reunion of the classic 80s JLA creative team (Writers J.M. Dematteis and Keith Giffen, Maguire, and inker Joe Rubenstein) who can say?
Or maybe she’s just upset that the collection of this Eisner-winning series is unavailable. That annoys me, too.
Ring of the Nibelung #2, (The Valkyrie), February 1990
Gil Kane tackles Richard Wagner’s The Ring of The Nibelung opera series (adapted here by Roy Thomas) with dramatic results.
It’s a prestige format series, so Gil employs a large art format, and, unlike the majority of his DC work from this period, it’s primarily pen and ink, as opposed to marker. Therefore, the pages — pretty much all terrific — are collectible and displayable without worrying about the art fading to nothingness.
(Ask anyone — myself included — who has owned a page from either Sword of the Atom mini-series and they can explain further.)
What would Gil himself say about this dynamic page? I’m not exactly sure, but it would begin this way:
“Greg, my boy…”
Commission, All-Star Squadron #1 Mash-up with Avengers #150 and #151, 2007
Bob Layton has some fun reimagining the cover of DC’s All-Star Squadron #1 (Rich Buckler, artist) as an Avengers “changing of the guard” issue.
Also fun — Bob uses the trade dress for issue #150 (1976) of the Avengers own comic book, a fill in issue that primarily features a reprint of the first major line-up change in issue #16. The actual line-up changes in #151.
It was clearly all meant to be a single story in #150, but… the dreaded deadline of doom strikes again.
“The Lighter Side of…,” Mad #305, September 1991
Dave Berg loved to draw his friends, neighbors and colleagues into his Mad Magazine “Lighter Side” series. On this great strip, Mad Publisher William (Bill) Gaines and other staffers get the full Berg treatment. I love this.
Mad staffers here are —
Leftside, front to back:
Lenny Brenner, Tom Nozkowski, Charlie Kadau, Joe Raiola
Rightside, front to back:
Nick Meglin, John Ficarra, Sarah Friedman, Andrew Schwartzberg
(Thanks to my pals Joey Cavalieri and Charlie Kochman for filling in the names of folks I didn’t know.)
Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer #1, February 1986
Every once in a while the lettering — or sound effect — is the draw for me.
That’s never been more evidenced than on this zany Ambush Bug holiday issue page by the even zanier Keith Giffen.
“Crisis on the only Earth we’re allowed to use!”
The most meta — and accurate — statement in the history of comics.
Welcome to our 12th and final day of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a joyous Holiday season and a Happy New Year!
And, as always, thanks for sticking around.
Peace. (And see you in 2023.)
Batman #239, February 1972
It’s surprising — and definitely a miss — that only a few “Christmas” superhero stories have had made much impact in the comic book format.
But of the ones that do exist, Batman’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Denny O’Neil) is one of the key holiday classics for Silver Age/ Bronze Age fans.
I’m not sure I had ever seen an original page from this story prior to acquiring this one, a few short weeks ago. None have ever been offered by Heritage Auctions for sale, and their database is a reasonable bellwether for historical availability, at least in this century.
Did I wildly overpay? Probably. Did I pay the right price? Possibly. Do I want to get into a bidding war with someone else who wants this page and find out?
Nope.
And that, my friends, is how you have unexpectedly large bill come due during holiday season.
Great page, legendary story, and the sweet spot of my superhero comic book reading era.
There was nothing I could do.
Welcome to Day 11 of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Oddly, you can only find this classic story in two reprints beyond the original — this 1974 DC treasury, and the sixth and final volume of DC’s Batman Showcase black and white reprint series.