Gray Morrow – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

John Buscema — Ka-Zar, Man-Thing, Oh My!

March 31, 2023 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Astonishing Tales #12, June 1972

Man-Thing (Seriously, what kind of drugs to you take to come up with a name like that?) makes his first color comic book appearance in this terrific Ka-Zar story illustrated primarily by John Buscema.

Part of the story was slated to appear in the B&W Savage Tales #2 which did not see the light of day, so it was cleverly re-worked here. Because of the re-mixing, credits on this issue read like an all-star line-up, and include Buscema, Neal Adams, John Romita and Dan Adkins.

Writer Roy Thomas somehow made sense of it all, creating the framing story around Len Wein’s original tale.

Bonus: Man -Thing’s first overall appearance in Savage Tales #1 includes this glorious splash (below) by Gray Morrow.

Gray Morrow — Modern West

November 13, 2021 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

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.