Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Greg Goldstein

Mike Mayhew — Inside Job

Original Art and The Artists

Green Arrow #7, February 2011

Green Arrow is back on the air (CW) for its eighth and final season, so before the emerald archer fades into the TV sunset, we’re focusing a few posts on Green Arrow originals.

Here’s a great panel page example by the phenomenal Mike Mayhew. 

Mike’s earliest regular work was at Topps, excelling at dynamic storytelling on Zorro (yes, Zorro) in the traditional pen and ink medium. After the comic book implosion of the mid- 90’s left many talented artists out of a job, Mike tried his hand at painting for a book cover assignment. The result? Mike quickly transformed from talented story artist to a premier cover painter.

These days, Mike’ schedule only occasionally allows for fully illustrated interior stories. Here he demonstrates his tonal skills on Green Arrow — creating a lush, haunting page. (GA is dealing with the apparent ghost of his dead mother, hence the haunting.)

When Mike introduces me to a third party, he often says I was his “first boss.” Technically, that would have been Jim Salicrup, who edited Topps comics during its brief heyday, from 1992-97. But I was the Director of Publishing… so why quibble? Mike’s a great talent and a friend. I’ll take it.

Andrew Pepoy — Wally World

Original Art and The Artists

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 50th Anniversary Special (IDW), July 2015

No one today pulls off a tribute to the great Wally Wood quite like the very talented Andrew Pepoy. 

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, IDW Publishing asked Andrew to illustrate a cover variant – an homage to the iconic Wood EC cover, Incredible Science Fiction #29. For our version, we substituted Wood’s astronaut with the sexy and villainous Iron Maiden, one of the main adversaries in Wood’s original T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents.

The detail is terrific (especially noticeable in its original B&W form), and while no one can actually replicate Wally Wood, this might be as close as it gets. Home run!

  • Pepoy Published Version
  • Original Wood Published Character
  • Original by Wood
  • Published Version by Wood

Al Williamson — This Date in History

Original Art and The Artists

X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan Volume 5, 2013

Truly one of the most talented comic artists ever, the late Al Williamson spent 13 years illustrating Secret Agent Corrigan as a daily strip. (With writing by the late, also great, Archie Goodwin.) Here from 1977, is the 8/29 strip, with Corrigan dealing with one of those startling revelations that happened… well… quite regularly back in the day.

It matters not.  Archie was a terrific writer of course, but Al Williamson could have illustrated a guide to Windows XP, and I would have devoured it anyway.

I miss Al’s work. I also miss newspaper adventure strips, but that’s a lament for another day.

The complete five-volume collection of Williamson’s Corrigan (Also referred to as X-9) is one of my favorite series form the Library of American of Comics, and one of my favorite projects at IDW Publishing. Yes, that makes me biased. So?

Walter Simonson — Cover Me

Original Art and The Artists

Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor: Artist’s Edition HC, Original Art Cover

Editor/Original Art expert Scott Dunbier brought his Artist’s Edition idea to IDW Publishing, and the rest as they say, is history. In 2011, Walter Simonson’s groundbreaking Thor run became the very first of the many Marvel Artist’s Editions in this extraordinary series. (And the second IDW Artist’s Edition overall, following Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer the year prior.)

Scott also had the wild idea to do actual original art covers of these original art reprint books on a super-limited basis, and Walter went along with it. These are not “sketch” covers, but rather very nicely detailed individual pencil and ink full-figure drawings of Thor done on blank cover variants. Walter only did about 10 of these — 15 at the most.

The only drawback — I can’t think of any way to frame it. (It’s also the heaviest piece of original art I own. Artist’s Editions are not light, but that is definitely the textbook definition of a first world problem…)