Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Greg Goldstein

Pete Poplaski — Bat-Blast From The Past

Original Art and The Artists

Batman: The Dailies, 1944-1945 (TPB, 1990, Kitchen Sink)

Here’s yet another great piece of art by the extraordinarily talented Pete Poplaski.

Poplaski has been called an “artist’s artist” by many of his peers. He might not have a household name among art buffs, but his talent is formidable and undeniable.

Pete, who broke into comics in the 70s underground movement, ultimately became Kitchen Sink’s art director, and, among many accomplishments helped give some of Robert Crumb’s projects just the right design touch. 

Kitchen had the rights to reprint the DC Batman and Superman Golden Age comic strips in the early 1990s, and Pete created brand new covers that evoked the classic style of those strips.

When we acquired those rights at IDW in 2012, we went back to Pete to see if he would be interested in picking up where he left off, and fortunately he was.

Dick Sprang. Al Plastino. Carmine Infantino. You name it. Pete’s remarkable ability to create brand new material in any and all of these classic styles is astonishing.

Interestingly enough, many if not most of Pete’s covers (front and back) feature hand drawn lettering, but this one does not. Also, the final crop for the book cover is tighter, so the end result of both of these elements is that there much more art visible on the original than in the final published version.

I’m fortunate enough to own a few of these covers — and many of them are prominently displayed.

Happy Batman Day, 2025

SDCC 2025 — A Convention Within A Convention

Original Art and The Artists

San Diego Comic-Con, July 23-27, 2025

It was a comic-con of bricks.

Lego bricks to be precise: Lego recreated a detailed version of the convention at its massive booth.

200,000 pieces. 1500 hours to build.

Stunning, and an accurate miniature portrayal of the annual sensory overload that is SDCC. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

Hey Lego — if you do this next year, I’m the one in a black t-shirt, holding an oversized bag, and wandering in a somewhat dazed and confused manner.

Of course, since that describes a chunk of the attendees, who’s to say I’m not already actually in the “San Diego Lego-Con?”

I’ll bring a magnifying glass next time.

Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster — Superman & The Bandit Robots

Original Art and The Artists

Superman Sunday Strip, (Syndicate Proof Sheet), December 15, 1940

Jerry Siegel personal proof of Superman Sunday strip, 12/15/1940 from the collection of Greg Goldstein

Not quite original art, this is a syndicate proof sheet for the Superman Sunday comic strip, from December 15, 1940. The proof sheets are printed on higher quality paper, and the colors are extremely vivid — which you can see even though I photographed this example under glass.

(For an amplification of how this proofing process worked, see the new edition of Jack Kirby’s Sky Masters Sunday strips, which explains the process in some detail.)

I enjoy these early strips — Shuster’s art here often seems more polished than the comic books, where some of the art suffers from inconsistency. That’s of course not shocking: Superman’s explosive —and nearly instantaneous —popularity meant that Shuster, with the help of assistants and other artists, had to keep up with a prodigious amount of publishing.

This proof came from co-creator Jerry Siegel’s personal collection , and I was fortunate enough to snag one with a giant robot. (Plus, it is signed!)

Superman, Lois AND a giant robot. Seems like a hat trick to me.

A tear sheet from the Houston Chronicle features the strip in a classic half page format.
The original classic Superman strips (first reprinted by Kitchen Sink) are available in at least four different book formats; although they are all technically out of print, most are readily (and inexpensively) available from secondary booksellers. Because they are so easy to obtain, when we launched the Superman reprint program at IDW Publishing in 2013, we started with the next group of strips.
Superman fought the “Bandit Robots” a few months later on the cover of Action #36 (great art by Fred Ray.) But… there’s no matching story on the inside!
The Man of Steel fights similar (albeit not quite identical) robots in 1941’s “Superman and the Mechanical Monsters,” the classic episode of the wonderful Fleischer animated series of cartoon shorts.

Ashley Holt — In Good Company

Original Art and The Artists

Commission, April 2024

The art and the artist: Greg Goldstein and Ashley Holt

I discovered Ashley Holt’s terrific portrait illustrations a few years ago — via Howard Chaykin — and became an ardent admirer from day one. He’s depicted some of our favorite people in colorful and instantly recognizable form.

Now, I’ve joined the club.

Ashley is a pleasure to deal with. He sells prints and books, takes commissions, and has a lovely website that makes it easy to admire or acquire his art. 

Additionally, he has a well-written Substack column (“The Symptoms”), where he employs a lively — and occasionally biting — style that matches the spirit of his art. 

Follow / subscribe to everything he offers, and you won’t be disappointed.

Trust me on this.

As for Ash’s note about this illustration of yours truly?:

“Greg Goldstein, comics art connoisseur and former CEO of IDW Publishing, posing in front of a Jack Kirby drawing of a comics character who shall not be named for reasons of trademark law but who is definitely not riding a surfboard of any kind.”

Find Ashley here —

https://www.ashleyholt.com

https://thesymptoms.substack.com

From Top Left to Bottom Right: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, George Lucas, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Jane Fonda (In Cat Ballou), George Carlin, Cary Grant, and Orson Welles. (All art © 2025 Ashley Holt)

Doug Wildey — Wildey Wild West

Original Art and The Artists

Gunsmoke Western #57, March 1960

How much of a perfectionist was the great Doug Wildey? He knew there was no chance the printed comic books of 1960 could capture the fine details in his draftsmanship, but he drew them anyway.

This is the second Wildey Atlas western title splash I’ve managed to acquire, and like the first, it’s a beauty. In fact, even more stunning.

By chance, this page was only display and offered for sale a few moments during last year’s San Diego Comic Con when I happened on it. I’m sure it would have been gone had I come by an hour or more later.

As I noted previously, Doug Wildey was an amazing storyteller and draftsman. Don’t just take my word for it — ask Stan Lee.

Back in about 2010, we visited Stan in his Beverly Hills office to get some pages signed for the first John Romita Spider-Man Artists Edition from IDW Publishing. Stan’s “people” were kind enough to let us bring some personal items to get signed as well, so I brought a few pages of original art with me. 

Stan, who was telling stories and singing while he was signing (Yes, singing, not a typo for signing. Story for another day.) stopped dead in his tracks when he saw this page of art. 

He stared at it quietly for a few moments — given the speedy pace of our morning, it seemed like an eternity — and you could see pleasant memories wash over his face. And then the big Stan Lee smile:

“Doug Wildey. Wow. He was great. So terrific. I loved his stuff. I wish we had a chance to do more together.” 

He handed the page back to me, still beaming, still examining it up and down as he slowly passed it back.  I had seen Stan sign thousands of items; many of them with fond remembrances, but nothing quite like this.

I’m sure he would have had the same reaction to this page as well.

Bye bye details in the sheriff’s face, shirt, et al. Wildey had to know the cheaply-printed page would lose all the great detail and craftsmanship, but he included it in his original anyway.