Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery
Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
September 21, 2024
In honor of Batman Day — and the caped crusader’s 85th birthday — here’s a link to all the posts that have featured Batman and his cast of colorful allies — and even more colorful villains:
https://greggoldsteincomicartgallery.com/?s=batman
We’ve been celebrating the Dark Knight throughout the month of September; one more bat-post to load next week, and then it’s off to October and monsters and ghouls, et al.
Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
San Diego Comic-Con, July 24-28, 2024
San Diego Comic-Con, July 24-28, 2024
Even more cosplay…
San Diego Comic-Con, July 24-28, 2024
Some more cosplay…
San Diego Comic-Con, July 24-28, 2024
Somehow, another year SDCC has already come and gone, and again, I ask the simple question: How does it go by so quickly?
I can’t answer that, but I can say this: For better or worse, the convention is pretty much back to it’s pre-pandemic magnitude.
Minus, of course, the carpeting. Please, on behalf of feet (and backs) everywhere — bring back the carpeting.
Betrayal Of The Planet Of The Apes #3, January 2012
True Confessions:
When I was at IDW Publishing, we chased the Planet of Thae Apes license hard. And I mean hard. (I’m a super fan.) We had some terrific story ideas, and some talented creators ready to come on board if we acquired it.
The challenge was, that Fox couldn’t provide us with a guarantee that they had proper clearances on the original Marvel material. Reprinting that material would help finance the creative costs on the new series, as well as help fund the licensing fees, so that ended up as a deal breaker for us.
So… Boom swept in and acquired those rights without the reprint guarantee. And did a great job on their new material. And the joke was on us, ultimately, because Boom did end up with at least some of those reprint rights.
Sigh.
That said, we did get to do a super fun Star Trek / Planet of The Apes crossover with Boom, which is mostly a story for another day. But one nugget: Boom asked me to negotiate the “Taylor” (Charlton Heston) likeness rights with the estate, and that was one of the more reasonable and rational Hollywood-style negotiations I have ever had. And even Marvel didn’t originally have those rights. So, there’s that.
Oh, and the great Gabe Hardman did this superb cover for an issue of one the Boom series. Did I neglect to mention that?
Original Art Expo, January 2024
Somehow, four months passed, and these pics from the Original Art Expo haven’t made it to the blog.
Welp, better late than never.
Star Wars Sunday Strip, #39, December 12, 1979
I finally checked off a piece of art from my OA “bucket list” with the acquisition of this terrific Russ Manning Star Wars Sunday strip late last year.
I own some great Star Wars original art, but not much focusing on Leia, so I’m especially pleased I won this strip at auction. Coincidentally, I was the underbidder the previous time it had appeared at auction — second time is the charm, apparently.
When we had the opportunity to collect the complete Star Wars strip collection at IDW Publishing, it was yet another box checked off from the publishing bucket list. Dean Mullaney and the Library of American Comics (LOAC) crew produced (as always) an amazing three-volume set.
Welcome to Star Wars “month.” May the force be with you throughout.
Anaheim Convention Center, March 29-31, 2024
Midnight Men #4, September 1993
Never let a great idea go to waste.
Howard Chaykin turned an unused Batman pitch into an imaginative new series for the extremely short lived “Heavy Hitters” imprint from Marvel/Epic in 1993.
I’ve seen most of the original art for this title, and each page is beautiful: Great storytelling, terrific draftsmanship, and a generous use of deep India ink and screen tone for depth and effect. He worked his ass off on these pages, and it shows.
Bonus: Great lettering, as always, by John Workman.
Honestly, the only thing I don’t like about the series is the coloring (not by Howard), but hey, it was the 90s.
The four-issue series has never been collected, but individual issues typically turn up in dollar bins, and are worth seeking out.
Remember, you can’t kill the Midnight Men.
