Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

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SDCC 2021 — Deja Vu, All Over Again

Original Art and The Artists

November 26-28, 2021

The San Diego Comic Con “Special Edition” concluded yesterday, capping a three-day return of the first SDCC since July 2019. 

For me personally, it was the exact* 50th anniversary (!) of attending comic-related conventions. In 1971, a loving Aunt took me to the very first Creation convention at NYC’s New Yorker Hotel in 1971.**

I was only at that show for a few hours, wide-eyed with probably less than $5-$6 in my pocket, but I managed to score my first “key” back issue — an intact, but otherwise beat reading copy of Avengers #1 from 1963.

I nearly sold that comic book earlier this year. Once my sanity returned, I instead decided to let Captain America (and “Sylvie” Loki) keep an eye on it while I took some pictures.

That was a much better idea.

And say, where did those 50 years go?

Photos are available at the convention links here and here.

*When I say exact, I’m not kidding — 1971 has an identical calendar to 2021.

(**We had only accidentally found out about the convention the day prior while browsing through the musty and dusty stacks of assorted periodicals at the once mighty warehouse of Jay Bee Magazines.)

The program cover to the first Creation Convention — 50 years ago — and my former crazy badge collection that (sadly) only scratched the surface of my attendance as a professional.

Don Heck — Pow!

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers # 33, October 1966

Hawkeye has his Television debut today, and if the show lives up to its trailer, it should be good fun.

Here we have a terrific Hawkeye page from the Silver Age Avengers, illustrated by his co-creator, Don Heck.  (This is from the period of Avengers where the majority of the team, including Hawkeye, was comprised of reformed villains. I always loved that.) The page is fun combo of action and snarky dialogue, and it completely (and unexpectedly) breaks the fourth wall in the first two panels.

As a bonus, this might be the only page I own where the sound effect is actually then classic word “Pow.” I wonder how many newspaper headlines during the years have used that sound effect as part of a headline discussing any sort of comics-related story. (“Bam! Pow! Comics are not for kids anymore!” Here’s my personal sound effect for those: Ugh.)

Hawkeye’s first appearance —as a villain — in Iron Man, followed later by his reformation and entry into the Avengers.
This 1993 photo pops up in the ether from time to time, and I may have even published it on the blog previously. Don Heck and Walter Simonson look terrific, and I look… about 12. Cool tie though.

Dan DeCarlo — Iconic (Part 3)

Original Art and The Artists

Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica #58, October 1960, “Happy Hallucination”

Our final Dan DeCarlo entry this week is a story filled with irony, pathos and self-sacrifice… and infused with trademark humor.

Wait — that sounds like I’m in English literature class again. And even 40 years later, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for that.

So let’s simplify: Here’s a complete DeCarlo story that’s an absolute classic. Don’t take my word for it: The full story here is included below — in original art form, and published version too.

As Rod Serling would have would have intoned in his own hallucinogenic tales on Twilight Zone at at about the same time, this complete tale is officially  “submitted for your approval.”

Happy 80th, Archie. You occasionally look very different, but definitely not much older.

“Happy Hallucination” is also featured IDW’s Dan DeCarlo collection. (Volume 4, specifically — but let’s face it, you need to own them all.)

Dan DeCarlo — Iconic (Part 2)

Original Art and The Artists

Pep #148, August 1961

One of my first DeCarlo pages is sill one of my favorites.

To say Dan infused the storytelling and character personality here with pizazz is an understatement. In fact, this page is a typical DeCarlo classic: Simple, clear, fun — and completely engaging.

The third panel (Archie’s close-up) is a classic summation of the dizzying nature of the character’s life overall, not just in this story.

I like that headshot so much I use the published version as my icon for this blog, as well as in other places too.

Dazed and confused? I’m pretty sure I can relate.

Dan DeCarlo — Iconic (Part 1)

Original Art and The Artists

Archie Giant Series #153, Original Pin-up, reworked for cover, June 1968

Archie and his gang fully hit their stride with the baby boom generation, and no one was more responsible for that than cartoonist Dan DeCarlo.

Bob Montana created the original appearance of the gang, and DeCarlo modernized it — and never stopped tweaking the appearance (he had a very keen eye for fashion) and the personalities of the beloved characters for more than forty years. 

I loved Montana’s work — I even edited a hardcover collection of Montana strips — but DeCarlo’s clear and expressive art fully imprinted on my young reading eyes in the 60s and 70s.

So… to continue Archie’s 80thcelebration, we’ll feature just the tip of the iceberg of Dan’s great work this week.

And we will start with a fun anomaly: A gag that was redesigned — and rewritten — before it morphed from a pin-up page to a full cover.

Which one works better? I think I can come up with pros and cons for each, although from a comics code perspective, it’s possible the published cover might be slightly more acceptable than the original. It’s a bit more open to the imagination as to whether Archie is painting Veronica’s shirt — or her actual body.

In the unpublished version, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.

Tim Truman — The Weird West

Original Art and The Artists

Lone Ranger and Tonto #2, September 1994

I have three personal favorite series from my days at Topps Comics:

• Dracula by Roy Thomas, Mike Mignola and John Nyberg.

• Jurassic Park by Walter Simonson, Gil Kane and George Perez.

• Lone Ranger and Tonto by Joe Lansdale,Tim Truman and Rich Maygar.

The first two have been discussed previously — here — and here.

The third has never been reprinted by any other publisher— definitely a miss, considering how much fun the series is. 

It’s definitely the Weird West, with odd characters and supernatural elements (along with a refreshing sense of humor) as only Lansdale and Truman (Jonah Hex) can envision it. 

Also, it starts off with Tonto punching Lone Ranger in the face, and revisits the Ranger cannon with a “modern” (1993) approach.

Tim gave me this great page (I guess I have a thing for nervous characters with cigars) many years later, when I casually asked him if he had any left for sale. They rarely seem to pop up. 

In other words, it’s now in the permanent collection. Permanently.

Truman’s great wraparound comer for the Topps TPB collection of the mini-series.

Gabriel Rodriguez — Supernatural Talent

Original Art and The Artists

Locke and Key: Keys To The Kingdom #1, August 2010

Locke and Key has returned with a second season on Netflix this past week, and I’m looking forward to catching up to it shortly. As we wrote about previously, it was a long and tortuous road to get here, and I’m glad that the show performed well enough to get picked up for additional seasons.

Regardless, in this case at least, the graphic novel will never be improved upon by another medium and it remains one of IDW Publishing’s greatest achievements.

This cool page has Bode dealing with his transformation into a character that looks a bit like Calvin from the classic Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Too much like Calvin in the original pencils, if I recall correctly.

But I digress.

Some of the page was created and edited digitally (see below) so the original art is clean and lean — and captures Gabe’s terrific storytelling and draftsmanship that makes the story so compelling. 

Charles Paul Wilson III — Turns To The Darkside

Original Art and The Artists

Tales From The Darkside, November 2016

Our Third annual Halloween tribute continues now through October 31. 

Charles P Wilson III creates a knockout cover for a collection of Joe Hill’s unrealized scripts for a proposed reboot of Tales From The Darkside.

Wilson is absolutely among the top underrated artists working in comics and graphic novels today. He created a number of terrific looking projects for us at IDW Publishing, including Hill’s the Wraith and illustrated some other stunning variant covers for Locke and Key, X-Files, and TMNT, among others.

You can read more about him here.

Charles creates fun lithos of Marvel characters as goofy kids.

Glenn Fabry — Disappearing Act

Original Art and The Artists

James Bond #1 (Dynamite), November 2015

Today, after an 18-month pandemic induced delay, No Time To Die finally opens in the United States. We mark the occasion with our third, and final, piece of James Bond original art.

Ah, comic book art in the age of powerful digital technology. This original cover by Glenn Fabry starts off with two beautiful Russian women, but ultimately ends up without them.

(The gun in the background also disappears between solicitation and actual publication, but that is more a function of the trade dress choice, and certainly less jarring.)

Digital manipulation aside, it’s still a cool cover. And kudos to Dynamite for landing the rights. At IDW Publishing, we hounded the rights holder(s) endlessly and continuously came up empty handed. (I’m sure other publishers tried as well.) 

And speaking of disappearing acts — When I was at Topps Comics, we acquired the Goldeneye (Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as Bond) rights in 1995. We launched with a first issue of what was planned as a three-issue adaptation. Unfortunately, issues two and three never appeared. In addition to approvals that came in at the speed of molasses, the licensor — and I kid you not — objected to the adult material that was appearing in the comics. 

Nothing crazy — just the same “adult” material that appears in the film.

Seriously.

The infamous Topps Goldeneye comics; Issue #1 was published (and also distributed as a special #00 issue at the James Bond Convention in NYC.) Issues #2 and #3 were cancelled. All three featured great painted covers from Brian Stelfreeze.

John Byrne — No Shrinking Violet

Original Art and The Artists

The All New Atom #3, November 2006

John Byrne pretty much wrapped up his 21st century run at DC with the launch of The All New Atom in 2006. Great art and storytelling, but John only drew the first three issues in the series (with nice finishes by Trevor Scott) before departing.

This might have been bad news for DC’s Byrne fans, of course, but, selfishly, it was good news for us at IDW Publishing. Byrne’s Next Men ultimately returned, and John found time for some additional Star Trek series and a fun Jurassic Park mini, among many others.

Gail Simone created the character and wrote this Atom series, and like all of Gail’s work, it was a fun take, with Ryan Choi as the Atom’s alter ego, replacing Ray Palmer.

Also, Gail is one of the liveliest and funniest (and prolific) comics creators on Twitter. 

Trust me on this.

See you back here next Tuesday. Have a safe and fun Holiday weekend!