Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: IDW Publishing

Kevin Eastman — To Frank, With Love

Original Art and The Artists

Batman / TMNT, Unused Variant Cover, 2015

Here’s an original to help us celebrate the 80th anniversary of Batman (I know, we said we were finished with that series… but this time we mean it!) and the 35th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Turtles, launched in 1984.

Kevin Eastman was inspired to create this Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns homage during the first DC / IDW crossover between Batman and the Teenage Mutant Turtles. No surprise, as Kevin cites Miller and Jack Kirby as inspirations for his and Peter Laird’s original TMNT. The piece wonderfully captures the grittiness and weariness of Miller’s Batman; and Michelangelo as Robin? Mad genius. Everyone at both companies loved it.

But the art was formally submitted for approval a bit late in the game — after all the retailer variants and exclusive covers for that series had been determined and solicited, so it missed series one.

Flash forward to series two and three (2017 and 2019) — and now the DC retailer variant program has been virtually eliminated, and there is no logical place for the piece to appear as a cover. Sigh.

That third series is wrapping up now, and I’m assuming there will be collection of all three in a deluxe format at some point. Maybe this piece will appear as a bonus; I think fans would love to see it, and selfishly, I would love to see a color version.

As for how TMNT came to crossover with Batman in the first place? That’s a great tale, but one for another day.

The iconic Miller image from Dark Knight Returns and… An original art gift from Frank Miller To DC EditorJulie Schwartz in honor of his 75th birthday, 1990. I love it, but not as much as Kevin’s take on his own Dynamic Duo.

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…)