J Bone – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Darwin Cooke — Getting In The Spirit

March 5, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Batman / The Spirit #1, January 2007

Batman /The Spirit Cover #1 Original Art by Darwin Cooke from the collection of Greg Goldstein.

Darwyn Cooke welcomes The Spirit into the DC Universe with this outstanding cover featuring Will Eisner’s legendary creation, facing off against… well another pretty well-known comic book legend.

Cooke’s take on The Spirit is one of my favorites, and this entire double issue, with inks by J Bone and colors by Dave Stewart is simply wonderful. It definitely deserved its Eisner award (so appropriate) for best single issue of 2007.

This cover is the only Spirit art that Darwyn penciled and inked himself, since this issue, and the subsequent ongoing, was inked on separate blue-line by Bone.

Fun fact: The cover was solicited for sale in its original version, and then ultimately flipped for actual publication. Makes sense, since the title is Batman/The Spirit, not the other way around.

Happy Will Eisner Week!

Jennifer Graves & J. Bone — Bats And Cats

October 11, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Gotham Girls #1, October 2002

Batgirl fighting Catwoman? — seems like a great way to celebrate Halloween (upcoming) and Batman Day (belatedly) within a terrific action page by Jennifer Graves and the equally terrific J.Bone.

And, always a pleasant surprise to have a 21st Century piece of art with the word balloons hand lettered on the page.

Call me “old-school” all you want. It’s a compliment.

Fun fact: It took nearly 20 years for DC to collect this mini-series, and when they did they renamed it “Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls to capitalize on — you guessed it — Harley Quinn, who is by no means the centerpiece of the original series.

I can hear the Joker’s cackle from here.

Darwyn Cooke — Captures The Spirit

March 5, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Continuing our celebration of “Will Eisner Week” and the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with other creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.

The late Darwyn Cooke? The closest thing to Will Eisner this modern generation of talent had seen. Visionary storyteller, writer, illustrator, letterer and more. Not only could he do it all, Darwyn could do it well. VERY well.

He was the logical choice for an ongoing series of Spirit stories — the first since Eisner’s run ended in 1952.

DC launched the series with a Batman Sprit crossover, and this terrific splash is the final page of that story. Inked by J. Bone, this issue, and the subsequent ones of the ongoing series are the closet in spirit (ahem) to Eisner’s vision more than 50 years prior.

Darwyn, we miss you.

“I think everybody who is consumed by storytelling within this medium has had some profound schooling from Will…

I can remember it was one of those days when I was thirteen, and I was in a comic store, and there was nothing that I wanted to get. On the wall was a copy of Warren’s Spirit magazine. I think it’s number three, where he is running down the elevated track straight at you, and the train is behind him. It’s just one of the most exciting images I have ever seen…”

-Darwyn Cooke interview From Will Eisner: A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman