Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Will Conrad — Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

Spirit Commission, 2003

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

The very talented (and underrated) Brazilian artist Will Conrad is a self-professed Will Eisner nerd. When he heard that Eisner would be attending a Brazilian comic book convention, he labored over this oversized Spirit piece to show Will, who was nothing but flattered and supportive.

Will held on to the piece for many years, but he knew how much I loved it, and after some atypical patience on my part, he ultimately let it go. (Thanks Will!)

“Sometimes Eisner used an empty street as part of the story. When he drew fog, the page was damp.

And the rain, always the rain, dripping off everything including the Spirit logo. He lingered over environments until you could almost smell the cheap hotel rooms, taste the tension, or feel on your flesh the chilly pall of a rain swept street.”

— Jim Steranko, History of The Comics, Volume 2

Will Eisner — Peak Spirit

The Spirt, Register and Tribune Syndicate, September 12, 1948

2020 marks the 80th Anniversary of the Will Eisner’s Spirit, a comic series that ultimately became a game changer in the medium. This week is also celebrated annually as “Will Eisner Week,” dedicated top one of comics’ most influential legacies. So let’s dive in…

This cool page is from “Cache McStash”, and is from Eisner’s peak period on the Spirit. In fact, it is published just one week after his own personal favorite story, “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,” perhaps the most perfect film noir ever created for the comics.

And don’t let the misleading credits on the otherwise great Grand Comics Database fool you. This story is all Eisner — script, pencils, inks, and letters — as confirmed by Denis Kitchen.

I was fortunate enough to be asked write the intro for the Spirit story “Sound” featured in the hot-off-the-presses Spirit 80th celebration from Clover Press.  No spoilers, but, I love the way Eisner integrated sound effects into his storytelling, and, on this page the simple ticking of the clock enhances tension and movement.

Like everything else he did, he found a way to make his two dimensional comics cinematic in scope.

“I grew up on the movies, that’s what I lived with. The movies always influenced me… Doing the Spirit strip was like making movies. It gave me a chance to be an actor, producer, author and cameraman all at once.”

— Will Eisner, quoted in Jim Steranko’s History of The Comics, Volume 2

Kurt Schaffenberger — Still Marvelous

Shazam #26, December 1976

We continue to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original Captain Marvel, now known as Shazam.

In 1972, with a nostalgia craze in full swing in the US, DC shocked the fan world by announcing that they had acquired the rights to the original Fawcett Comics characters. So… after 20 years, the Captain was back. Unfortunately for DC, a little company called Marvel had added its own Captain Marvel character and title to its line-up, and so at first the DC comic’s title was called Shazam. Ultimately, the character himself became named after his own magic word to avoid additional legal battles.

Title aside, Shazam presented a challenge for DC. The audience that had grown up on 50s and 60s comic book stories had in fact… grown up. And in a universe of Kirby, Steranko, Adams, et al, the golden age Captain Marvel was simply too quaint. Shazam #1 sold like proverbial hotcakes, because of the nostalgia craze and curiosity factor — and the burgeoning collectors’ market — but it was clear that the struggle to keep the character true to his roots AND somehow contemporize him created enormous editorial and commercial challenges. (One that’s challenged DC for nearly 50 years.)

In this terrific page by Schaffenberger, we see the classic Captain Marvel art style, only updated very slightly from the stories that Kurt had drawn 20 years previously.  Although Schaffenberger was a more accomplished artist at this point, his clean and uncluttered style is still his trademark.

Fun fact: As you can see from the inscription, this page was originally acquired from Kurt by my friend and former colleague Len Brown (Mars Attacks, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents). Len ultimately sold it, and it made its way through the collectors market until I spotted it about 10 year ago and purchased it. I offered it to Len in case he had any regrets, but he doesn’t collect art anymore, so he declined.

Leaving it in my hands, with some interesting provenance as a bonus.

Barry Windsor-Smith — Slayer Of The Status Quo

Conan # 7, July 1971

Conan celebrates its 50th anniversary in comics this year, and we celebrate the anniversary with three Conan-themed posts this week.

Barry Winsdor-Smith was not the first choice to draw Conan. Legend has it that Roy Thomas knew that John Buscema was the idea artist for the job. But Publisher Martin Goodman nixed the idea, citing budget and schedule, and told Stan/Roy to find someone less expensive.

The solution? The young British-born Smith, who had been a fill-in artist on a handful of super-hero titles with an unmistakable Kirby influenced style, and who was both cheap — and available.

And so Barry drew Conan for 21 of the first 24 issues — and the comic book world promptly grew up.

Smith, one of the many “young guns” of similar age, and breaking in at around the same time, (Chaykin, Kaluta, Simonson, Wrightson among the many others) ultimately developed an inimitable style. Yes the Kirby influence was there, especially early on. But so is Steranko. And Alphonse Mucha, the best-known stylist of the Art Nouveau period (late 19th – early 20th century), provides much of the inspiration for the intricate designs and beautiful women that populate those early Conan stories.

Smith’s run on Conan is unlike any other in professional comics at that time. And Baby Boomers, who had grown up on the simple stories of DC, and had segued into the cosmic soap operas of Stan and Jack, were primed for these comics. The Boomers were growing older, and now, the comics were growing up with them.

Smith’s style developed rapidly over his three year run on Conan, culminating in the extraordinary “Red Nails” that first appeared in 1973/1974 in Savage Tales. And of course, the work was always best when Smith was inking himself, but both Sal Buscema and Dan Adkins did excellent work, and interestingly, both are credited on this issue. Sal is credited on this specific page, but without all 20 original pages together, it’s difficult to tell.

Either way, it’s a stunning page, and only a small harbinger of things to come.