Joe Giella – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Gil Kane — Green Anniversary

November 24, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Green Lantern #14, July 1962

Green Lantern celebrates two anniversaries in 2020.

The original Green Lantern (Alan Scott) first appeared in 1940, and the Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, gained his own DC comic book series in 1960, shortly after first appearing Showcase #22 the year prior.

During the first 75 issues of GL’s own Silver Age comic, Gil Kane is the artist most associated with this run.

In these early issues Gil is not quite GIL KANE yet. The art is very solid, slick, and polished, in DC tradition, but it would take a few years before Gil’s trademark style would fully break through the conservative confines of the scripting and editing.

By the time Gil finishes his 10-year run with issue #75, Green Lantern is not a giant commercial success, but Gil Kane is most certainly GIL KANE. Reading through collected editions of the series, you can clearly see the metamorphosis of his storytelling capabilities and artistic style.

As for issue #76 in 1970 (Another anniversary, now that you mention it) Denny O’Neil and DC shake things up a bit by adding Green Arrow to the mix — and artist Neal Adams takes the reigns.

The rest, as they say, really is history.

*Green Lantern milestones: The first appearance of Alan Scott in 1940; the first appearance of Hal Jordan, 1959; The first Silver Age issue of the Jordan GL, 1960.*

Carmine Infantino — History Calling

September 24, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Flash #112, May 1960

The Flash returns to THE CW shortly for its sixth TV season, so the Scarlett Speedster receives his own multi-part blog series this week.

Some of the most talented superhero storytellers in comics couldn’t figure out what to do with the narrative and exposition elements that move the story along when no one is wearing spandex or a cape.

Many comics were once filled with pages and pages of standard medium-angle shots of talking heads. Six panels per page. Rinse. Repeat.

Not Carmine Infantino’s pages. His innovative sense of panel composition and design, and use of varying and dynamic camera angles, made the “yada yada” part of the story much more engaging than most of his peers.

In this very early Flash story from issue #112 (inks by Joe Giella) he even manages to innovate a phone call. We take narrow “widescreen” (horizontal) panel layouts for granted now, but in 1960? Not so much. A page design like this is revolutionary 60 years ago.

Of course, superhero comics are ultimately about conflict and action, and re-reading these early Flash stories, his innovative style really jumps out. Those crazy speed lines that help give the illusion of 3D motion in a 2D medium. That sleek space age costume… designed before the space age really began.

And those amazing covers? Carmine gave up pencilling The Flash when he was promoted to DC’s art director. His cover on the final full issue of his 11-year run as Flash artist blew my mind as a kid in 1967 — and still does today.

What else would you expect from the designer of the Silver Age of Comics?

First Appearance of The Flash, Siver Age Version
First Issue of The Flash in his own series