Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: John Cassaday

John Cassaday — Masked Legends

Original Art and The Artists

The Shadow / Green Hornet: Dark Nights #1, July 2013

Nice to see two of my favorite classic characters, The Shadow and The Green Hornet together in one series, with a fantastic cover by the terrifically talented John Cassaday.

Pulps and comics — like peanut butter and jelly, yes? My dad connected many of the dots between the pulp, comics, radio and serial adventure characters for me at an early age.

I credit Jim Steranko (History of The Comics) and the nostalgia boom of the 60s and 70s for amplifying those connections.

And how about some contemporary credit to Nick Barrucci and the other talented folks at Dynamite Entertainment for (at least briefly) creating a cool “shared universe” with some of these unforgettable icons?

Fun books all around, and I know from personal experience it wasn’t easy securing all those licensing rights to make these kinds of mash-ups possible.

Steranko’s History Of The Comics (Volume One) is probably the first place The Shadow and The Green Hornet appeared on cover — along with an amazing collection of other heroes and villains.
Both the Shadow and Green Hornet appeared in Movie serials. (The Hornet actually appears in two.)

John Cassaday — Red, White & Blue

Original Art and The Artists

Captain America #6, December 2002

John Cassaday’s great art from Captain America seems like a good way to celebrate Independence Day.

And that makes me Captain Obvious, so that’s all I have to say about that.

Have a great 4th of July! (And if you see me, yes I will be wearing My Captain America shield shirt.)

I don’t know if this is an apocryphal  quote or not from Captain America’s co-creator, and don’t much care, because from what I know about Jack he certainly could have said it. Like they say: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

John Cassaday — The First Avenger

Original Art and The Artists

Fallen Son: The Death Of Captain America #5, August 2007

John Cassaday — a fan favorite artist if ever there was one — delivers a striking double-page splash of the Silver Age Avengers, with Captain America dominating the scene.

In the original comic, it was the Avengers that discovered the World War 2 legend floating in suspended animation in (essentially) a large ice cube. Of course, they never would have found him if it wasn’t for another Golden Age icon, Namor the Sub-Mariner, but as always, we digress.

This rendering actually combines multiple 60s Avengers line-ups into one image; The Hulk quit in a huff at the end of issue #2, fought against the team in issue #3, and was MIA by the time Cap thawed out in issue #4.

Cassaday’s art is stunning throughout this issue, but, biasedly perhaps, I think this is by far the best page(s) among many great ones.

The spread has appeared as both a poster and a limited edition Giclee, so, clearly it’s had some impact.

Assemble indeed!

In short order, Cap returned to the Marvel line-up, received his own solo feature, and then a few years later, his own series. (Picking up the numbering from Tales of Suspense.)