Joker – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Paul Smith — Joke’s On Us

January 30, 2024 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Joker Speciality Piece, 2020

Paul Smith Joker Speciality Original art from the collection of Greg Goldstein

True Story:

Nearly everyone I spent some time with at NYCC 2023 ended up with Covid-19. I indeed returned from the show feeling a bit under the weather, but when I tested negative, I assumed I had a case of the more common “con-crud” and went about my business.

Next day, I stopped at a local fast-food taco joint for a seasonal lobster burrito and COULD NOT TASTE IT. So, I went home and took the test again, tested negative, and napped. Woke up, ate dinner, still couldn’t taste a thing, and went back to sleep.

Next morning, tested again. Third time a “charm?” Nope, still negative. Did some homework, and learned the home kits have about a 15 percent false negative result. Called the doctor’s office, and the nurse told me to check back in if I felt worse. I could practically see her shrug through the phone.

Fortunately, I didn’t get worse, and my taste buds returned to normal in a few days. Covid? Maybe. Maybe not. Welcome to the 2020s.

Which makes this great Paul Smith specialty art even greater. In my case, The Joker could have burned the test, and it wouldn’t have mattered.

Oh, and the punchline: Where did I acquire this art?

NYCC 2023.

Kismet, no?

**Some additional Paul Smith takes on the Batman family…**

Eduardo Risso — A Dark Night

September 18, 2021 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Dark Night: A True Batman Story, August, 2016

Today, Saturday, September 18, is DC’s annual “Batman Day.” Although not exactly a national holiday, DC and Warner have used the occasion to commemorate the caped crusader and launch and market new products around the event.

So, as in the past two years, we continue to honor the celebration with the rest of the month’s posts devoted to The Dark Knight… and a special doubleheader today from a unique Batman story.

In more than eighty years of Batman stories, there is nothing quite like Paul Dini’s Vertigo graphic novel, based on a brutal mugging that happened to him personally in 1993: Batman and the rogues gallery become imaginary voices helping and hindering Dini’s state of mind as he attempts to physically and emotionally recover from the horrific beating.

Listening to Paul describe the incident in detail on a podcast at the time of the book’s publication was harrowing.

And the art pages, while gorgeous from start to finish, took an initial emotional toll on the Emmy-winning writer. As he told the Hollywood Reporter in 2015:

“When I first downloaded the pages from the attack, I looked at them very quickly once, horrified. Then I put them away for a week,” Dini recalls. “I burst into tears. I couldn’t look at them.”

The two-page sequence here, which I acquired last year, is a critical part of the story. (The pages are even specifically called out on Wikipedia). The “imaginary” Joker taunts Dini’s misery, until Batman shows up in the final panel of the sequence, and dispatching the clown prince of crime, tells Dini to stop feeling sorry himself, and get back to work.

Fortunately, for him (and us), get back to work he did.

Mike Parobeck — Not Joking

September 20, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Batman Adventures #16, January 1994

Continuing our art showcase in honor of the annual “Batman Day.”

Here’s an example of the terrific work DC’s editorial accomplished on its Batman animated tie-in comics, which captured the look and spirit of the brilliantly produced animated series.

Mike Parobeck, as discussed in a previous post, passed away much too early. The work he produced in his short time was so well done that an amazing long-term career appeared inevitable.

Lots of things to love about this title splash, including fun lettering (on the art board) by Tim Harkins, his final issue on the series.

Composition is terrific of course, and the multi-faceted Rich Burchett provides some nice slick inks.

Steve Rude — Crazy “Uncles”

November 28, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

World’s Finest #3, Fall 1990

Crazy uncles… are crazy 365 days a year. So why is it on Thanksgiving especially we argue with them over domestic politics, international relations, trade wars, e-mail server locations, or any number of myriad topics bound to interfere with all that good food? (Ok, maybe we actually don’t see them the other 364.)

Here’s my suggestion. Let’s keep politics out of the Thanksgiving holiday, and if you must argue/debate/parry over something, keep it to pressing and nerdy comic book questions, like —

Which super villain is smarter (Luthor), which one is crazier (Joker), which one causes more trouble (tie). Essential topics like that. (And be thankful that while your uncle might be yelling at the TV all day, he’s probably not scheming to take over the city/nation/planet etc.)

And please, be polite. The only time you should be Rude is when discussing Steve. (No debate here — that was a bad pun.)

Also, if you look around the table and can’t find the crazy uncle, it might actually be you.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Back soon with our continuing celebration of Marvel’s 80^thanniversary.

Kevin Altieri — Happy New Year!

August 19, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1, January 1995

This is a terrific three-page Batman / Joker sequence from the amazing Batman Animated team: Story by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, art by Kevin Altieri. Kevin is primarily known for his role as an award-winning director and storyboard artist for Batman and other animated series. As such, Kevin’s done little actual comic book work. As this sequence clearly illustrates, that’s a shame.

Kevin Altieri:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0022828/