Mark Evanier – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Steve Rude — Love Letter To The King

April 15, 2021 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Mister Miracle Special #1, April 1987

We continue to celebrate Jack Kirby’s legacy at DC Comics with a special two-week look at Jack’s characters and concepts as envisioned by other creators. 2021 is the Fiftieth anniversary of the Fourth World storyline. *

Jack Kirby super-fan Steve Rude pens this artistic love letter to Kirby’s Fourth World, in this one-shot from 1987. Along for the tribute are Jack’s best-known collaborators at DC, writer Mark Evanier and inker Mike Royer.

On this inventive and powerful splash page — the best in the issue — Rude cleverly uses a “trapped” Miracle as the backdrop for other Fourth World characters including The Forever People, Lightray of the New Gods, and Big Barda.

Rude and Evanier would reunite again for another Kirby tribute years later with a 1999 Jimmy Olsen story in Legends of the DC Universe # 14. (Inked this time by Bill Reinhold.)

*Purists will note that some of the characters and titles actually made it onto newsstands before the close of 1970, but the fully integrated series (Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle) — doesn’t fully materialize until the following year.

Sergio Aragonés — Details, Details

July 18, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Sergio Aragonés Groo: Hell On Earth #3, January 2008

Sergio Aragonés sold his first professional work in 1954. Er… uh… 66 years ago.

That was in Mexico, and he was still in high school. In 1962, he immigrated to the United States, did a few odd jobs, and eventually showed up at the door of Bill Gaines and Mad Magazine.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Since then, his work would fill an Encyclopedia. No, scratch that. A library. A very cool and humorous library.

The Comics Journal declared him “one of the most prolific and brilliant cartoonists of his generation” and yet somehow, that remains an understatement.

Groo the Wanderer is essentially a parody of Conan and its ilk. A parody that’s lasted 40 years, thanks to Aragonés’ imaginative storytelling and witty cartooning (with the help of collaborator Mark Evanier) and all those amazing artistic details and flourishes.

Those details are obvious in the printed comic of course, but so much more so in the original art. And not a lot of Groo original art is floating around. Sergio has kept many of his complete issues.

We were fortunate to publish an IDW Artist Edition of Sergio’s Groo work, so I was able to see a few hundred pages of all those glorious details.

And I’m very fortunate to own this splash, purchased from Sergio directly.

Outstanding cartoonist. Outstanding guy.

Another creator that I dearly miss from the 2020 convention circuit.

Damn you, 2020.

*Groo has indeed wandered in 40 years: From Eclipse to Pacific to Epic (Marvel) to Image to Dark Horse. (Plus special edition reprints from Graphitti and IDW.)*

*The very first Groo story, as it appeared in Eclipse’s Destroyer Duck in 1982.*

*One of my favorite Sergio Aragonés pieces of all time. A gazillion characters, even for him.*

Jack Kirby — Happy 102!

August 28, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Jack Kirby and Steve Rude, Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby – Volume 1

Today, let’s celebrate The King’s birthday with some help from an unabashed professional Kirby admirer — Steve “The Dude” Rude. Steve completed a previously unpublished Kirby Jimmy Olsen cover rough for a TPB collection in 2003. I love the power and playfulness in this image, and Steve’s inks nailed it.

Interesting that the initial color version of the cover, used for solicit purposes, is realized in the “classic” style, while the final printed version is digitally rendered in the “modern” style.

Anyone want to guess which version I prefer? Anyone?

(On the subject of Superman’s likeness in the DC Kirbyverse, Kirby expert and author Mark Evanier has some illuminating background here.)

Happy Birthday Jack!

Preliminary color
Published color