Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Marvel Comics

Steve Rude — Hulk Vs… Superman

Original Art and The Artists

Incredible Hulk vs. Superman, July 1999

Steve Rude delivers a terrific action page of Superman vs. Hulk, as we continue to pay tribute to Hulk vs. heroes in other universes this week.

Superman vs. Hulk seems quite a bit more logical than Batman vs. Hulk.  Theoretically, Superman would ultimately win, but at least he would be winded.

And come to think of it, Golden Age Superman, as originally conceived by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, might still win, but it would be pretty close to a draw.

Early Silver Age Superman, who could move planets around, not so much.

Rude, who worships at the alter of Jack Kirby, and shows reverence for Shuster’s Superman as well, is the perfect artist to illustrate this pairing.

And Granny’s expression in the middle panel? Nothing like a bit of offbeat humor to lighten the mood of a titanic fight, albeit very briefly.

Rude is perfect for that, as well.

Technology gets better (and less expensive), and fans apply their creativity accordingly.

José García-López — Hulk Vs… Batman

Original Art and The Artists

DC Special Series #27, September 1981

Late April is the time of year when we are typically revved up and ready for the upcoming summer movie blockbuster season. 

Definitely not this year. June perhaps? (Fingers crossed, and all that.)

So here at the blog this week, we present the big blockbusters you will never see on the big screen anyway — crossovers featuring the Incredible Hulk with characters from other universes, starting with…

…Hulk vs. Batman. 

This was the second character crossover between Marvel and DC, following the successful pairings of Spider-man and Superman a few years prior. At the time Superman was DC”s most important and recognizable character worldwide, so despite the power inequity, that original pairing made commercial sense. Of course, Batman vs. Spider-man is a fairer fight.

And Hulk vs. Superman? That seems fairer — More on that later.

Meanwhile, despite the improbability of the match-up, Jose Garcia Lopez presents a master class in comic book storytelling in 48 pages.

It’s an astonishing piece of work, by an artist’s artist. Both visual imagination and draftsmanship are superb here. Many of the pages are top of class, and very few are anything less than terrific.

I prefer Lopez inking himself, but Giordano does a terrific job, and despite the mismatch of powers, it’s a fun ride. 

But seriously, Batman “vs.” Hulk? (Eventually, of course, as illustrated here, they team up.) It may have been a fun ride, but realistically, it should have been a very short one.

Gabriel Hardman — The True King Of The Monsters

Original Art and The Artists

King Kong, Commission, 2014

Godzilla got most of the attention in the last few posts. But Kong needs some love as well.

So here’s a terrific commission by Gabe Hardman to provide a solution.

Between American and international film releases and re-releases, there is a ton of great movie poster art out in the world. Much of it is quite striking, and my favorites always involve the penultimate scene of Kong fighting the “air force” on top the Empire State Building. (Spoiler alert: he loses and plummets to his death moments later.)

So this piece is a no-brainer for my collection. (Plus, my dad loved King Kong, and he would have seen its original release as an 11-year old, so there’s that reason to own it too.)

And even though Kong “died” in the original classic, he came back 30 years later to fight — and apparently defeat — Godzilla in the original match between those screen titans.

I wonder who wins this time around. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

It took more than 30 years for the original King Kong film to receive a comic adaptation, but it when it did, it was a glorious 64 pages for a quarter. Cover by the incredible George Wilson.
A few interior pages from the end of the Gold Key King Kong adaption , and Marvel’s classic parody cover that somehow manages to combine Kong, The Marvel Universe, and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.

David Messina — Godzilla’s Kingdoms

Original Art and The Artists

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #9, November 2011

My pal David Messina delivers a terrific cover for one of IDW’s many Godzilla comic series from a few years back. I love the composition and scale here.

Godzilla returns (again) this coming week with the much-hyped Godzilla vs. Kong. In theaters or on HBO Max, as they say.

Godzilla has made a few returns to comics as well. Originally a somewhat goofy series at Marvel during the 70s, Dark Horse picked up the rights to the Big G in the 90s. Ultimately, we published quite a few issues at IDW, and the “modern” film version from Legendary has made it into their own sporadic comics line from time to time.

Meanwhile none of the pre-IDW series are available to purchase as collections (print or digital) because of… well, Toho. I tried to make progress there many times. Many, many times.

Trust me on this.

Interlude — Planet Money Podcast

Original Art and The Artists

Who wants to sell these guys a superhero?

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/12/967425295/we-buy-a-superhero-origins

Doorman? Yep, he and the rest of these oddball characters launched in Marvel’s West Coast Avengers #46, courtesy of our pal John Byrne.

Planet Money is our favorite economics podcast (Freakonomics is a close second) and we were pleasantly surprised to see the most recent episode (likely part one of a two-parter) discuss superhero economics. Or at least the part that deals with the intellectual property valuation of superhero ownership. 

We’re extra delighted that our old pal Alex Segura, co-president of Archie Comics is the featured interview.

And yes, the hosts do get it in their head to try to buy Doorman, an especially — and purposely — lame character, from Marvel. 

Listen… and subscribe. 

Doug Hazelwood — Kirby, Redux

Original Art and The Artists

Fantastic Four #69 Cover Re-creation, 2014

Doug Hazelwood has been doing some great re-creations of Jack Kirby Marvel Silver Age covers, and Fantastic Four #69 is a terrific example of Doug’s work on these.

Typically, I don’t collect exact cover re-creations illustrated by anyone other than the original artist, but I made an exception here, because, well, its one of my favorite covers from that era.

And a nice way to close out our first tribute to the 6oth anniversary of the Fantastic Four.

The published cover To FF#69 along with a fun retro portrait of Jack by by Brendan Tobin.

Ken Steacy — This Man…

Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Portraits #2, April 1995

The masterful Ken Steacy transforms an important scene from the one-shot story “This Man… This Monster!” (Fantastic Four #51) into a dramatic painting for the inventive Marvel Portraits mini-series in 1995.

That’s not actually Ben Grimm, but rather a villain who ends his own life with this heroic act near the end of the offbeat tale.

Peter David wrote the excellent commentaries for these re-creations of classic Marvel moments in this specific issue, so I think will let him finish telling the story below.

George Perez — Shock Endings

Original Art and The Artists

Fantastic Four #167, February 1976

Continuing our multi-part tribute to the 60thanniversary of the Fantastic Four — and the “Marvel Age of Comics.” 

Hulk vs. Thing? Think about it. The Thing can give the Hulk a run for his money, I suppose, but in the end Hulk wins. No contest, really.

The “shock ending” here is that after quite a few matches during the years, The Thing takes pity on Hulk and joins forces with him to fight the army and the Fantastic Four (or more accurately, three), and anyone else who might be persecuting the Hulk at that moment.

George Perez, aided by the amazing Joe Sinnott, delivers a great looking action page featuring both characters. Pages from this issue rarely turn up and I’m fortunate that I found one. This is one of my favorite issues from the late bronze era, and it doesn’t hurt that it features a terrific cover by Jack Kirby, one of his earliest from his “return” to Marvel a few months prior.

That said, about the scale accuracy of the Gateway Arch Monument (St. Louis) vs. the occupants as depicted here? The less said, the better.

The Thing vs. The Hulk, becomes the Thing AND The Hulk — vs. everyone — at the end of FF #166.

Lee Weeks — Tonality… And Totality

Original Art and The Artists

Shadows & Light #2, 1998

Continuing our multi-part tribute to the 60thanniversary of the Fantastic Four — and the “Marvel Age of Comics.” 

Hardly any fans I know are aware of this three-issue Marvel series featuring shorter-form stories by top creators. All of them are in black and white (hence the series title) and some, like this one by the very-talented Mr. Weeks, use wash-tone to add depth to the art.

Lee brought this page (and a few others) from this Fantastic Four story to a convention years back, and, even though it had a price tag on it, I could tell he was a bit reluctant to part with it. (I believe it’s the very first published story he wrote in addition to drawing, so I understood.) But, ultimately, I think he knew it would be in good hands and he let me pry it away from him.

I’m happy and grateful that he did. And I’d love to see more Weeks art employing gray-tone. It’s beautifully rendered.

Bob Powell And Wallace Wood — Buddy Movie

Original Art and The Artists

Strange tales #134, July 1965

The Human Torch and Thing buddy comedies of the early 60s come to an end in this cool penultimate page by Bob Powell and Wallace Wood. 

Torch solo stories started in Strange Tales #101 (hey, it worked in the Golden Age) and within a few years, the Thing was added to the strip as well.  An ever-changing group of creators, and frankly, some second-rate stories and villains, didn’t apparently do much for sales, and our Fantastic two get bumped by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the very next issue.

Meanwhile, this amusing story features time travel, The Watcher, Merlin the Magician, and Kang the Conqueror, who is apparently about to play an important role in the MCU. (It’s only his third appearance as “Kang” at this point, following two run-ins with the Avengers.)

Because I love time travel stories I can forgive all of it — except maybe Powell and Wood’s execution of the Thing. They are not alone though in rocky renditions of Ben Grimm. Flipping through these old Strange Tales stories, very few artists other than Jack Kirby seemed to figure out how to successfully make anatomic sense of a character made from rocks.

It’s clobberin’ time, indeed.

The Silver Age gets retro-golden very quickly in these early Torch Strange Tales stories. (Although, for the record, that’s an imposter pretending to be Captain America. But you wouldn’t know it until you bought the issue, or stood around reading it at Dave’s Luncheonette until he kicked you out.)