Rawhide Kid – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Jack Davis — Rarity

November 21, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Rawhide Kid #35, August 1963

Jack Davis and Stan Lee only worked together a handful of times. Jack drew six Rawhide Kid stories at the dawn of the “Marvel Age,” after Jack Kirby became too busy designing and developing Marvel’s earliest superheroes.

Davis’ cartoony style is unmistakable, and definitely a departure from the typical Marvel western art line-up that included Kirby, Dick Ayers and Larry Lieber, among others.

These Davis Western stories are some of the final color comic book stories to he ever drew. Shortly after their publication, Davis returned to Mad Magazine and became a Mad mainstay for more than 20 years.

And of course, we can’t forget the Time Magazine covers. The TV Guide covers. The film posters. The advertising work. Trading cards for Topps. Etc.

Just a few things to occupy the drawing board of one of America’s most talented and recognizable commercial illustrators.

Too bad Stan couldn’t persuade Davis for a bit more work. I’m not sure how it would have worked out on the traditional superhero stories * but a few short pieces for Not Brand Echh would have been right on the nose.

(*Well, actually I’m certain it would have been jarring to see Jack on “straight” superhero stories…)

Sal Buscema — Belated Birthday Bash (II)

February 1, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Spectacular Spider-Man #137, April 1988

Sal Buscema celebrated his 84^th birthday earlier this week — how did that happen, you ask? I don’t know either. (January, by the way, is obviously a great month for the Marvel “bullpen.”) So, we continue our better-late-than-never tribute series.

Sal, one of Marvel’s most versatile and prolific artists, cites the Hulk as his favorite character. Nevertheless… he penciled and (mostly) inked 100 issues of Spectacular Spider-man. (That’s 100!)

Included in that record-setting run is this dynamic page from early in his return to the title in 1988. It’s the end of black spider-suit era — pretty much the final appearance of the costume before Peter ditches it for good (mostly) a month later in Amazing Spider-Man #300. (MJ is not too happy that her husband looks like Venom when he wears it, but I digress.) I love the way the three middle panels work cinematically to show Spidey getting the upper hand on the gunmen.

Sal wanted to be an inker. He has said in various interviews (emphatically, in some cases) he prefers it. And it’s clear that it took him some time to find his own voice penciling. (In fact, if you compare his early 70s work to his late 80s work, it’s obvious that, like many great artists, his voice evolved.)

But I think we are all happy that Stan and Marvel’s editorial team pushed him into pencils. He’s an ~~amazing~~ a spectacular storyteller.