Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Roy Thomas

Gil Kane — Conan The Triumphant

Original Art and The Artists

Conan #18, September 1972

I’m guessing that if Roy Thomas had a mulligan, he might swap the opening art direction of Conan #17 and #18.

Conan the Barbarian #17 opens with a wild Gil Kane action splash — pure velocity. Limbs and weapons whipping across the page. Classic Kane. I’d frame it in a second.

But coming straight off sixteen issues of Barry Windsor-Smith — all that delicacy and atmosphere— it’s an abrupt shift. Not wrong. Just abrupt. (Especially after #16’s beautiful “Frost Giant’s Daughter.”)

The splash in #18 lands softer, more transitional. Kane pulls back: more ceremony, more posture, more air. The composition settles instead of punches.

Dan Adkins helps. Having inked both Smith and Kane, he gets the difference — and keeps the line refined enough that the book doesn’t feel like it wandered into another genre.

Seventeen announces the change. Loudly.
Eighteen eases you in.

Flip the order and the handoff might’ve felt less jarring.

Don’t get me wrong — I love plenty of Gil’s work. Still, I was relieved when Barry came back for a short stretch before bowing out for good.

John Buscema & Tom Palmer — Avengers, Assemble

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers #84, January 1971

John Buscema was the Avengers artist of the late ’60s and early ’70s—despite famously claiming he didn’t much care for superheroes.

Every panel feels like it could’ve been pulled from a widescreen adventure film, even when the scene is nothing more than a nightmare and a jolting wake-up. That was his magic: Buscema could make anything feel epic.

This page shows exactly how he defined the Avengers in that era. Grace, power, and cinematic clarity are baked into every beat, transforming a bad dream into something memorable—and unmistakably Avengers.

Behind the scenes, Marvel was running hot. Kirby had just left for DC, schedules were tightening, pages were due, and assignments were shifting fast. You can feel a stronger Tom Palmer inking presence here than in some earlier issues, suggesting John may have supplied looser pencils as deadline pressure mounted and the machine kept moving.

Marvel may have been in motion, but Buscema’s vision was locked in.

New York State Of Mind, 2025 (Part 2 Of 2)

Original Art and The Artists

New York Comic-Con, October 9-12, 2025

Some more fun pics from this year’s NYCC…

Photo of Roy Thomas And Greg L Goldstein at New York Comic-Con, 2025

I didn’t see half the people I wanted to see, But I was very happy to run into (rascally)Roy Thomas who I’ve known as a fan, professional and colleague the last 50 years or so, give or take. Random fun fact: About 30 years ago, Roy, Len Brown, Jim Salicrup and I went in a Topps chauffeured-driven car to grab hot dogs at Nathans in Coney Island.

Another fun fact: Nearly all of the buildings outside the convention center in the pic on the right existed 10 years ago. In some places, that’s an entire city. In New York, it’s a neighborhood.

Mike Ploog — Marvel Goes Ape

Original Art and The Artists

Planet Of The Apes #3, December 1974

Things you learn.

According to Roy Thomas, in an editorial in the first issue of Planet of the Apes magazine, it was my friend and old Topps colleague Len Brown who persuaded Roy — and Marvel — to acquire the POTA license. Roy’s article on that process is worth a read.

Another fun fact: Mike Ploog insisted he draw the series, which was developed as a sequel to the fifth and final original Apes film, Battle of the Planet of the Apes.

And that’s cool, because Mike provides us with some very lovely artwork throughout, including this terrific page. 

Mutants! Monkeys! Maniacs! What more could you ask for?

(Special note: Pretty much  everyone was late to the party on the POTA license, but when they finally got there in time for the final film and then the TV series, It became, as they say,  “a thing.”) 

Roy Thomas tells us the origin of Marvel’s Planet Of The Apes.

John Buscema — Man On Fire

Original Art and The Artists

Sub-Mariner #3, June 1968

Sub-Mariner Original Art By John Buscema from the collection of Greg Goldstein

Five straight weeks in the Spring of 1968. Five comic book issues drawn by the legendary John Buscema:

Sub-Mariner #3

Avengers #53

Sub-Mariner #4

Avengers #54

Silver Surfer #1 (38 pages)

Gems. Every single one. (And yes, I might be biased, because these comics are from my newsstand-era sweet spot — 1967-1973 — but I’m not wrong.) My guess is that only Jack Kirby ever had an achievement similar, or greater.

This Sub-Mariner page featuring Namor and Triton is the best Buscema superhero page I’ve ever owned, and unless an amazing opportunity comes my way, will likely remain that way. 

Dynamic inks from one of John’s favorite inkers, Frank Giacoia.

All action. 

Just terrific.

Sub-Mariner #3 Original Art Page From the Collection of Greg Goldstein

Marvel Cut-Ups

Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History, by Roy Thomas, 2023

Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History took me by surprise as one of the most intriguing books on the history of comics publishing this year.

I never clipped out the 1970s stamps; I was savvy about collectible value at that point, and I certainly didn’t have the budget or inclination to buy two copies of every comic, especially titles I would have never collected in the first place. (Just for the record — A few years earlier, I had made a DIY scrapbook of Marvel covers by cutting up the house ads for new issues. So, I wasn’t always “savvy.”)

The book offers a comprehensive history of the program’s evolution, which originated from a similar gimmick in the UK. Roy Thomas, the author, walks us through Stan Lee’s “seat-of-the-pants “approach to developing and executing the program, which was typical of Marvel.

For me, the book’s most compelling aspect is how it focuses on art and its transformation and re-purposing. The book is detailed and captivating, presenting the original source art for each stamp alongside the full letters page, which is where the published stamp appeared.

On some of my favorite pages, we see art for the original covers as well as the altered reprints. 

My only quibble? I wish the trim size was the same as an actual comic book. (It’s smaller.) Makes it hard on the eyes in places, especially the letters pages. And let’s face it: The prime audience for this title is well into the reading glasses phase.

Priced at $29.95, the book itself is a bargain, regardless of whether you collected the stamps – or not.

John Buscema — Ka-Zar, Man-Thing, Oh My!

Original Art and The Artists

Astonishing Tales #12, June 1972

Man-Thing (Seriously, what kind of drugs to you take to come up with a name like that?) makes his first color comic book appearance in this terrific Ka-Zar story illustrated primarily by John Buscema. 

Part of the story was slated to appear in the B&W Savage Tales #2 which did not see the light of day, so it was cleverly re-worked here. Because of the re-mixing, credits on this issue read like an all-star line-up, and include Buscema, Neal Adams, John Romita and Dan Adkins.

Writer Roy Thomas somehow made sense of it all, creating the framing story around Len Wein’s original tale.

Bonus: Man -Thing’s first overall appearance in Savage Tales #1 includes this glorious splash (below) by Gray Morrow.

Frank Thorne — Angels From Hell!

Original Art and The Artists

Red Sonja #10, July 1978

Frank Thorne on Red Sonja? Sign me up. 

It took me a while to acquire a piece of art from his run on the famed female barbarian, but I ended up with a cool one.

To this day, the wildest convention events I have ever personally witnessed were the live performances featuring Red Sonja (Wendy Pini, Linda Behrle, and others) and Frank Thorne playing a wizard: “Sonja and the Wizard.”

They called themselves the “The Hyborian Players.”

It was indeed the 70s. Trippy, dude. Trippy.

Famed talk show host Mike Douglas with Phil Seuling, Wendy Pini as Red Sonja and actor Jamie Farr, July 1977

Gil Kane — Bloody Vengeance

Original Art and The Artists

Ring of the Nibelung #2, (The Valkyrie), February 1990

Gil Kane tackles Richard Wagner’s The Ring of The Nibelung opera series (adapted here by Roy Thomas) with dramatic results.

It’s a prestige format series, so Gil employs a large art format, and, unlike the majority of his DC work from this period, it’s primarily pen and ink, as opposed to marker. Therefore, the pages — pretty much all terrific — are collectible and displayable without worrying about the art fading to nothingness.

(Ask anyone — myself included — who has owned a page from either Sword of the Atom mini-series and they can explain further.)

What would Gil himself say about this dynamic page? I’m not exactly sure, but it would begin this way:

“Greg, my boy…”

Art Adams — A Classic, Revisited

Original Art and The Artists

Avengers # 24.Now, February 2014, Variant Cover

Art Adams pays homage to Neal Adams with this terrific Avengers variant cover from 2014.

Neal’s original Avengers (#92) cover is from 1971, and remains one of my personal favorites. In addition to loving the dramatic art and striking colors, I have a fond memory of guessing the cover’s story gimmick before I actually read the comic.

(Spoiler alert: Thor, Cap and Iron Man are actually skrulls, which we don’t find out until the next issue. Another spoiler: Writer Roy Thomas shortcuts some of the backstory of how that came to pass — blink and you might miss it. Before it’s all over though, the Avengers will find themselves in the middle of the Kree-Skrull war. But, as always, we digress.)

Art’s modern version swaps out X-Men for Avengers, and seamlessly adds additional characters as well.

2021-2022 is the 50th Anniversary of the Kree–Skrull war, so… Happy Anniversary, and Happy New Year!