Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Roy Thomas

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!

Alex Saviuk — Spider-Man’s Amazing Friends

Original Art and The Artists

Newspaper Strip, Sunday, January 20, 2008

Pencils: Alex Saviuk. 

Inks: Joe Sinnott

Letters: Stan Sakai.

Story: Stan Lee. (With ghostwriting help likely from Roy Thomas.)

It’s an all-star team of creators contributing to this Sunday Spider-Man strip, and signed by everyone.

(Well almost. If I’m correct about Roy, I hope I can get his John Hancock at a convention. Whenever conventions become the norm again, that is.)

Fun Fact: I acquired this Sunday directly from Alex, who was kind enough to Remarque it for me to distinguish from the few others that had all four autographs. A talented artist and a super nice guy.

Nuff said.

(*You can read about Stan Lee and the legend of “Nuff Said” here and here.)

The very final Spider-Man Sunday, concluding a successful 40-year run.
The first volume of the classic Spidey strips features art by John Romita.
Alex’s very first Spider-Man story featured Mary Jane saying yes to the big question back in 1985.

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.

John Buscema & Tony DeZuniga — Skull On The Seas

Original Art and The Artists

Savage Sword of Conan #191, October 1991

Roy Thomas returns to Conan for the first time in 10 years, and partners with superstar artist John Buscema, pretty much picking up where the pair left off in terms of innovative and exciting Conan stories.

In addition to astonishing talent, Buscema could be very productive in terms of his total output — in this stretch of Conan he is providing layouts and rough pencils only, freeing him up for other projects. Here Tony DeZuniga provides some nice finishing touches for John. (I think here you can see John’s obvious handiwork, which was not always the case with DeZuniga inks.)

Lots of ink — as it were — has been spilled on who was Buscema’s best embellisher on Conan.  See here, here, and here for illustrative discussions.

My opinions have varied over time, and sometimes from issue to issue. The debate itself is fun.

And the talking skull? Spoiler alert: It belongs to King Kull’s arch nemesis Thulsa Doom. (In fairness, Thulsa eventually gives Conan much grief as well.)