Scott Lang – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Bob Layton — Incredible Shrinking Dad

April 7, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Comics Presents #11, January 1989

Continuing the 60th anniversary celebration of Ant-Man.

Bob Layton (pencils and inks) creates a terrific looking title page for a short story featuring the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang. (Of course Lang’s version of the character is the one most familiar to most audiences since he’s the version currently inhabiting the Marvel Universe, played by Paul Rudd.)

I seem to own a number of pages from these short stories from Marvel Comics Presents and Marvel Fanfare, and none of this material has yet to be collected. I’ve probably said it previously, but it seems easy enough to create collections that are themed around specific characters, etc.

I hope that actually happens one of these days.

Fun fact: David Michelinie, John Byrne and Layton share co-credit for the creation of the Lang vesrion of the character, who first appeared solo in Marvel Premiere #47(April 1979), a month after he had a guest spot in Avengers #181.

P. Craig Russell And Dan Adkins — Bite Size Action

October 6, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Feature #7, January 1973

Ah, Hank Pym.

Ant–Man (no costume.) Ant-Man (costume.) Giant-Man. Goliath. Yellowjacket. Hank Pym, scientist, no alter ego.

And here, Ant-Man again.

Hank Pym was definitely having an ongoing identity crisis in his 10 years in the Marvel Universe.

Needless to say, seeing Ant-Man and Wasp as a full-length feature on the newsstands was a surprise. It lasted seven issues of Marvel Feature, before disappearing once again.

Here, P. Craig Russell and Dan Adkins present us with a nice Bronze Age action page. This is some of Russell’s earliest professional work, and his distinctive style has yet to develop.

In fact, since Craig broke in as Adkins assistant, it definitely feels much closer to Dan’s work than Craig’s.

Ina few months, Craig would take over the art chores on Killraven in Amazing adventures, and as “they” say (and I say too much) the rest is history.

As for Hank Pym, the identify crisis would continue. He returns as Yellowjacket, joins the Defenders, then rejoins the Avengers, and then… well, it actually becomes even more complicated.

But of course, Scott Lang eventually takes the role of Ant-Man, and as they say…