Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Stan Lee

Eric Powell — Monster Mash

Original Art and The Artists

Marvel Monsters: Where Monsters Dwell #1, December, 2005

Continuing a two-week series celebrating Halloween with the best in monsters, mystery and mayhem.

Marvel Comics has only recently fully embraced its monstrous heritage; giant creature stories that dominated its publishing line just prior to the “Marvel Age of Comics.” 

When it came to oversized behemoths (home grown or alien) terrorizing Earth’s inhabitants, no one could hold a candle to these giant-size oddballs from 1959 -1963. 

And I do mean odd: Oog, Orrgo, Ulvar, Rombu, Rorrg, Goom —and his offspring Googam (I kid you not) — are only a few of the dozens of beasts, lizards, robots, and aliens that walked the earth. (And of course, our pal Groot from Guardians Galaxy was originally a planet-wrecking alien conqueror way back in 1960.)

Obviously inspired by the pop culture of the day (Godzilla, et al) Stan Lee, along with co- creators Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers Larry Lieber and others, took a monster-sized football and ran with it. 

Eric Powell created all four covers for this series of modern one-shots in 2005, plus he provided interior art for the Devil Dinosaur issue. I’ve shared my thoughts about Eric previously. The creator of the Goon is a terrific talent, and his art style blends reverence and satire perfectly on these covers.

The Where Monsters Dwell issue specifically features three main characters: Bombu, Monstrollo and Manoo. The covers of their original appearances, along with Eric’s three other covers, are shown below.

Lee Weeks — FOOM!

Original Art and The Artists

Incredible Hulk #78, April 2005

Continuing a two-week series celebrating Halloween with the best in monsters, mystery and mayhem.

Lee Weeks drawing the Incredible Hulk? Excellent.

Lee Weeks drawing a Hulk splash in which our hero is about to be clobbered by Lee and Kirby’s Fin Fang Foom? Feels like a must-have page.

Weeks… Hulk…Fin Fang Foom… Monster Island. Not much more to add here about this cool and surreal page.  It’s from the Peter David multi–issue story “Tempest Fugit”, that seems very influenced by the “Lost” television show, which was then in its first season. 

This story arc, marking David’s return to the character, definitely has some detractors (spoiler alert — it’s essentially a dream story) but Weeks art, with inks by the amazing Tom Palmer, definitely transcends whatever story issues might exist.

Fin Fang Foom, one of the many great giant creatures created at the dawn of the silver age, appeared just shortly after the birth of Fantastic Four #1, whose debut would ironically herald the end of the age of Marvel Monsters.

He resurfaces from time to time — including a one-shot with the Hulk shortly after this story — but his appearances are too infrequent for my own taste. 

Fun fact: His surname became the name of the Marvel -run fan club magazine in the 70s. Friends of ‘Ol Marvel indeed!

Weeks signing at Baltimore Comic-Con, (yesterday), October 18, 2019

Alex Saviuk — Meta Mysterio

Original Art and The Artists

Spider-Man Adventures #5, Unused Cover, April 1995

Spider-Man: Far From Home landed on digital streaming platforms this week, so the next few posts feature — who else? — Spider-Man and Mysterio.

Spider-Man Adventures, a ‘90s comic book title, existed mainly to support Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which ran on Fox Kids from 1994 – 1998. In fact, the first thirteen issues of the comics are direct adaptations of the first-season episodes.

The episodes themselves are adapted (albeit loosely in some cases) from original Spider-Man comic books.

So…

Issue #5, featuring Mysterio, is an adaptation of Episode #5 of the TV series, which in turn, is adapted from Mysterio’s very first comic book appearance — by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko — in Amazing Spider-Man #13. (1964).

A comic book adaptation…. of a TV show adaptation… of a comic book story.  That trick definitely trumps anything up Mysterio’s sleeve.

Alex tells me that his original cover was rejected because the editors wanted more emphasis on Mysterio —and for the character to be more “dramatic and menacing,” and I think he delivered. (See below.) Still, I like Alex’s original take, especially with that iconic Spidey image.

Alex’s creative spin on the wall-crawler has lasted more than 30 years.  He drew the Web of Spider-Man comic book for seven years, and then the full Spider-Man Adventures run, and then the Spidey newspaper strip from 1997 to its end earlier this year.

Nothing mysterious about that longevity — Alex’s passion for, and understanding of, the Spider-Man character is obvious anytime he puts pencil to paper.

  • Fan art of a Far From Home Poster that looks a LOT like the unpublished cover. 
    It appears Alex was well ahead of his time.

Ross Andru — Laughing Matter

Original Art and The Artists

Not Brand Echh # 1, August 1967

I had only recently started buying Marvel comics off the spinner racks when Not Brand Echh premiered in the summer 1967. I was immediately attracted to its zaniness. I knew Marvel didn’t take itself too seriously from reading its traditional comics — The “Bullpen Bulletins”, the “no-prize” gimmick, the Merry Marvel Marching Society, et al — but Not Brand Echh (NBE) was a new level of nutty.  (A bit later on I discovered it was in the spirit of the original EC Mad comics, but I didn’t know anything about that era yet.)

The actual golden age fight between the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner had just been reprinted a few months ago in Fantasy Masterpieces (# 8), and here was a send-up making fun of the whole thing? The Human Scorch?  The Sunk-Mariner? As my friends’ older siblings would say back then, far out.

Bill Everett is typically credited as one of the pencillers on this story — I’d like to believe that — but writer Roy Thomas says he remembers that Everett may have only worked on the title splash at most. Either way, Ross Andru was no stranger to superheroes or satire, and this page is a favorite.

1967 also saw the debut of Topps Wacky Packages and Roy’s earlier comic book satires, Krazy Little Comics, also from Topps. Summer of Love? Sure. But also —- Summer of Satire.

  • Fantasy Masterpieces # 8…
  • …Reprints the 25-year old battle
  • And NBE #1…
  • …Skewers it
  • Krazy Little Comics
  • MMS — Big News