Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery
Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
Action Comics # 855, October 2007
Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Eric Powell creating a multi-part Bizarro story?
Sign me up.
Spoiler alert: It’s absolutely terrific — fun and affectionate — start to finish. Powell knocks the art out of the park. Many mainstream superhero readers tracked down Powell’s Goon series after they saw this.
You can bet the farm — Kent’s or otherwise — on that.
One final time — Happy Halloween, 2024!
Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, September 2003
Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman: Trinity #2, 2003
Here’s a great Matt Wagner splash featuring Wonder Woman doing her best to rein in Bizarro. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t go all that well.
Wagner delivers page after page of visual dynamics and terrific storytelling in this underrated series featuring DC’s “Big Three.”
The only thing I don’t like: The “official” book title, which is a bit long and definitely not obvious. (Publishers occasionally forget that readers have to be able easily find the title at retail. Trust me on this.)
Happy Halloween —all month long!
Superman #87, March 1994
Stuart Immonen — guest penciling in Dan Jurgen’s regular slot — has some fun with Bizarro, and the rest of the Superman cast in this two-part story from 1994.
This is only the second appearance of Bizarro in the “modern” superman era. John Byrne used the character in the Man of Steel mini-series (#5) and promptly destroyed him.
Spoiler alert: Lex Luthor resurrects the Superman cloning idea in this issue, and things don’t go much better. (Although I guess Bizarro lasts two issues instead of just one this time around, so there’s that.)
I definitely dig Immonen’s art — but if you thought Jurgens drew Mr. Kent with a big mane of hair, definitely check out Stuart’s version. Superman’s hair starts big in issue #87 and might even be fuller and longer by #88.
Definitely ready for a time-travel trip to the Hyborian age.
Happy Halloween —all month long!
Pin-up (Unused Cover), Superman #600, March 2002
Michael Golden draws a terrific Superman here — likely with the most detailed and beautiful cityscape to ever appear on a comics page.
First it was commissioned as a cover — then it went into inventory — then it came back out as a pin-up in the 600th issue of Superman.
And look, I know it was just after 9/11, and the “American Way” theme made sense. But… when you look at the printed cover, and compare it at this amazing Golden piece, you simply shake your head at the missed opportunity.
(Side note: As noted previously, I am a sucker for “happy” Superman art. If you had those powers, wouldn’t you be happy — at least some of the time?)
Superman: Blood of My Ancestors, November 2003
Superman: Blood of My Ancestors is an unusual project. Gil Kane was the original penciller, but he passed away before he could finish it, and then John Buscema took over the penciling, and did manage to finish it — before his passing shortly thereafter.
So, when the book finally see print in 2003, both pencillers, giants in the industry were gone.
Kevin Nowlan provides finishes for both. (And as a bonus, because Kevin inked Gil’s pages, they won’t fade away like so many of the other Kane “marker era” pages from his latter DC comics career.)
Not a ton of Superman in this one-shot since much of the story revolves around an early ancestor of the House of El. In fact, most of the Buscema pages look like a classic barbarian tale. Kal-El’s distant relative is a dead ringer for Conan.
Who knew?
Superman Confidential #4, 2007
A lovely page from a novel series:
Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale, two legends gone much too soon, teamed up on this interesting exploration of the origins of kryptonite and how Superman came to understand his relationship to his home planet.
Welcome to Day two of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Superman: Day of Doom #3, January 2003
Marking the 10th anniversary of the Death and Return of Superman, Dan Jurgens and Bill Sienkiewicz tackled a four-issue retrospective mini-series titled, appropriately, Day of Doom.
Bill’s unmistakable inks make the situation even more horrific this second time around. (This is one of the best pages in the series, as it features all four Superman characters who “returned.”)
Happy Halloween indeed — and welcome to the 30th anniversary of the Death of Superman.
How did that happen?
Son of Superman (Graphic Novel), January 2000
Here’s a beautiful Superman page by the super-talented J.H. Williams, inked by his long-time collaborator Mick Gray. It’s an “Elseworlds” (imaginary, out of continuity) story when DC still published those.
Original art pages are artifacts of course, and fortunately, and this one relies on traditional inking methods, lettering and sound effects as opposed to digital enhancements to provide the final result.
I love Williams’ note to Gray in the top margin, explaining how he envisions the final look of the page. (It’s interesting that the colorist chose to reduce the dynamic splash effect in the water in the second panel. To each his own, I guess.)
Thaboom indeed!
Superman #200, October 1967
This art is from Wayne Boring’s final new story for DC comics for more than 20 years.
Boring, one of Superman’s truly legendary artists, was part of a group of creators that asked for pay rate increases, benefits and other employment improvements. So, naturally, DC fired them all.
It’s an oddball imaginary story with the end spoiler right there on the (Curt Swan) cover for kids like me to see. I had only been reading Superman comics for a short while, but I knew his Kryptonian origin by heart from TV and other media. So, I was intrigued by this alternative vision of The Superman legend.
I acquired this page whenI first started collecting art again about 15 years ago, and I haven’t seen one since.
Action Comics #407, December 1971
I rarely get into bidding wars over a specific piece of art. As a well-know art dealer intones: “There’s always more art.”
This time, though, I got carried away.
Superman in space. Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. Superman in every panel. A title page. An original Superman logo. And my peak era of buying comics from newsstands (late Silver Age, early Bronze age) without the benefit of comics conventions.
That is a lot of checkboxes. So, like I said, I got carried away.
Overpaid — but worth it.
Plus — and I love this — it has a Looney Tunes type joke in the monolugue. He made a wrong left turn a million miles ago? Seriously?
