Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Superman

Michael Golden — Able To Leap…

Original Art and The Artists

Pin-up (Unused Cover), Superman #600, March 2002

Michael Golden DC Comics Superman Original Art From The Collection Of Greg Goldstein

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?)

Gil Kane & Kevin Nowlan — Never Fade Away

Original Art and The Artists

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?

Gil’s depiction of Superman in flight made the back cover of the one-shot as well. It reminds me a lot of this great house ad for Gils underrated run on Superman in the early 80s, just prior to John Byrne’s overhaul of the character and the mythos.

Tim Sale — Kryptonite

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Dan Jurgens & Bill Sienkiewicz — Doomed, Again

Original Art and The Artists

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?

J.H. Williams III — I Knew Him When

Original Art and The Artists

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!

Wayne Boring — Final Milestone

Original Art and The Artists

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.

Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson — Superman In Space

Original Art and The Artists

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?

John Byrne — Look up…

Original Art and The Artists

Action #592, September 1987

John Byrne provides a terrific page from about the halfway point in his re-boot run of Superman.

(And no mainstream character was more in need of a reboot in the mid-80s than Superman.)

John of course provided nearly everything here: Story, script, pencils and inks. Keith Williams adds the background inks on buildings and such.

Byrne? Superman in every panel? That’s a keeper.

Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund— Infinite Supermen

Original Art and The Artists

Countdown #40, September 2007

Dan Jurgens drawing Superman? Excellent. 

Dan Jurgens drawing seven different Supermen on one splash page? Absolutely terrific.

I’ve lost the thread on the DC multiverse. Is it infinite these days or finite? Do all versions exist simultaneously, or at different points in the timeline? 

It doesn’t really matter. As a long-ago former CEO of mine would say, this kind of pondering can make you reach for the Excedrin. 

(And, trust me on this, he had the largest bottle of Excedrin I’ve have seen to this day. It must have been a special order. But, as always, we digress.)

Fun fact: In Dan’s and inker Norm Rapmund’s original art, the Superman just to the left of “our” Superman, looks a bit like Jimmy Olsen to me. The coloring clearly modified the face in the published version.