Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery
Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
Supergirl #14, December 2017
Continuing our series celebrating Supergirl’s 5thseason premiere on the CW on Sunday,
Jose Luis (not to be confused with the artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez) illustrates a lovely and simple moment with the super team of Superman, Supergirl, and Krypto. I can’t recall when I saw a similar published page, especially in contemporary comics, where Krypto has shifted in and out of continuity more than a few times.
Supergirl #36, and Action #872, February 2009
Supergirl’s 5thseason premieres on the CW on Sunday, so our next few posts will take a look at the cousin of steel.
Here’s my unsolicited story idea for the terrific art team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story: A Superman Family “Elseworlds” limited series that includes Superman, Supergirl, Lois and Jimmy, The Super Pets, The Legion of Superheroes, Kandor, Bizarro… And a full line-up of classic villains. Pretty much everyone who populated the mid 20th century Superman comics.
In other words, a longer form story that’s similar to Alan Moore’s and Curt Swan’s classic “Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow,” but with —- spoiler alert — no fatal tragedies involved.
In 2020, that’s about as likely to happen as Perry White yelling “Great Caesar’s Ghost”, or Jimmy Olsen turning back into a giant turtle, but a guy can dream, can’t he?
Much like Steve Rude, Chris Samnee, and a handful of other artists, Chris and Karl take classic styling and adapt it into a modern form. It’s both retro and contemporary.
In many ways, it’s the best of both worlds. (Hey — that could be the name of the series.)
In the meantime, we have these two great covers: Supergirl and “Superwoman” (long story) gracefully flying, and Metallo and Reactron defeating the super cousins. Cyborgs rarely look this menacing on a super-hero cover.
And, if someone at DC miraculously likes my idea, and Mark Waid is tied up, it’s pretty easy to find me…
Convention Commission, 2012
We interrupt our multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio in honor of today’s “Batman Day” (9/21) celebration. Our regularly scheduled programming will continue tomorrow.
Neal Adams first Batman story appeared more than 50 years (!) ago in World’s Finest Comics #175. The art blew my mind then, and still does today. Happy Batman Day, Neal, and thanks for all of it!
Tomorrow, we conclude our multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio with none other than “the Dude” — artist Steve Rude.
Jack Kirby and Steve Rude, Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby – Volume 1
Today, let’s celebrate The King’s birthday with some help from an unabashed professional Kirby admirer — Steve “The Dude” Rude. Steve completed a previously unpublished Kirby Jimmy Olsen cover rough for a TPB collection in 2003. I love the power and playfulness in this image, and Steve’s inks nailed it.
Interesting that the initial color version of the cover, used for solicit purposes, is realized in the “classic” style, while the final printed version is digitally rendered in the “modern” style.
Anyone want to guess which version I prefer? Anyone?
(On the subject of Superman’s likeness in the DC Kirbyverse, Kirby expert and author Mark Evanier has some illuminating background here.)
Happy Birthday Jack!
Lois Lane #87
I love looking at comic book covers — I can easily head down the rabbit hole on-line or at a convention scanning through them. To my mind, no one shook up the comic book cover world more than Neal Adams.
I was a kid when Neal’s realistically dynamic DC covers transformed the line, modernizing and freshening many titles pretty much overnight. 1968 rolled in, and suddenly Lois Lane wore contemporary clothing and had fashionable haircuts, Superboy’s foes looked genuinely menacing, and… Batman and Green Arrow?” The rest as they say, is history.
This is the unpublished cover for Lois Lane 87. Neal told me that any unpublished DC covers are “self-rejected,” meaning that he decided he didn’t like them himself, as opposed to any editorial dictate. Either way, you can see the switch makes sense. The “rejected” cover has Superman breaking up a scuffle. The published cover, where the characters are flying, rather than on the ground, makes it much clearer that two super-powered women are trying to kill each other. (Although Superman never had to actually break up the fight in the story itself. Lois handled it herself, thank you very much.)
That said, I like the overall appearance of the unpublished cover much better and the “Fortress of Solitude” interior, with chair and control center, is especially cool.
