Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Wonder Woman

Jim Lee — Rescue

Original Art and The Artists

Superman #211, January 2005

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few weeks — no matter when the new film finally releases.

Jim Lee’s 12-issue run on Superman, “For Tomorrow”, is classic. Even though the story itself is not as highly regarded as his Batman “Hush” storyline, the art and storytelling start off pretty great and quickly proceed to spectacular.

Comic Book Resources summed it up:

“Superman: For Tomorrow” is an uneasy mixture of introspection, lamentation, and explosive action (think “Hamlet” mixed with “Godzilla”), Lee’s art only increases in spectacle as the story unfolds.”

Case in point, this issue featuring Wonder Woman: Epic action, glorious detail, creative and dynamic storytelling. Do you get the sense I like the art?

Inks on this page are provided by the talented Sandra Hope, filling in for Scott Williams. Based on high quality of the finished story, I’m certain there were some deadline struggles along the way.

Re-reading the entire story today, it’s also better than I realized the first time around. That said, the Absolute Edition is definitely worth owning for the art alone.

David Finch — Iconic

Original Art and The Artists

Wonder Woman #48, March 2016

Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few weeks — no matter when the new film finally releases.

David Finch provides us with a beautifully illustrated, classic splash page of Wonder Woman in flight. An iconic pose, it could easily be used in a DC licensing style guide. 

She’s wearing her “2011” costume, which disappeared with much fanfare in issue #41 — and then mysteriously reappeared, without explanation, a few issues later. (The interim issues had featured a brand new costume design by Finch and his writing partner and wife, Meredith.)

Finch’s detailed and lush artwork speaks for itself, of course. He is easily one of the most well regarded artists of the 21stcentury.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing quite a few of his originals from his inkers (this piece is inked by the terrific Scott Hanna) and their art reps. 

All great.

Wonder Woman media costumes through the ages.

Tony Daniel — Wonderous

Original Art and The Artists

Teen Titans #29, December 2005

We should all be getting ready to go see Wonder Woman 1984, the follow-up to the mega hit original Wonder Woman, this week.

Well, actually, we should have seen it back in June.

Ummm… actually, we could have seen it last fall. It’s been in the can for quite some time. The first delay was because of strictly commercial scheduling reasons, while the next two are due to COVID.  I’m pretty certain Warner would like to go back in time and release it on its original schedule. (Come to think of it going back in time is a good idea for pretty much every reason.)

Its currently on the schedule for October 2, and If I were guessing, it will arrive then no matter what, even it means some sort of weird combo of theatrical and Video On Demand (VOD).

But that’s just an educated guess.

In the meantime, we’ve moved the Wonder Woman art posts around a few times to accommodate the film’s timing, and they can’t be moved anymore, as we’ve run into to other scheduling roadblocks. (Just like the film studios, except we don’t have millions of dollars on the line.)

And, were starting off our next two weeks of Wonder Woman blogs with not only a great piece of art by the terrific Tony Daniels, but a very appropriate one as well: That’s Maxwell Lord she’s got under control, and he apparently plays a major role in the film.

I don’t know much more than what I’ve seen in the trailer, because if I’m not actually working a project, I try to avoid any spoiler details, whatsoever. And the more this film gets delayed, the more difficult that becomes.

Fingers crossed, it’s only two more months.

Fun Fact #1: This is the only appearance of Diana in the entire issue. As the published page clarifies, Cassandra (Wonder Girl) is viewing Wonder Woman’s confrontation with Max on a TV.

Fun fact #2: The printed page is reversed, but I’m wondering if a last minute page layout change (because of an advertisement) renders the change moot. It appears on the left side of the spread and, in my mind, works better with its original direction if it’s a “lefty.”

Howard Chaykin — JSA At War

Original Art and The Artists

Superman #226, April 2006

Continuing our multi-week celebration of the 80thanniversary of the Justice Society of America.

This is great action splash from Howard Chaykin, and a rare treat to see him illustrate classic superheroes.

As part of the Infinite Crisis storyline, Supermen from two different universes clash, each one living the life the other. When one goes to halt the Nazi atrocities of World War 2, he learns the difficult truth about Hitler’s super stalemate courtesy of the Spear of Destiny.

It took more than 35 years to tell the origin of the Society, and Paul Levitz created a plausible scenario that explained why America’s heroes simply didn’t use their powers to end the war in favor of the Allies quickly and decisively. Spoiler alert: It involves magic. 

Roy Thomas and other writers ultimately ran with (and expanded) the concept, and writer Joe Kelly incorporates this premise into this Crisis Crossover.

This is the final issue of this specific volume of Superman, launched nearly 20 years prior, as part of the “John Byrne reboot.”

One of my favorite single issues from the late 70s (DC Special #29) tells the “untold origin” of the Justice Society and explains why they can’t simply destroy the Axis Powers. The “magic” theme would carry into other stories as well.