Real People in Imaginary Stories

More original comic art from my increasingly weird collection

Brian here, and I have a problem.

Well, I have many problems, but for the purposes of today’s bonus content, let’s concentrate on my deepening addiction to collecting original comic book artwork. It’s time for another installment of Come Up and See My Etchings.

Recently, I was reading an interview with cartoonist Nick Drnaso (I haven’t started his new graphic novel Acting Class yet, but his last book Sabrina was a capital-m Masterpiece), and this quote really rang my bell:

“I can only speak for myself,” he says cautiously when I ask why literary cartoonists seem to be such a tortured bunch, “but I have found that there’s something in the [comics] form that does attract people who maybe have anxiety or OCD-type tendencies.” He points to the extraordinary disjunction between the time an artist will work on a panel or a page, the painstakingly detailed work, and the speed with which the reader will skip over it. “There’s something therapeutic about the problem solving, figuring out how a sequence is going to unfold and be structured and paced. So many practical things to focus on.”

If you’ve seen my sketches, you know I’m obviously no artist, but I do find something enormously therapeutic about studying the panels in physical pages labored over for countless hours by my favorite comic creators, trying to understand how they made order out of chaos.

Also, I like buying stuff.

Last weekend was another of Heritage’s big “signature auctions” of original comic art, where a single page by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson from The Dark Knight Returns with one panel of Batman (in silhouette) sold for $228,000.

But not to this poor sap and his cancelled tv shows!

Instead, I was over at the website of Catskill Comics, where owner Scott Dress represents artistic legends like Ramona Frandon and Mike Grell, as well as the late Marvel giant Joe Sinnott, who inked this page I was lucky enough to pick up for my “gallery” of Comic Art about Booze and Other Drugs:

From Avengers #232, written by Roger Stern, pencilled by Al Milgrom, inked by Joe Sinnott, lettered by Rich Parker/Jim Novak, edited by the great Mark Gruenwald, all characters owned by Disney/Marvel.

Shitfaced Tony Stark!

Speaking of things I’m still amazed writers and artists (and editors) were somehow able to pull off back at the old House of Ideas, here’s a page from another of my bizarre areas of interest, Real People in Imaginary Stories:

From Super-Villain Team-Up #7, written by Steven Englehart, pencilled by Herb Trimbe (with an art paste-up of Doom’s head redrawn by John Romita Sr.!), inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Jean Hipp, edited by Mark Wolfman, all characters owned by Disney/Marvel (including Kissinger??).

That’s right, it’s Doctor Doom having a friendly super-villain team-up with his fellow probable war criminal, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. This issue came out in 1976, when the guy was still in office! And some people think today’s superhero comics are too political…

Ever since I read a Stephen King character name-check Cyndi Lauper in Misery, I’ve loved stories that creatively blend fact and fiction, and I’ve even taken my own stabs at mixing the mundane and fantastic:

Ex Machina #40 by Tony Harris for good old Wildstorm Comics (now DC Black Label, I think?), owned by Tony and me.

Sorry for the blurry reflection of me (and the many levels of narcissism) in this framed image from Ex Machina, an extremely generous gift from artist, co-creator and fellow cover model Tony Harris. I love the detail work on his sneakers and his Rockwell-esque signature for this one; dude is just incredible.

Believe it or not, I’ve got several more examples of gorgeous comic artwork featuring everyone from real-world magicians to possible historical serial killers, but first, let’s take a break from me flaunting my worldly possessions to give YOU a chance to get your hands on something cool:

From iconic co-creator Fiona Staples, treasured Spectators letterer Fonografiks, and our dear friends at Image Comics, Saga Volume 10 will finally be at your local comic/book shops on OCTOBER 5th.

But if you just can’t wait, I’ve also got a stack of copies that I’ll be giving away over the next few weeks to some of YOU.

For your first shot at one of these freshly printed volumes signed AND sketched (by me, not Fiona, sorry), please just tell us in the comments: What’s your favorite guest appearance by an actual human in a fakey comic?

And where the hell do you leave a comment, you might be asking?

Our weekend chats are open to anyone and everyone in The Tower, what we call the group that includes all of you generous enough to subscribe to Exploding Giraffe at any paid tier.

Tower members will be able to access that private discussion thread (and more swell artwork from my collection) beyond the necessary evil of this paywall, but if you can’t join us there, no worries, we’ll see you back here on Monday for new NSFW grandeur from Niko Henrichon, thanks again!