One of the main goals for collectors of original art is to own a complete story, that is all of the pages that were published that still exist. Such beats aren’t that easy to come across though – I’m spending a considerable amount of time and expense tracking down a few errant pages to certain stories and issues that I have the bulk of here, and it’s frustrating to say the least, especially when you have all but a few pages. The ultimate goal is to own a complete series – I only have the one, that being Norm Breyfogle’s Metaphysique, which I own all of Norm’s interior pages to and the painted covers (I had, and still have, no interest in the non-Breyfogle pin-ups). Owning a complete story can be easy when it’s only a few pages, but don’t let that statement fool you, it’s no easy feat getting all of the art in. Even more difficult is finding the pages for a non-published story. The reasons for this are simple – if the story wasn’t published then more often than not the pages were

Years before Norm Breyfogle landed in Riverdale to draw the adventures of Archie, he had a career with Marvel and DC. But even before that he was a young artist, trying to break into the comic book industry and spent time appearing at conventions and plying his wares. A meeting with Mike Friedrich soon saw Norm on the way to stardom and Batman, but even before Bob Violence and Whisper, Norm did something amazing and sold Marvel Comics a Batman story. You read that right. Norm sold Marvel a story featuring one of DC Comics flagship characters. How did this happen and when was this printed? Back in 1986, just before Norm began work for First Publishing, he submitted a story to DC where he’d done some work as part of Sal Amendola’s New Talent Showcase. The story featured Batman taking down an oversized villain in a school where the villain has taken two young children hostage. During the story Batman has to rely on his wits and fighting skills only as he can’t use anything in his

Welcome to Part VII of the life story of Rich Buckler !  Following on from Part VI , Rich discusses the creation of one of his most famous creations, Deathlok.  Keep watching this series as there's some exciting news that, once the ducks are all lined up in a row, will thrill a lot of people.  If you enjoy reading these articles, and if you like the art you're looking at, then feel free to contact Rich directly and arrange a commissio n .  Rich's schedule is fairly open right at the moment and Rich is more than capable of doing some stunning work.  Give it some serious consideration and spread the word. Before we start I'd like to point out that all of the cover images shown in this post are Rich's own favourite DC covers.  When Rich points out what he loved drawing, well, you can see why people loved those covers then and still love them now. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy Rich Buckler's life story, exclusive to this bl

If you've read this blog previously, then you'd have read how Alan Weiss introduced me to the sheer majesty of Russ Heath's artwork via the pages of Blazing Combat, the all too short-lived Warren war magazine.  It's almost impossible to detail what the best part of Blazing Combat was, virtually all the stories were written by Archie Goodwin, who was at the top of his game, and drawn by the likes of Heath, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, John Severin, Joe Orlando, Alex Toth, George Evans, Gray Morrow and many more - in fact it was the cream of the artistic crop of the time and each artist turned in some of the best work of their careers.  Oh, and the covers were done by Frazetta, as if you ever needed any more of an excuse to get this stuff. Amongst the best of the stories is this one by Russ Heath.  I was blown away by it when I finally got my hands on a decent reprint - Heath has created an almost photo-realistic story via his pencils and inks, and the art shows a depth tha