Golden, Michael - Danzig Album Remarked

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Artwork Details

Title:	Golden, Michael - Danzig Album Remarked
Artist:	Michael Golden (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Other
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	13,635
Likes on CAF:	1 2
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	7/4/2008
Comic Art Archive:

Description

OK, settle down kiddies, time for a bit of a long story here. Glenn Danzig was the singer/songwriter for The Misfits, Samhain, and the eponymous band Danzig. While being really good at making catchy punk tunes (The Misfits, when fronted by Danzig, is one of my favorite bands), he let his likes and influences shape his music and images maybe a little too much. The original Misfits logo got replaced with lettering ripped directly from the magazine Famous Monsters Of Filmland, the Misfits skull was lifted directly from a publicity still from an old movie serial called The Crimson Ghost, and the Danzig skull that you see pictured above was lifted directly from Saga Of Crystar #8, painted by none other than Michael Golden. It has a cover date of July 1984, meaning it hit the stands in March 1984, and according to Golden, was painted in late 1983/early 1984, which would make sense.

Danzig has been a big fan of comics for years, and his first release with Samhain, titled Initium, came out in August 1984, and had a skull incorporated into the logo that looked exactly...hell, it is the skull from the cover of Crystar #8. It appeared on all subsuquent Samhain releases, and was the only thing on the cover of the first Danzig album.

The picture above is of my vinyl copy of the first Danzig album, which I brought with me when I drove to Phoenix in January 2008 to see Golden. Danzig himself had signed it on the inside over his photo many years ago when I met him at a record store signing (he actually was a very cool guy, we talked comics for a couple minutes). So I talked to Golden about this, and he brought up the point of why hasn't Marvel, the owners of the work, ever gone after Danzig for compensation? Danzig has sold t-shirts, posters, belt buckles, all sorts of merchandise over the years bearing this image.

Other comic book artists have interpreted Golden's work on other Danzig albums. Simon Bisley did it on the cover of Thrall - Demonsweatlive, and H. R. Giger (okay, not exactly comics, but he fits...) did it on the cover of Danzig III - How The Gods Kill. Giger supposedly did what Marvel has not. Danzig used a Giger painting from 1976, Meister und Margeritha, for the cover, and Giger added his version of the skull to the painting. This was apparently all Giger was prepared to offer. I've heard a story that after Danzig started selling merchandise with the Giger version of the skull, Giger sued Danzig, and the way the papers were served was that someone crowd surfed up onto the stage at a Danzig show, handed Danzig the papers, and did a stagedive back into the crowd to disappear unharmed!

So anyway, Golden was nice enough to sign my Danzig album for me, which is a really nice picture, as the skull wraps around the entire gatefold. Golden put in his full logo signature, which I've always liked. I remember scouring over many of his covers with some friends looking for where he had hidden his signature this time, which helped to give a greater appreciation for the incredible amount of detail he puts into his work.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the history lesson, and I'll be posting more original art soon, just thought this would make a nice interlude, and I've been meaning to post this for a while anyway. I think I mostly wanted to put this up just so that Golden gets a little more credit for some work of his that has been seen probably by millions worldwide at Danzig shows over the years. Have fun!

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	Ken Fries Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	October 2006
Last Login:	September 2025
Ebay Id:	robocreep
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Matt Moore
Member Since 2004

Posted on 10/23/2009

Luckily Glen had good taste in artists...

Neal Roth
Member Since 2009

Posted on 11/29/2009

That is awseome! I am a big Danzig fan, and never knew this. Thanks for that info.

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