Bizarre Adventures 25 Story Page 7 Feat’ Lady Daemon by Michael Golden and Terry Austin

I say this every year and hopefully I’ll be able to for years to come but no CAF birthday party of mine would be complete without a new Michael Golden page addition to my gallery.

This is an exciting add for me because on top of the intrinsic quality of the page, offering prime Golden art with prime Austin inks, a perfect mesh if there was one, on top of writing from Chris Claremont (basically a mainstream 80s comic book geek wet dream), my very first Golden original came from that very story, at a time when he was a well-known and self-admitted recluse not touring the conventions worldwide.

The story was clearly an artistic experiment with some photos pasted unto the board with the original art then pasted on it as can be seen in panel 1 in which the characters make use and interact with the backgrounds and surroundings. This is Sketch Up for you young ‘uns at a time when computers filled up entire rooms ;)

The second panel is probably my fav’ with a gorgeous close-up on Lady D herself and typical Golden attention to details like her hair. The fourth one is also excellent at showing us her surprise at the tarot draw she just pulled.

Panels 3 and 5 also show the usual Golden touch as regards details. Just look at the work and effort put into those tarot cards however tiny they appear on the board. Cool stuff from the “old days of comic art” whereas today, most artists would likely photoshop those tarot cards in.

(I confess that that hand in panel 3 does look a bit awkward but that’s nitpicking ;)

Amusing collector only trivia. 3 pages of that story ended up at auction, one auction apart, but when the second page sold (this one), the ridiculous price it sold for prevented me to buy the third one which was mysteriously pulled out of the line up of the next auction (likely the consignor thought it best to hold on to it). In any case, I’m not complaining with 2 of them out of the 14 produced for this story.

This is part 2 of my 2024 CAF birthday party.