Garcia-Lopez Atari Force Splash with Dart!

Sweet!

Outstanding piece! Lucky dog

Fantastic! Great buy!

Jose's artwork is beautiful, to be sure, but I love seeing the photo blue pencil guidelines for the lettering.  It truly accentuates the handcrafted beauty of the art form.  I know I'm the old man on the porch shaking his fist, but it means so much more than a downloaded comic font.  Someday, we'll all be gone, and the youngsters won't have to hear this cr*p anymore.  :-)

Hey, Steven, don't apologize for feeling that way.  If you're the old man shaking his fist, I'm standing on that porch beside you shaking my fist as well!!  I love the litle nuances and imperfections that go into the production of original art.  Yes, I know computers and digital lettering have streamlined the process, but i don't have to like it, dagnabbit!!

I'm 58 years old and was taught lettering by Hy Eisman at the Joe Kubert School back in the mid-eighties.  He was a wonderful man who sat at my desk with me, and he walked me through the whole wonderful process.  It was a terrific time.  I just knew, once I got to that level of schooling and saw the talent around me that I didn't have what the ability to make it in the business.  I've mentioned this before, but all the guys were cracking on Todd McFarlane for drawing boots on all of his characters.  It was funny at the time...then he started on Spider-Man.

https://www.nerdteam30.com/creator-conversations-retro/an-interview-with-hy-eisman-one-of-the-original-teachers-for-the-kubert-school

Well, youngster, get ready for a shock!  I'm 62 years old and Hy Eisman taught ME how to letter, too!  Does this sound familiar--"Jumpy zebras vow to stop talking loudly about sex."  I remember Hy made us letter that until the page was full.  I attended The Kubert School in the 1984-85 semester and loved it.  Dan Parent was in my class.  Some of my teachers were Stan Kaye, Joe Kubert, Irwin Hasen, Jose Delbo (still friends with Jose to this day) and Ben Ruiz!   And I realized then that a career in comics was not in the cards for me.

Ha!  This is too awesome.  I couldn't remember when I was there, but I had one memory.  The guys all wanted to watch Farm-Aid, while I wanted to watch the Beatles movie marathon on the other channel.  So I looked it up.  Sept. 22, 1985.  So I was there in the fall of 1985.  I did not make it to 1986.  I talked to Joe, and he agreed to let me light out.  Anyway, if you were still there in the fall of '85, you were living in the main house with the upper classmen, and I was upstairs in the sweltering heat of the carriage house.  OMG it was hot up there!  I remember Jose Delbo for life drawing, Milt Neil for animation (He was AWESOME) and Hy Eisman for lettering.  I also remember buying bologna, cheese, eggs for 2 dollars a half-dozen and Yoo-Hoo at a little mom-and-pop shop at the end of the road and playing basketball in the street with the neighborhood kids using a portable hoop they had on the curb.  Oh, and we went down and played football in the park across the road at the other end of the street.  It was a great experience.

Actually, I was there for the Fall, 1984 to Spring, 1985 semester, so I just missed you.  And I found 3 other guys to rent a house with over in Laurie, NJ, near Lake Hopatcong.  Yeah, I heard all about the horrible conditions in the Carriage House and was so happy to not be there.  I also had Milt Neil for animation (still have 4 sketches by Milt) and Greg Hildebrandt for painting class.  Also had Bill Sienkiewicz for Narrative Art when Joe left to do administrative duties mid-year. On occasion, I would play hooky and go into New York to hang out at DC Comics.  That was a blast!  I stayed the year and learned a lot but knew that it just wasn't for me.

You made me curious to see if Dan Parent was still there when I was there, so I went on a little hunt to find out when he graduated.  I came on a pretty awesome nugget that many of us would LOVE to have our name on when I discovered Dan's first published credit.  This is the listing from the Grand Comics Database: Phantasy Against Hunger

Pretty freakin' cool, Steve!  What an awesome credit have to your name.  All the mega-talents you wrote for and had ink your pencils!  I am going to order a copy from ebay.  This is terrific.  Do you have any of the original pages?

P.S. - I also found you on this very site: Cool little headshot of Batman, Steve: https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=440583

Thank you, sir!  That would be too long a story to tell here, but suffice it to say that getting that done was quite the struggle.  Imagine trying to get art from a whole bunch of artists for free and then ask them to meet a deadline!  Yeah, not gonna happen!  And ,yes, I still have the front cover and some of the pin-ups.  Just recently bought back the back cover by Jose Garcia-Lopez from Heritage.  Sadly, most of the story pages and a couple of the pin-ups are lost to history.  Went with a publisher who I didn't know (Solson) and the owner left town with all the art from the company, mine included.  Maybe someday I'll find it, but not holding my breath at this point.

You're publishing a book dedicated to fighting world hunger, and the publisher leaves town with all the original art that could have been auctioned off for even more proceeds to help the cause.  That is sweet.  At least you still have some of the original art.  You should post it in your galley!

I loved so many of the artists who worked on the book, but I think I most would have liked to see Jerry Ordway and Rudy Nebres ink my pencils.  Polar opposites styles, but two of my all-time favorites.

How were the sales on the book at the time?

Awesome page with a striking portrait, you just can't look away !

Wonderful splash page!