Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mining for Gold(en): "The Eternity Book"

When DC decided to bring Jack Kirby's Demon back in the pages of Detective Comics #482 (November 1979) the duties were handed over to writer Len Wein and artist Michael Golden. T'was a thing of beauty, Groove-ophiles. A true thing of beauty...


But alas, t'was Golden's only Demon story. Steve Ditko would complete the storyline...but that is a tale for another day.
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6 comments:

  1. Mike MikulovskyApril 13, 2010 at 12:50 AM

    Hey Groovy One!
    WOW! Thanks for posting this forgotten gem. I barely remember it, but I loved it in 79 & love it now. I never thought I'd like the Demon the way I did when Kirby drew him.

    Beside's the Jim Aparo version in the Brave & the Bold. Michael Golden's version was excellent. Loved Mike's Man-Bat, the Nam & Micronauts. Man can he draw huh?

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  2. sdestefanoApril 13, 2010 at 7:52 AM

    Steve Ditko's takeover of the strip was pretty darned cool as well.

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  3. hobbyfanApril 13, 2010 at 9:03 AM

    Golden never finished the story, though, Groove. I remember having reading the last chapter of the Eternity Book arc, and it was drawn by Steve Ditko, who IMPO was not a perfect match for Etrigan, unlike Golden or Kirby.

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  4. The Groovy AgentApril 13, 2010 at 9:37 AM

    You're right, hobbyfan. I'm glad you posted, because it made me re-read the post (I post a month ahead), and I see that somehow my mention of that being Golden's only issue was dropped from the post somehow. I've updated it, so thank you!

    And I'll definitely be getting to those Ditko stories, Mr. DeStefano. That was some pretty 'mazing stuff!

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  5. Dave RyanDecember 5, 2018 at 5:52 AM

    This was the tail end of Golden's work at DC. Apparently the work dried up for him in Sept-Oct 1978 with the "DC Implosion" where DC cancelled 40% of their books overnight, and were using up the inventory from their unpublished titles for many months afterward. Contract artists like Curt Swan, Irv Novick and Vince Colletta still had work. New freelance guys like Michael Golden and Al Milgrom had to move over to Marvel to find work. Which was really a loss, because Golden's mystery stories and work on the Batman titles was fantastic, right from the start, in BATMAN FAMILY 15-50, BATMAN 295, the Batman Spectacular issue (DC SPECIAL SERIES 15), and then after BATMAN FAMILY was cancelled, this last Golden story in DETECTIVE COMICS 482. I hate to be a nitpicker, Groove, but in this same post I wish you included the second Golden story, "Bat-Mite's New York Adventure", a 6-page fun story that also includes Michael Golden images of himself (walking his dog), writer Bob Rozakis, inker Bob Smith, colorist Anthony Tollin and a few others all have cameos in the story.

    Other 1970's work by Golden for DC:

    BATMAN 303 (backup, 6 pages)
    GHOSTS 88 (6 pages)
    HOUSE OF MYSTERY 257 (7 pages), and 259 (10 pages)
    HOUSE OF SECRETS 148 and 149 (splash pages), and 151 (6 pages)
    MISTER MIRACLE 23-25 (17 pages each)
    MYSTERY IN SPACE 113 (8 pages, published in 1980 a year after he left DC)
    SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE 10 (8 pages, and my favorite of his DC stories)

    And after the fact in 1984, a BATMAN SPECIAL issue, 40 pages of Golden goodness.

    And much later a 9-page chapter in LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT ANNUAL 1 (1991), scripted by O'Neil with other chapters of the same 54-page story by Aparo, Giffen, Lyle/Templeton, Speigle, and Quesada.

    All of which collected would be a nice "GOLDEN YEARS" trade or hardcover collection from DC. And gives our friend the Groove plenty of blog postings to come!

    After moving over to Marvel, Golden quickly made a name for himself doing MICRONAUTS 1-12, STAR WARS 38, DOCTOR STRANGE 46 and 55, AVENGERS ANNUAL 10, EPIC ILLUSTRATED 3 (text article with Golden illustrations), FANTASTIC FOUR ROAST 1 (2 beaautiful pages), HOWARD THE DUCK magazine 1, 5 and 6, MARVEL FANFARE 1, 2 4, and 47, X-MEN ANNUAL 7, MARVEL No_PRIZE BOOK 1 (cover and a beautiful splash paage ad), and later SAVAGE TALES 1 and 4 (early THE NAM stories), THE NAM 1-13, and G I JOE YEARBOOK 2. And AMAZING ADVENTURES (1988) tpb, and some beautiful SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN covers.
    All infinitely Grooveworthy.

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  6. Dave RyanOctober 11, 2019 at 2:20 PM

    I just re-read my own post, a small error, Golden's work was in BATMAN FAMILY 15-20 (not "15-50") Would that there were 50 issues by Golden!

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


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