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Well, if it's not dead, it is certainly late. How'd you like the commission? I never looked better.

Lots of big ticket items get fewer votes than the price would indicate. Part of the fun is seeing lesser known pieces get votes.

I achieved none of the above. I need to learn to budget.

It's fun and you see art that you probably missed. The voting is tough because there is so much to choose from that is appealing. Do it!

Do you know Nick Pitarra? He was the artist on the late, lamented Manhattan Projects. He grew up in Houston before moving to Austin and I've gotten to know him a bit over the years. I have a number of pieces by him, both published and unpublished convention sketches (though they are more than sketches). I have only one commission though and I think it's a doozy. The story is simple enough. J. Scott Campbell came to my LCS for a signing. He was willing to do commissioned pieces for $1500 before the signing, but I couldn't think of anything I wanted him to do. I even thought about buying a slot and flipping it, but you know flipping is ugly. So, I let it pass. Some time later, I realized that I could have had him do Caitlin Fairchild arm-wrestling Supergirl. I've been a Supergirl fan for a long time and he would draw her well and Caitlin is a character for which he is known (my main theme). Of course, it was too late. I liked the idea though and thought it would make a good sub-theme if I was stuck for an idea. Later, I worked a trade with Aaron Lopresti and got the GA Wonder Woman arm wrestling Supergirl and then Jamal Igle with his Molly Danger vs. Supergirl. I now had a real sub-theme. On one of the FB art groups to which I belong, we have a Secret Santa and guess what I got? Yep, me vs. Supergirl. I handled the situation is style! Seriously, I'm so impressed with the likeness that Anthony Carpenter captured. He must have scanned my FB page. Anyway, one day Nick decided to take up arm wrestling and I had a great idea which I put on my list for Kathy as a potential gift idea - Nick vs. Supergirl. She went for it. Nick got a little carried away (in a good way for me). He added some of his artistic influences, favorite characters, and actors to back him and he added most of the JLA to back her. Over them all is an evil mastermind that shall go unnamed. I think it's terrific and it is one of my favorite commissions. More recently, my wife, Kathy, got this one for me. It's a treat. I really think a lot of Matthew Weldon and his work. This is me vs. the Overground Comics character Plus+Ultra in uniform, but without her blond wig. Matthew is kind and drew me about 30 years younger and 50 lbs lighter. One more, like Matthew's, it was a Christmas present. It's by Dave Aiken who worked on some of the Rankin Bass toys and such. I love it. I hope you enjoyed my sub-theme. As usual, you can click the image to see a bigger picture in the CAF.

It's a beauty contest - best looking girl "wins."

It is a beauty contest without the hard social justice questions - we skip directly to the swimsuit competition. That is everyone votes for what they like. Votes are hard to get so even getting one makes me happy. Nope. Dollar value is not a consideration.

There were two volumes issued to raise money in Mike's name for the ASPCA. They are out of print (very limited print run), but you can get digital copies.

I like it.

Wonderful. Did you get the recent Tellos tribute books? The ones where many artists contributed a page or two to the story? They were fun!

My favorite and I have many remains Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer.

Tony's a good guy and a fine artist. I have a piece by him, too. It's different though.

I like the story behind this one. I won it by losing an auction. Yep, that's the truth. You can learn more by clicking the image. I think the story is good and there are links to some related material. I liked this enough that I used it as the center piece for a jam layout by Matthew Clark. There's one figure left. I'd like Bob Layton to do it, but after years at seeing him frequently, I've haven't been at the right con at the right time since. Click the image to learn more about the men of Easy Company!

She doesn't, but she's very easy to shop for. If it sparkles, she'll like it. Congrats on the cell find! That's a great gift.

I have three daughters and I distinctly remember the day I bought them their first comic book. The three of us were at a comic shop for me to buy a few. I showed them the Archie books and they jumped on this cover. Why this one in particular? Because it had their mother on the cover. Yes, I'm married to Veronica. Years and years later, my eldest was graduating from college and I wanted to give her a present that was something specific to us. Kathy had the normal stuff covered. I though that a recreation of the cover would be a good gift, but finding the right artist was hard - Both Dan and Jim (the original artists) had passed away. I stumbled upon John Sterling Lucas on ebay. John was the artist on the version of Katy Keene that my girls loved. He was willing to take it on and to expand it to include a scene with my daughter, Katy, and Katy's sister on a picnic. It's awesome. Click it to embiggen and read the full description. A few years later, guess what I found! Yep, the OA to the real cover. I had to get it and won it for far, far less than I'd have paid for it. Click to embiggen. One last comment on this cover. The joke was used twice before. The Additional Images on this cover's CAF contain the earlier versions. Hope you enjoy this commission and related stories.

I'm a big fan of Sheldon Mayer. His Scribbly and Sugar & Spike work is legendary. He was also the first great editor of comics. He pulled Superman from the reject pile and influenced the creation of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and The Flash. His accomplishments are (or should be) legendary. I wanted a tribute to him and I thought that a theme of covers for the missing Sugar & Spike 100 would be appropriate. S&S reached 98 in its original run when Shelly had to stop due to eye problems. DC published a 99 years later, but 100 is still missing. I have two covers celebrating S&S #100 From Fred Hembeck comes a full on Sheldon Mayer tribute. Click the image to read the Description to find how clever Fred and I were in our work. You can also see some colored versions in the Additional Images section. The second is a cross-over between Katie Cook's Gronk series and S&S. If you don't know Katie's work, you are missing a treat. Her Gronk books are available from Action Labs. Her series Nothing Special is available on WEBTOON and it's free! Click the image to read a little more about it.

You may suspect that I'm a Legion of Super-Heroes fan; you may not know that I'm also an Archieverse fan. In this commission, we have a universes collide image; it is a "battle" scene, but it's just the normal students versus staff situation - sort of. Turns out I picked the right artist, Dan Parent is a Legion fan and an Archie artist. It was inspired by image that was done by Mike Worley which you can see in the Additional Images.

I warned you!

My wife commissioned this violent confrontation between the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Fatal Five. It might be tough to take for the squeamish. Click the image to read all about it.

No clue why it's showing to images. Sorry about that.

I try to have a story for all of my commissions. I'm really not interested in a standard pose, I want a scene around which a story might exist. Of course, I often lack a really good idea. I think I succeeded with this Howard the Duck vs. Donald Duck with Daffy Duck as the ref by Frank Brunner. The full story is in the Description on the CAF.

I bought my first comic as an 8 year old in the summer between the 2nd and 3rd grades. I got it from a vending machine at a Howard Johnson's in Brownsville, Tx as we returned from a driving vacation in Mexico. That purchase led to quite a lot of comics and art. Many decades later, my wife bought me a page from that comic - JLA 29 (first series). Click to embiggen. The cover is fairly well-known and I've had it homaged twice - once by Todd Reis as a 3D shadow box (click to embiggen) and once by Scott Shaw featuring Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew plus the Justa Lotta Animals (click to embiggen).

Happy 35th Anniversary to me! Kathy, my Wonder Wife, bought a Bob Bolling Little Archie cover for me as an anniversary gift. (Don't worry, she got jewelry.) Click on the image to take a closer look and read more about it.

Happy 35th Anniversary to me! Kathy, my Wonder Wife, bought a Bob Bolling Little Archie cover for me as an anniversary gift. (Don't worry, she got jewelry.) Click on the image to take a closer look and read more about it.

I’m a Mike Kunkel fan and he recently ran a Kickstarter for a new art project. He wanted to try his hand a making an old fashioned block print. I liked the idea and signed up. I’m very pleased with the results - the block print and two sketch cards plus a few other items. Check them out by clicking on the image below.