Benedict Judas Hel

To answer the first part of your question, The Baroness is a character from a 80's Hasbro 3 3/4" toy line called G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero which itself was a re-imagining of a 12" 60's toy line with roughly the same name (G.I. Joe: America's Movable Fighting Man). In fact, it was the 60's G.I. Joe toy that helped coin the term "action figure" as toy executives wanted young boys not to think of these items as "dolls". And like the vast majority of 80's toys, a cartoon by Sunbow Productions and a comic book by Marvel were released at the same time to help build interest in the toy line. During the first couple of years of the toy line, toy commercials about cartoons were still prohibited by the FCC so Hasbro got around this regulation by advertising the comic book (using animation by the same studio that produced the cartoon). The Baroness is a member of the evil terrorist organization known as Cobra who want to rule the world and thus, the sworn enemy of G.I. Joe. She is an European aristocrat and highly educated. The reason she wears the glasses, I believe, is an artistic choice to help convey this background information visually. Glasses are usually used as a sign of education and sophistication. I don't think the practicality of said glasses were a big concern to the toy designers as much as the aesthetics of the figure. If that were the case, I'd say a bigger problem would be going into a live battle situation in stiletto high heels. A little suspension of disbelief is needed when it comes to these properties. We could start questioning everything if we begin thinking about everything from a rational/practical point of view. For example, why would superheroes wear capes? If you saw a person wearing a cape walking down the street, it would look really dumb and would get in the way if you were doing any physical activity.. Plus it wouldn't inspire any sort of feeling of respect but in actuality it would be the opposite. They'd be laughed off the street. Don't get me started on wearing their underwear on the outside, vision restricting masks or wearing gloves all the time. So, in summary, I think it was a stylistic choice that was meant to look good on paper or in toy form, not for practical real-life application. Thanks for the question and I hope I answered your query satisfactorily!

I just received the Tower art from his entry in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition: And the art as it appeared in the comic: It looks like Tower’s arms were adjusted as to not have such a wide space in the comic...

Mais oui, mon ami!

I just got in this 12”x17” Baroness from French artist Marine Cegalerba (aka Jahyra):

Just got back my first original comic page back from the framer:

I am barely starting out but I have bought the published comics on 2 of the pieces I have obtained so far (for framing purposes) and 2 more for future pieces I am in the process of procuring.

Those are pretty freaking awesome! I have a poster I had framed as well. While it may not be original art, I thought it was pretty cool for a propaganda piece: P.S. I see that you have the Arcade 1Up Marvel Super Heroes cabinet. My Juggernaut, Mephisto/Blackheart and Shuma-Gorath were fairly unbeatable at the arcade. In fact, Juggernaut almost became the character I chose for my commissions motif...

Well, being a villain aficionado, I always gravitated towards Cobra during my G.I. Joe days as an 80’s youth. My Cobra toys vastly outnumbered my Joes and while I never had The Baroness toy as a kid, she was the quintessential vamp: black attire, dark hair, light skin. It didn’t hurt that she wore glasses and had an accent. And growing up, it’s those physical characteristics that I find attractive in a female. As for Vega, being a teen during early 90’s, I immersed myself in the fighting video game craze and Capcom’s Street Fighter was the first game that hooked me. When the Champions Edition came out and Vega became a selectable character, I chose him because he was a bad guy, wore a mask, had a claw and won me many a battle on my college campus. He was arrogant, handsome, vain, slim and loved beautiful women. I could see a little bit of his character in myself. Not too much! Just a little. Not enough to make me psychotic like him. So he was always my go-to character. Fast forward to my commission collecting, I knew that if I didn’t choose a theme, my personality would go all over the place and not have a focus. I would jump from character to character and have to get many characters from a certain artist instead of just 1 or 2 preset ones like I’m doing now. It helps keep my spending down to a minimum plus not to overcrowd my already cramped living quarters from my different collections (toys, lunchboxes, cartoon glasses, video games, movies, music, costumes, comic books). Thanks for asking and I hope I answered your question! Love the villain name by the way! I have a Blastaar Marvel Universe 3 3/4 figure in my collection next to Black Bolt...

Here’s my modest collection of Vega/Baroness commissions I have framed on my wall. Hoping to add more in the upcoming months (on the adjacent wall) and a framed comic page or two...

I got in an 11" x 14" Vega and Baroness commission piece from Howie Noel. I love the Cracked/Mad Magazine art style of this commission:

I got in an 9" x 12" Baroness commission by Monte Michael Moore today:

Yup, I decided to take the plunge recently and joined up there.

After the initial mix-up of my Baroness commission request, I contacted Mr. Steven Butler and he offered to lightbox a new 9" x 12" Baroness commission on a separate piece of paper. It turned out spectacular and Steven even stated he would be selling prints of the result which is super cool.

I love me some ROM! I have the entire comic book series run. I hope to one day own an awesome original art page featuring Dire Wraiths or Hybrid.

I posted the page in the Official “This week in your Original Art” thread about 2 hours ago but here it is in this thread: It’s a cool page featuring a villain with a distinctive look (albeit an obscure one) and has “Godzilla” in it, too! A great addition to my Marvel villains collection.

I didn’t expect my 2nd original art acquisition to come so soon but thanks to fellow board member, PGEAR12, I was able to add 1984 Iron Man #193 p. 6 to my burgeoning villain art collection: The page as it appears in the comic (or at least online): And while I never had this particular Iron Man comic as a kid, I did remember this page vividly as part of it was used for Doctor Demonicus’ entry in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (which I did own and where I first learned of Doctor Demonicus):

I got a great page from PGEAR12. Communication was great and shipping was super fast with great care in packaging. A smooth transaction. No worries!

I would ask for my usual Street Fighter Vega and The Baroness from Cobra. I would let him decide how the interaction between the 2 characters would be (adversarial, amicable, amorous or indifferent) based on which relationship he felt he could get the best artistic results from. Then I would politely ask him if he would consider inking the piece as all my best commission pieces in my collection are inked.

This weekend had a plethora of commission artwork come in the mail for me with the vast majority being a bonanza of Baroness pics starting off with a trio of pieces by Jefferson Costa. I was only supposed to get 1 commission from him but he totally surprised me with 3 12" x 18" pieces! What a cool guy! Next are 2 8" x 11" pieces done by Monty Nero: Finally, a sketch cover Baroness. While the artwork is awesome, I am slightly disappointed that it was done on a sketch cover. I had requested that the piece be done on a separate sheet of paper and Mr. Butler agreed however, when I opened the package, there was the sketch cover.

Another artist who helped build the foundation of my Marvel comic book love. Sal Buscema...one of the good ones!

My quintessential Spider-Man artist! May he continue for another 90 years!

Lots of cool stuff you got there! I wish I could make an offer on 1 of your pages but unfortunately I'm not on CAF...

Yup! I agree. But then again, I have always been partial to his work...

Skulls always get a thumbs up from me!