Nightcrawler by Jerome Opena, ink

Cyclops by Chris Bachalo, marker

Storm by Phil Jimenez, ink

Wolverine by Joe Quesada, pencil

Colossus by Kevin Nowlan

Beast by Dave Gibbons

Phoenix by Nicola Scott

Gambit by Philip Tan

Rogue by Rick Leonardi

Magneto by Simone Di Meo

Mystique by Enid Balam

This piece was begun as a piece for the Top Guns that were still remaining on my hit list. I landed Opena first at C2E2 2016. I know that getting a sketch from him is EXTREMELY rare, and I consider myself super fortunate to own one. Jerome is one of my favorite people in comics;

Bachalo I was able to reach with a little help from Tim Townsend. I shipped the piece to him and within a few months, it was returned to me!

Jimenez was kind enough to draw Storm, his "favorite" at Motor City Con. All that was required was a short wait in line Sunday morning!

Quesada had a rare opportunity for a headsketch by purchasing a ticket for an event in one of the conference rooms at Fan Expo. I was able to spend 5-10 minutes chatting with him as he drew. I like that dude! He suggested that I have Danny Miki ink the piece. When our discussion turned to Kevin Nowlan, he said "he's the other guy I'd suggest." We're both fans, I guess!

Gibbons did the "wait in line until you get your sketch" thing, and started a new line every day. I was near the front of the line Saturday. He was doing bust sketches on 9x12 paper for a $60(!!!) donation to Heroes Initiative, and I was torn. It probably would have been smarter to get the full 9x12, but I'm committed to this jampiece nonsense. Anyway, he wasn't familiar with drawing many of the X-characters, but was very interested in doing Colossus. He said he did a Colossus commission once, and I was all "I'VE SEEN IT AND I LOVE IT." Alas, I already had a great Colossus sketch, so he flipped through my reference sheets and picked Cassaday's Beast design. Now I gots a piece of history.

I'll credit the Nicola Scott sketch to equal parts kindness on her part, and the social skeels on my part. I was delayed in getting to her line Friday (due to the dickishness of an unnamed individual in Artist Alley), and when I walked up, she was discussing a small sketch on an elaborate jampiece for the person in front of me. She wasn't sure she could do it because she didn't have any pens with a fine enough tip. At first I wasn't sure if it was just blowing him off, but she seemed sincere. Since I'm always prepared, I offered her my .005 tech pen. She was like "really?" and I said "as long as you draw mine before his!" Her response was a dagger: "My list is actually full!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I told her it was just a jampiece headsketch, and she said she thought she could squeeze me in. She did, and with a day to spare! I'll just put her right up near my list of favorite people. Oh, and if any other collectors from MCCC are reading this- I gave her the pen and she used it all weekend, so YOU'RE WELCOME. ;)

Tan was awesome and friendly and joked that he was going to draw his favorite X-character Random (he loves Quesada's art, guys), but to my great relief, he drew Gambit. He picked a corner square because Gambit isn't a core character. Very thoughtful.

I pestered Rick Leonardi all weekend at Heroes Con 2022 to pull off his commission. Despite walking directly to his table when the show opened Friday morning, I was #19 on his sketch list. It's a testament to his hard work at this show that he got to me by Sunday morning. And fortunate, because as soon as he handed it to me, I had to walk out the door and leave Charlotte.

Di Meo was someone I followed on instagram, but who's work I'd never read. in a recent discussion of "Who would be the perfect group of artists to found Image today?" his name came up. From then on, I was on a mission to get him on this piece. I went right to his table when the doors to Fan Expo Toronto opened, and scored. He turned it around fast, too!

Balam was sitting next to my pal Craig Yeung at Fan Expo, and while talking with Craig, I decided I should try to finish this piece up that day. So Mystique happened. But I didn't get that last sketch done!!!

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