Posted on 2/13/2013

she is a beauty. congrats

Posted on 2/13/2013

Wow, this brings back memories. Wonderful pickup!

Posted on 2/13/2013

This is a stunner! Silvestri could do no wrong here.

Posted on 2/14/2013

One of Marc's finest pieces and his best of Shi. Congrats on a beauty.

Posted on 2/14/2013

she is amazing... wow

Posted on 2/15/2013

This is sweet!

Posted on 2/21/2013

I think the shi related art Marc/Batt did is still some of their best. Clyblade/Shi was what got me back into Silvestri's artwork. Great stuff!

Posted on 10/24/2013

fantastic..........

Posted on 6/29/2019

Batt's signature:

For months, since I first purchased this art, I had been trying to get in contact with Matt "Batt" Banning to get his signature added to Silvestri's (who signed it back at his webstore when I bought it) before I would get it framed. Silvestri's webstore would only ever tell me "We can't give you Batt's email address, but with your permission we'll give him yours and he can contact you." Over the next couple of months I never heard anything from him, and I wasn't about to harass Silvestri over and over again for it, and so I dropped it.

Months later I figured out how I was gonna get to San Diego Comic Con (that same year), and I knew it would be my only chance to get a hold of Batt since everyone in the industry goes to SDCC. I decided to drag the art along with me in the box it was shipped in (from Silvestri's store), hoping that nothing bad would happen to it at the convention (bent up, stolen, etc). I first showed up to Top Cow's booth on Thursday, and I got the attention of their main booth organizer who said he knew Batt was around but that he (Batt) didn't have a dedicated booth and was floating between other artists booths who were friends of his (mostly the old Image comics guys). Since I didn't know what Batt looked like (at the time) I had to rely on the Top Cow or D.C. organizers to point him out to me. I told the Top Cow guy my story about the piece, and he said that if by Sunday I didn't find Batt that he would get me his email somehow.

So, Marc Silvestri was only ever at the Top Cow booth, and he had his posted hours for signing and sketching on Friday (he'd do about 4 hours a day). On Saturday, I went back to get a sketch from him, and while waiting in line I asked a different booth organizer if he saw Batt recently. He told me to hold on and introduced me to Silvstri's wife, Bridget, and to my surprise she knew my name from buying this piece off the webstore from months and months ago. She was super friendly and listened to my story, saying that she and Marc didn't actually run the website, and that they would have had no problems giving me Batt's email at any time. She then said that she would email Batt about me, give him my contact info, and hopefully connect with me before the show ended the next day (Sunday). Again, she told me what the booth organizer told me that if I didn't hook up with Batt that she would give me his email address at the end of the show.

Less than one hour later after having left the Top Cow booth, my phone rang and I didn't pick up in time. Looking at the random number, I was thinking it was Bridget, when I suddenly get a text message from Batt himself. He says that he just got an email from her, that he's literally out the door, and that he'll wait for me across the hall at his friends booth if I wanna run over real quick. I texted him back, saying I'll be right there, and I ran my ass off from the 4800 aisle to the 300 aisle in prime Saturday SDCC traffic (and anyone that's ever been to that convention knows how crowded that day is). I weaved in and out of the convention center, walking the aisle, walking the sidewalk, and walking the in-between reception area, trying to get around large groups of people that were standing still, and I somehow got to him in 10 minutes flat. We then started talking, and he was saying that he just finished a D.C. comics panel that happened to get reshuffled to a later time in the day and that he had been planning on leaving the show as soon as it was originally over (12pm - five hours prior). Once the panel did end (it was now 5pm), he said he was walking towards the exits when his phone buzzed and he saw the email from Bridget. He said for some reason he decided not to wait and he opened it up right before he actually stepped outside. And even luckier for me, Bridget had sent him my cell number to call, and he called me without even replying back to her first. Fate really lined up nicely for me that day because he said he was leaving the convention entirely and wasn't going to show up on the last (next) day, Sunday at all.

So, I got him to sign this piece, he said he probably got my email address from the webstore but that he was super lazy and just never got to it (and apologized profusely about it), and he handed me his business card with his direct contact info for anything I might ever need from him. More so, he said "I've got your number in my cell phone, so call me if you've got any problems getting a hold of me again." Friggin' awesome! After I thanked him and he left, I went back to see Bridget to thank her, and she was genuinely happy to see that everything worked out and gave me hug =)

Batt was awesome, Bridget was far beyond awesome, and everyone at Top Cow really went out of their way to get me in touch with him (Batt) that weekend