Let me preface by saying that when Jon sent me the invite, he told me specifically not to bother with a wedding gift. I felt really weird about going down there empty handed, but I wasn’t exactly rolling in the green, so I didn’t put up too much of a fight about the gift issue. What I didn’t know was that my dear friend was planning to flip the script on me. To fully understand what this means, I should tell you that to help raise funds to buy their house, Jon decided to auction off his entire art collection. Or ALMOST all of it. There was one very specific piece he held back. And the only reason he did that was because he knew how much I had always loved it. So after dinner on the night I arrived, he pulls out this picture frame and hands it to me. “This is for you”, he said. “It’s the only piece I didn’t send to auction.” Now, I may not have a problem coming up with these wordy descriptions for my art posts, but this time I was at a loss. I started with one “WOW” and then they just kept coming. It was kind of like the hiccups. One kept coming up every few minutes. “Wow..........wow..........wow..........wow.....”(you get the point). I’m sure I came up with something else to say eventually, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Anyway, when in doubt, just hug it out. So that’s what I did.

Another thing that makes this piece very special is that there are actually TWO great stories behind it. Not just the story of how I got it, but also the story of how it came to be. My understanding from Jon is that the story was relayed to him by Terry himself. Obviously, we’re going to stay away from specific names and places, but according to Jon, this drawing came about as a result of a comic signing appearance that Terry did where no one showed up. Most people probably would have just waited an appropriate amount of time before saying, the heck with this I’m outta here! But to Terry’s credit, he stuck it out and used the vast amount of free time to create this exquisite drawing (which, of course, inspired the subsequent creation of the published cover). I think Jonathan has already done so, but I will echo his sentiments by saying thank you to all the people who decided not to show up to the signing. LOL

About the art. While there are obvious similarities between the prelim and the published cover, I honestly feel that the prelim works so much better as a standalone drawing. With the published piece being drawn for color, there is so much more open space there that relies on the coloring to give it substance. The prelim, on the other hand, is brought to life by all the rich textures and subtle tones of the pencils. The rendering is inspired, and the shading on the piece does so much more than any coloring job could do. Plus, of course, there’s the added (priceless) value of the love with which it was given.

Well, the only thing left to do is to once again thank my very kind, loving, and generous, friend Jonathan for one of the most special pieces of art I’ve ever received. Not sure what I ever did to deserve it, or you, but I truly feel blessed to have both. Thank you my friend.

Appreciate you all stopping by.

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