I’m a huge Neal Adams fan, and his GL/GA run is one of my favorite artist runs of all time. So of course, my Green Lantern of choice could only be Hal Jordan (apologies to Guy, John, and Kyle). If not for Spider-man, and if not for the fact that GL was a DC character, he might have ended up being my favorite comic character. Between my obsession with Neal’s gorgeous artwork, and the fact that I was (and still am) obsessed with the color green, it would have made perfect sense. But I think the DC thing was too much to overcome. I was a total Marvel zombie, MMM all the way. Still, when I saw this killer Hal Jordan GL on Mitch’s website, I couldn’t resist.

I’ve also been a Nebres fan for a long time. And I always knew I would eventually add something by him to my collection. I just figured at some point, I would find the right piece, or the right piece would find me. Then, one-night last year, I was sitting on the couch watching TV and got bored during the commercials. So I got the laptop out and, for whatever reason, got the urge to check Mitch’s site. I had just browsed the site a day or two ago, so when I saw a bunch of new pieces, I figured he had just updated. The minute I saw this Nebres, I put it in my cart and emailed Mitch, not expecting to hear from him until the next day (as it was quite late). Imagine my surprise when he emailed me almost immediately. I laughed and joked that it was way past his bedtime. Without missing a beat, he reminded me that we were in the same age group. Anyway, we sealed the deal and the next day, my check and his piece were on their way to opposite coasts.

It was pretty much right after that purchase that I got the idea to create a gallery room for Filipino comic artists. I just thought it was perfect that I had this great Nebres piece headed my way to inaugurate my new gallery with. But before Mitch’s piece arrived, I was browsing Anthony’s site and stumbled upon another great Nebres piece. It was the Hellboy color illustration that eventually became the first addition to the new gallery. Now to be honest, I really never had any intention of buying multiple Nebres examples. And if it wasn’t Hellboy, I probably would not have. To that point, I had only seen Rudy do mainstream characters (and mostly DC). The Hellboy was not only a wonderful surprise, I also just felt it was a somewhat more unique example. So when it came time to launch the Filipino gallery, I posted that one instead.

This is not to say that I don’t absolutely love the GL piece. If I had never seen the HB piece, I would have been just as thrilled with this one. While I don’t believe there was any intention on Rudy’s part to ape Neal on this, I do feel that there is some natural similarity between the two stylistically. Still, I’d like to think that Nebres had Neal very much in mind when he designed and crafted this piece. There’s a definite Adams vibe here that’s hard to ignore. Of course the piece stands strong on its own. Beautiful linework (as you would come to expect from Nebres), wonderful color palette, strong figure work and anatomy, and powerfully understated in its simplistic composition. Now that I think about it, I probably should have posted this one first. LOL! Oh well.

Anyway, my thanks to Mitch. There are only two friends in the hobby who I’ve known for more than 30 years, and Mitch is one of them. I know I’ve said this before, but it really is almost impossible to measure the profound impact his friendship has had on my collecting experience and my life. If there was a WHAT IF switch I could flip that would temporarily erase all of his presence and influence over the past 3-plus decades, my collection and my life would look very different. I genuinely love this man. And no amount or level of gratitude would be sufficient to thank him for all he’s done and all he’s meant (and means) to me.

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