DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING by Gary Martin (after Chris Bachalo)
Artists: Gary Martin (All) , Chris Bachalo (Layouts) , Matt Kennedy (Letterer) , Neil Gaiman (Writer)
6 Comments - 246 Views - 7 Likes
Additional Images:
DC Direct Currents #60 (back cover)
Artwork Details
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DescriptionDeath: The High Cost of LivingBy Gary Martin (after Chris Bachalo) Lightboxed recreation of DC Direct Currents #60, back cover Ink and watercolor on illustration board 11 x 17 in. NOT FOR SALE In March 1993 I was working several jobs. One of them was at Fantastic Store, a block north of Hollywood Blvd. on Highland in LA (where part of True Romance was filmed). My favorite comics at the time were Shade the Changing Man and Sandman. So when a mini-series focused on #DEATH of #THEENDLESS connected those two books with a script by Neil Gaiman and art by Chris Bachalo, I was all-in. The first appearance of this collab was published as the back cover of that month's DC Direct Currents -announcing the Vertigo imprint to retailers. I took it to Rick Spellman at Tattoo Magic in Garden Grove, CA, who was Glenn Danzig & Henry Rollins' Tattooist, and got it tattooed that month. It would be several months until DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING would be released, so I got in touch with Chris Bachalo and arranged to purchase the artwork at his booth at Comicon. I had already been buying full issues of his Shade artwork from Scott Dunbier and from Chris directly. Ahead of SDCC I saw Neil and showed him the tattoo on my arm. It was the first Death tattoo he had ever seen. He was ecstatic and had an employee of Golden Apple take a picture to send to Karen Berger. When I got to Comicon, I saw Chris at the DC booth and showed him the tattoo (which he loved) and he let me know the artwork was hanging in his booth with "HOLD for MATT" on a post-it note on it. I asked if he wanted me to pay him and he told me to pay his wife at the booth, so I headed over there. In a tragic chain of events, his wife had sold the piece to someone else who claimed to be me. It was devastating. I won't go into the aftermath of this situation here, but suffice to say that later attempts to get Chris to recreate the piece for me were unsuccessful. I recently came across inker Gary Martin's recreation artworks and connected with him to commission a new, color version of the printed artwork. I created a desaturated scan of the published art which Gary lightboxed, inked and colored. Since the original Bachalo art had no logo, I created a hybrid of several logos associated with the Gaimanverae and provided it in scale for Gary to place at the head of the 11x17 in. page, making it a custom commission and not just a recreation —and bringing myself into the layout and design aesthetic to make a new, unique collaboration. This piece provides closure to a thirty-year-old injustice. Even after this long post, there are really no words to convey the spectrum of emotions connected to this. Social/Sharing |
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NSN Collection 
Member Since 2005
1 - Posted on 6/22/2025
FANTASTIC piece, Matt.
Seven Deaths on one piece, and in color no less, THAT'S value !
Matt Kennedy
Member Since 2014
1 - Posted on 6/23/2025
NSN Collection wrote:
FANTASTIC piece, Matt.
Seven Deaths on one piece, and in color no less, THAT'S value !
Jeff, Mikhail, and Tatiana's show encouraged me to finally upgtrade to an A3 scanner, so I'm going to reconstruct my CAF gallery. Now that I'll have clean scans I can plan on hanging a lot more art in the hallway.
Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005
1 - Posted on 6/23/2025
Evil Matt is out there somewhere! Beware! He might have clipped a corner. This is a high fashion mag cover or an album cover from 80's.
Jeffrey Wedding
Member Since 2009
1 - Posted on 6/23/2025
That is such a tragic tale of one that got away, in the worst fashion. Hopefully, as you said, this will help the healing finally begin. It turned out smashingly.
Ruben DaCollector
Member Since 2008
1 - Posted on 6/23/2025
Absolutely beautiful results. Incredible!
Kavi H
Member Since 2018
Posted on 6/23/2025
Nice fresh scan of the piece! the story still kinda hurts to hear but it is what it is
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