My kick-ass new commission by Shang Chi cover artist Benjamin Su. I paid for this back in August thinking it would be my annual birthday piece. As fate would have it, at the end of the month, I attended San Jose Comic Con and picked up my Mike Royer Winnie the Pooh piece, so that then became my official birthday piece. Not that it in anyway diminishes my excitement for this piece. As you can see, it’s an extraordinarily spectacular effort by Ben. But more on that later.

So where does this story begin? I COULD say that it all began back in 1973 when the character was created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. But I don’t think Bill gave me enough space on this description box to cover that much ground. So, I’ll just skip to where it really began for me. Earlier this summer, I was having lunch with my friend Andy to sort of celebrate the official re-opening of California from the pandemic. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, and when the governor re-opened the state, we saw it as a good excuse to have a nice sit-down lunch. It was a lovely day, and our little lunch turned into about a 3-hour gabfest. During our conversation, I sort of wondered out loud if there were any other collectors who might live here in town? Granted it’s a fairly small town, but if the same comic shop has managed to survive here for over 30 years, it seemed reasonable to think that there might be more collectors here than just us two. That’s when Andy mentioned Ben.

Now if you didn’t already know, Andy works for a major animation studio (starts with “P” and ends with “xar”). He told me that not only was Ben a fellow collector, but he also worked with Andy at the studio. He also told me that although Ben was already a working animator, he had always dreamed of being a comic book artist. Of course, I was thrilled to know there was another collector/fan who lived in town. So, when I got home from lunch, I reached out to Ben to introduce myself. After a few friendly exchanges, Ben suggested we do our own lunch to meet and chat in person. Took a while, but that finally happened in August. Just as with Andy, it was a great afternoon and the time flew by. Ben was every bit as warm and down to earth as Andy (I guess being a nice guy is a prerequisite for animators). Anyway, he brought along an entire portfolio of cool stuff for show and tell. I thought about bringing a bunch of stuff, but ended up just bringing two pieces in hopes of enticing him into a home visit to see the rest (his visit is pending).

And that brings us to this piece. After Ben told me that he had done several freelance covers for Marvel (4 variants for the new Shang Chi series alone), my mind was already thinking about a commission. But so many decisions to make. Character, size, style (anyone who has visited Ben’s Instagram page can see that he has both a distinct comic style, AND animation style)? I thought about it long and hard, and just decided to go with the flow and have him do another Shang-Chi piece. To this point, it’s probably the character he is most associated with. Plus, with both of us being Asian, there was a certain amount of pride involved. You get a real sense of that in this quote from Ben’s Instagram. “Thank you Marvel for recognizing the importance of diversity in comics, I’m really proud to have contributed to Asian superheroes on an expertly written book.” So as our lunch came to an end, I asked about the possibility of having him do something for me. He agreed and we worked out all the particulars in our subsequent communications.

At the time, I made no mentioned of my birthday. I felt that, if he knew, he might be tempted to rush its completion accordingly. But after I paid him, I let it be known that I’ve had this tradition in the past, where the last thing I pay for before my birthday date becomes my annual birthday piece. Anyway, once the cat was out of the bag, I stressed again that I wanted him to take his time and not rush the piece. But lo and behold, four days after my birthday, I get a text from Ben saying he’s got a surprise for me. I was a little nervous, so I asked him point blank. Did you finish my piece already? He then explained to me that once he found out it was my birthday, he put all his other projects on hold in an effort to complete my piece at least within my birthday week. WHAT A GUY! And what a piece!!!!! He also told me that he put more into this than any cover he’s done for Marvel (hmm, maybe I shouldn't print that part). Anyway, not bad for an animator who moonlights as a comic artist. Then again, when your animation studio and your comic publisher are owned by the same parent company, I guess it’s technically not moonlighting. Thanks Ben! Thanks for making this one of my best birthdays ever!

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