Rich has previously posted this on Facebook but my intention was always to hold off on posting this on the CAF ( my choice for art reveals) until what I used to call All Star April when I would post daily All Star acquisitions or JSA pages/commissions.

My art sabbatical has limited me to just a few purchases this year and last but I do have a few to post the remainder of this month.

Rich's posting this at the turn of the year solicited a number of questions about why certain characters were mixed in with the traditional JSA characters

So here once and for all is my lengthy 2005 explanation of how this commission came about.

One final note and hopefully the epilogue to any conversations about character choice... the commissioner get to choose the illustration and the characters.

Enjoy!

04-12-24

"Since I love the JSA I have commissioned several people to do projects about them.
In Ramona's case I had not considered her for a JSA piece until I stumbled on a wonderful Dr. Mid-Nite image she had done. That triggered the idea and initially I was going to do a straight JSA/All Star Squadron piece much like my Ordway. Once I decided to settle on 9 characters it was simply a matter of choosing an image.
I had seen a nice JLA group image Ramona had done, so that was one thought, the other was to reinterpret the cover of All Star Comics where the JSA formed up in the shape of a V only having Aquaman replace Wonder Woman . I decided against that and sent her the JLA image I had seen and this commission resembles that one.
Now that I had the image idea worked out it was time to choose which 9 characters. Having recently received the Ordway dream commission. I decided to not repeat all the characters I had just had Jerry do. Now I do have a couple of JSA favorites, Dr Mid-Nite is one, I knew she could nail Dr. Mid-Nite. So this was quickly turning into a game of elimination.

I have been on a Blackhawk kick lately and I thought I it might be interesting to see her interpretation, so I added him to the good Doctor and had two. Aquaman was a given making it three and since I always wondered what a Green Arrow drawn by the other "World's' Finest" artist would look like, now it was up to four. At this point I was thinking I had a nice World's Finest Commission going, so now it was just a matter of adding the other characters. I like Wildcat, but he was in the Ordway, so he got crossed off the list. Flash was a must do since it was another chance for Ramona to draw her distinctive faces. Green Lantern with a cape as my young nephew calls him was a good choice. That left me with just a couple of slots left. As much as I despise the Atom's first costume, I love the second one, so in he goes. Now the cape on that Dr Mid-Nite image I mentioned was so strong that I decided to go for Dr. Fate and there you have it.
I think this is a nice example of Ramona's work and I am delighted with it."

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