I think this cost me about $100 per apple, which is already a bargain compared to his current prices. 

There's something very authentically Thatcher-era Goth about that haircut and fashion.

The paint-splatter illumination around the ankh is an improvement over the original in my opinion. 

Bael is definitely more of a fine artist than a commercial illustrator. Much of his ouevre addresses body dysmorphia, which is a common psychological condition in the beauty industry —which is perhaps ironic considering how models represent a standard of beauty. 

An aspect of Death that has been hinted but not deeply explored in the comics (at least not to any large degree) is as a symbolic reflection of a full lifetime in the deceased's final moments. As such, the somewhat Dorian Gray aspect of this commission aligns swimmingly with the funeral pose. 

I think this was the last issue to feature Max, the Punisher's dog. It was colored by Jim Starlin, too. 

Dig that Robin logo!

The most detailed DWJ piece I think I've ever seen!

Those ears!

I can practically smell "Obsession by Calvin Klein" with the faint hint of clove cigarettes behind it.

Great to see the amazing original without that pre-Y2K color that comics of that era had. I've been loving doug's recent lo-fi animations on his IG which has reignited my appreciation of his past work. This is fabulous. 

Rubén, it was your intense disatisfaction with the camera-phone shots of this (followed by Jeff, Mikhail, and Tatiana's CAF+ episode on archiving) that pushed me toward purchasing an A3 scanner. And thanks for that! I have a 600dpi flatbed scan of this in addition to the hi-res web image here. 

I've already contacted him about the next commission, which will be a color piece. The skill and technique is off the charts!

Seeing that piece you got framed in Vegas made a commission inevitable. I'm going to have to send him a packing FAQ video for future reference, but the work can't be beat.  

Nice! You had a front row seat for her artistic development so to speak

Thanks for facilitating, Tatiana.

Your Comic Art Live+ show with Mikhail and Jeff emcouraged me to upgrade to an A3 scanner, so I'm reconstructing my CAF galleries. 

It's likely that our cel phones will ultimately be the death of us all... but hopefully boba won't be.

I can't believe I missed Brian at the Amazing Las Vegas Comicon. That's what I get for leaving my glasses in the car!

Wonderful inset!

Send it here and I'll scan it hi-res for you ;)

Art Adams, zipatone, and an anti-vivisection plot seems like a trifecta to me —congrats!

This is one of the coolest pieces on the entire site. I can't believe there aren't 100 comments...

I love that he turned it into a sculpture as well.

Starting red hot straight out the gate!

You are in a pretty exclusive club if you have ANY published Tim Vigil art in your collection, but to have one as nice as this is truly exceptional. 

Groove is in the heart ;)

The more I study it, I see Lucifer escorting her, but the beauty is that it allows for interpretation.

The original text I had written for the unboxing I did on my IG and posted it here without proofreadint it. It was clearly out of date, so thanks for posting this reply, as it encouraged me to update it. 

I've gotten lucky on more than one occasion, but as a longtime gallerist I've been conditioned to let go of artworks that I love —because it would be unfair to patrons (and the artists) if the gallerist kept all the best pieces for themselves. The primary directive of a gallery is to place important pieces into esteemed collections, but there have been instances of key works not selling and therefore being available for a private purchase. You can't spend all your profit on art or you won't have a gallery for very long, bit all good gallerists are also collectors. It just requires balance. 

Because of that, I've had to reach out to buyers about possibly buying back or trading for a piece I had previously sold. I can count on one hand the number of times I was able to do that, but it has empowered me to follow up with auction winners and owners of pieces that aren't necessarily for sale. 

It helps that collectors of a certain age have begun liquidating, but I still have to chock it up to luck on this one.

In what could only be described as karmic equilibrium, I picked this up the day after I sold a published page from Madame Xanadu —and of course I vastly prefer this. 

I didn't get this directly from him, but someday I'll show you what he wrote in my copy of The Studio...

Etrigan couldn't have said it better!

This was from the November 2024 Comic Art Live show. I really wasn't aware that only one character is allowed because so many Silver Surfer pieces have Galactus, and so many Green Lantern pieces have the Corps in them, etc. My request was "Death of the Endless Pieta" - which must have escaped scrutiny because only one character was named. 

In that respect, it could have been an animal on her lap, but I figured if there was a problem I would've gotten a message back saying that I needed to pick something else since The Pieta is perhaps the second or third-most-known classical art piece.

But, to your point, getting a "free" second character must have caused issues because "One Character Only" was very adamantly stated on the very next Mystery Sketch Solicitation —though I'm pretty sure artists are going to do the sketch they want to do, and some of them are still going to have Galactus in back of the Surfer, add Lockheed to Magik or Kitty Pryde, include Jiji with Kiki, or showcase Mei or Satsuki (or both) in a Totoro mystery sketch.

I like the way you think, Marcus!

That was the whole idea behind this art direction. Allegory is best when it addresses multiple possibilities. 

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.

Showcasing the intergalactic riz of the MF

This is super cute. I can't believe I'm the first to comment. 

I can imagine how much this set you back, and it was worth it.

This is such a fun I piece!

I'd love to see this in person!

More iconic for the robot with a nice ass than for Vader

Ubiquitous!

An unusually zaftig Death from a master illustrator who rarely accepts commissions and almost never interprets other people's characters. I need to go back and watch that episode!

Looking at this page and seeing Element Lad's costume for the first time in ages, it struck me that Joe Staton's E-Man has an incredibly similar uniform (though very different powers). Originally, Charlton owned E-Man, but by the time DC bought the Charlton superheroes it was after Staton had become the art director at First Comics and convinced First to buy E-Man from Charlton (with the idea of eventually repaying them out of his royalties).

But if DC had made their Charlton deal sooner, there is a better than zero chance that E-man would have been among the characters Alan Moore based his Watchmen on, and when relaunching the Charlton heroes as DC comics, both Element Lad and E-Man would have existed simultaneously in the same DC universe.

Two dudes with E on their chest. Crazy thought, eh?

Was this published? Seems like a shame if not. I can see a bit of Dave Stevens' influence in the legs and footwear, the latter of which (as Marcus stated) are as indicative of the ladies' different personalities as their body language.

Lot's going on, and yet it isn't overwhelming. That's a hard balance to maintain. Kudos to the artist!

J.M. DeMatteis has been mostly overlooked from 1990s onward, but it's important to acknowledge his impact in regularizing painting as a viable medium for sequential art as a writer who frequently collaborated with painters. INTO SHAMBALLA shipped to newsstands and bookstores a month before the first issue of Miller & Sienkiewicz's ELEKTRA ASSASSIN #1, and fourteen months earlier, J.M. & Jon J. Muth's first issue of MOONSHADOW had debuted under Archie Goodwin's EPIC imprint at Marvel. John Marc's collaboration with Kent Williams. BLOOD: A TALE was still a year away.

The story goes that this Dr. Strange story was initially pitched as a serialized story for Epic Magazine, but that DeMatteis and Green didn't want to limit the structure to the necessary beats of storytelling in installments. 

As an avid collector and reader of G.I. COMBAT and WEIRD WORLDS back issues this was definitely not the first work by Dan Green that I saw or read but it was definitely the first time I was aware of him. As great an inker as he was I wish he'd been given more opportunities as a primary penciler and to produce more watercolor interiors. 

Fun perspective on this

Another great addition to the best Lone Wolf & Cub collection out there!

Looking for something else today I came across this again and realized I hadn't left a comment.

I hope you expand on your description to tell the story of how this came to be. I am not very familiar with Adam Pollina's work, but he brought something really special to this illustration. The detail in the sqaulid appartment is akin to something from Tank Girl or Transmetropolitan and it's a wonderfully aptypical presentation of Death. And kudos to Adam for not adding her signature eye make-up to the wrong eye to compensate the angle of her head tilt. I absolutely love it. 

A frequently homaged image from other media, but the setting as much as the characters make this perhaps the most suitable appropriation of the iconic Breakfast Club movie poster design. Someone else noted the Kaluta-ness of the linework, and I'd add that I see an element of Charles Vess, too. Great work here by Opeña.