It's funny you noticed that, as the original illustration of her had the exact same kind of expression, and is part of the reason she became a theme of my collection.

I was very disappointed when I learned that piece was digital only.  Probably another reason I started getting commissions of Skye.

If I get around to posting the rest of my commissions on her I'll be curious to see if you see the "theme" a number of artists came up with regarding how she holds her sword, without them interacting or seeing the poses other artists came up with.

Very nice! An excellent combination of characters!

Dang, I don't think Ron had found this one when I contacted him about Myrella pages.  Very nice!

I have to admit I'm jealous.  I always preferred this piece over the cover if Action Comics #651 it's based on.

Such a great cover.  Congratulations!

I appreciate you sharing its history.  I always love reading the backstory of pieces posted on here.

Awesome!  I still remember stumbling over the novel that had this cover back in the day, and being astonished that I never heard of it before that moment.  It was a few years later I learned that a second novel was published, and it wasn’t until 2020 that I learned of the third.

Interesting fact: Christopher Golden was a writer of many a Buffy novel.  It wasn’t until several years after I bought the first Gen13 novel that I got into Buffy, and then realized how much the novel reads like a Buffy story of “What if a Hellmouth was in Las Vegas?”  I do wonder if the dual writing credit is because Mariotte reworked an unused manuscript for a Buffy novel to fit Gen13.

This is a thing of beauty.

I'll never forget the time E-Bay took a video game I was selling down as a bootleg, and when I responded by asking how it was totally OK when I bought it on E-Bay, yet magically became a bootleg when I tried to sell it.

Never did get an answer on that.

Awesome!

If memory serves, there was someone who expressed concerns that the sketch covers could not be CGCed for authenticity, and they cancelled their pledge.  Congrats on grabbing it when they dropped out!

Nice!  This is one of the issues I'd wondered if he'd sold individual pages from, or if he still had them all together.  I lucked out in the early 2010s on him still having all the pages for two issues.

Very nice!  There's two lines from it I still quote on a semi-regular basis.

I've seen Dean use this piece as an example of his commissions, and I've always loved the shading on it.

Oh, we chatted for a while.  This was the only piece he wants to part with at the moment.  He was shocked I had another page from the same issue, and went on to tell me he found it for sale five or six years ago in a local area mostly know for dairy farming and a large Amish population.

We had a local farmer sell off his large collection of Conan pages back in the 90s.  Maybe se need a poll to determine how much of the men's adventure comic art collecting community is composed of farmers.

Great cover!  For some reason I've always had a soft spot for Phase, posdibly because she often seemed the nicest character in LEGION to me.

Thank you for sharing this history of this piece!  I always lore learning the lore of a piece of art.

I mean, as far as I know she's the only redhead to show up in Dragonlance, so I guess technically I have laid claim of dominion of all of them on Krynn.

Very nice!

I am very glad I read your response before I posted my pages, even as I realize how bad my Magoo Vision has gotten.  I decided to measure my pages, and what I thought was a standard board was an oversized one, and the “small” pages are actually 11” by 17”.  

Thank you for helping me realize that before I posted my pages with erroneous information!

Nice!  I picked up a trio of pages last year.  Was this one done on a standard-sized DC board, or a reduced size one?  I never knew DC used smaller boards until I received the pages.

Weird fact: I have a Lan Medina commission of two Maxima with a similar pouty response to Almeracians from a woman on the right side of the piece.  Totally a coincidence

LMAO.  I used tge phrase "crossing the streams" twice this week at work to refer to someone thinking that if they got someome else to make the same impossible demand at the same time it would magically happen.

Sadly for them, the lack of unlicensed nuclear accelerators strapped to their back made it ineffective.

A great example of Herbert's work!  I was tempted by it when it was up for sale last December, even though it's outside my usual themes, but thought it was sold then.  I was a little confused when I saw it up for sale again last week from the same seller because of that, and hesitated on buying it.  I'm glad it was purchased by someone willing to share it with others online.

i think that's a long-winded way of saying "I'm jealous."

About a year ago i had an oddity where someone found an unpublished page from a Firearm story, and needed to identify it.  My identification was disputed, as it was drawn on a DC biard, and a fellow insisted comic artists "can't" draw characters from one company on another company's boards.

in retrospect, I should have shown him my Marvel/DC/Antarctic Press crossover commission drawn on an original Valiant board and watched his head explode.

This is an amazing piece!  Until now I was only familiar with his cover work on Mack Bolan novels.

Very nice!  I saw this was up for auction, but I managed to forget when the auction was ending....by a week.  Not my finest hour.

fun fact: Many years after Violence was introduced the Cy Girls line of figures was released in Japan.  One of the line designers said the original figure for the character Ice had been inspired in part by Violence.

Thank you!  I've wanted to commission a series of holiday-theked commissions for a long while now, but it seems like every artist I talk to fears doing a commission that looks like a storyboard fir a Hallmark movie..

Very nice page!  I still lament missing out on the cover for the Panic In The Sky TPB years ago.

I'd lament the story pages I passed up, but given the commissions I got instead I've no regrets.

Kole, Black Canary and Supergirl.  It's a trifecta of my favoriter Pre-Crisis DC women rendered by the master!  I'm a bit jealous!

Even beyond my usual love of any piece with a redhead, this is lovely.  It's a nice action shot as the characters turn to something that's gotten their attention.

Mark always does such lovely work.  I've been commissioning him regularly since 2008 or 2009, and I need to start dusting off my old commissions and posting them as well.

Funny thing.  Every redhead I've known has been very mellow, while blondes in my life almost universally rode the crazy train.

Yet again I feel like I live in the Mirror Universe.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I gave to get my goatee waxed and pick up my Agonizer from the shop.

This takes me back.  I bought this issue at a foea market in the 80s, and it's still the only issue I've ever seen.

Very nice!  Did you get this from him in person?  I have debated getting a commission through his agent, but they have an automated request form, and the characters I most associate with him after the Silent Möbius cast are not options.

Fun fact: When Crossgen was trying to pitch titles as TV shows they used a lot of DPS art to try and sell them.  Years ago a fellow showed me the art that had been created for a First TV pitch.

it's funny, because I'm sure if it got made fans would have been howling that it'd been but hered by being set in modern-day Washington DC, but that was part of the pitch.

Very nice!  I especially like the detail on her hair!

I believe it's from Femforce: Time Storm, where Yankee Girl fought Divine Wind.

Danny always does such nicely-detailed work.  He was one of the first artists I commissioned when I started my Gun Mage theme, and he did a lovely job.

Fun fact: Originally Maxima had control of the molecules of metals, so all her clothing was metal she manipulated into fabric, hence the sheen.

i've probably annoyed several artists over the years by asking them to include the sheen on commissions of her.

Maxima's home planet is all kinds of insane.  If memory serves she discusses beating her personal slave, as well as being beaten herselg, like it's totally normal.  Another story has her being comfortable with being stoned to death for apparently failing her queenly duties; I guess Almeracian rocks are like kryptonite to her or something.  We won't even get into her mind controlling kids to use as expendable shock troops.

Now I'm picturing the Almerac of the Earth-3 universe as a place of subshine and hugs after typing all that.

Thank you!  I could not think of their names!

That's a very good question.  I know I was interested in a double-page splash from the New 52 era, and when I stumbled on the pencilled pages I didn't recognize them.  Turned out the character depiction that made me want to buy the splash was only in the inked versiom, as the penciller somehow forgot to include one of the two main characters from the story.

it really is amazing sometimes how much effort inkers put in.

This brought on some nostalgia from my koi- and shubunkin-breeding days.

It's great to see a Blackhawk commission!  DC's war comics were my introduction to comic books, and Blackhawk was the third comic series Iever read.

I’m going to be honest and admit I’m not even sure I knew he did a run on Wonder Woman.  After War of The Gods my interest in WW waned dramatically, and I’ve read maybe 30 issues in the intervening decades, with most of them purchased in the last year or so.

I’m sure you’ll be shocked-SHOCKED-the last one I bought was the team-up with New52 Maxima.

Very nice!  Sludge was my introduction to Loprestri's work, and it's my favorite of his work, followed by his work in Amethyst for New52.

Not his fault, but I was sad when it was revealed Amethyst and her mom being redheads wasn't a permanent change for New52.

I love me some Romita Jr. Gyrich.

Not going to lie: I was hoping to find this page before you did. It's my favorite from the issue.

Congratulations!