Green Arrow and Black Canary by Garrie Gastonny

I met and was nominally helping a group of artists who worked in the American comics industry when they visited Tokyo for the 2014 International Manga Festival, including Indonesia's Garrie Gastonny. At a drink and draw event set up by my friend, Yoshi, Garrie had brought a set of original pinups that he'd been working on and let me look at them before the Japanese fans arrived. They were all so good. I knew I wanted one, but it was hard to choose, then, toward the bottom, I found this action pinup of GA and BC that knocked my socks off. I tucked it onto the very bottom of the pile and told him that I wanted it if none of the Japanese fans bought it (I was there early and under orders to give the paying customers a shot).

Fortune was with me (at least then -- I unfortunately got sick the next morning and missed the festival itself!) and I was able to acquire it. At one point, Garrie mentioned that he wanted to ink it for me at no extra charge, but (1) even though his inking is superb, I thought it was darn near perfect as a pencil piece and I was worried that inks would obscure all the delicate shading and detail work that he'd put into it and (2) he had sold it to me at what I considered an incredible bargain and I simply couldn't let him do it without compensation. He chose to leave it uninked and I think we both made the right choice.

I guess what initially caught my eye was the fact that he drew a classic DC action scene: Black Canary, wearing fishnets and riding her motorcycle, blasting away at some unseen threat with her sonic canary cry, with Green Arrow, sitting right behind her, taking dead aim at the bad guys. However, it was the detail and the style that made me fall in love with it. Jeez, aside from the great figure work, look how he drew the cityscape background so chock full of wonderful details. All I can add is, that I hope this scan gives you guys even a fraction of a hint of how good this looks here in my hands.