Iron Man Portrait

This is a big acquisition for me.

We all go back to the kid in us, to that first comic book, the characters in it, and the men who produced it. Those will be our very favorites forever. Our love for those stories is unshakable and, in many ways, dictates what we collect for the rest of our lives.

This art actually reaches back further than my first comic book. Before I ever read a comic, there was the 1966 Marvel cartoons running in syndication on tv. Of them, my favorite was Iron Man. And while it was crude, it was all we had back in those days and we didn't know any better.

I ran around the house as Iron Man and my parents took notice. For my birthday they bought me a Kenner Easy-Show Projector that played those cartoons. The cartoon themselves featured art taken right out of the comic books and though the Iron Man segments featured the art of both Gene Colan and Jack Kirby... it was Don Heck's version that was dominant, and it was his sleek version that will always define Iron Man for me.

This enduring love has continued all of my life, and I even founded and admin the "Don Heck Appreciation Page" on Facebook. (If you're reading this, join us!) So when this bust of Iron Man became available, I jumped all over it.

To me, it's just so beautiful! What a master Heck was... a few squiggly lines here, a few bold one's there, and you've got the essence of Ol Shell head.

I just love it and hope you do too.