Daniel / Dream Sandman Commission - Martin Simmonds

It's always a leap of faith when you commission an artist to do a character that you haven't seen them tackle before, but you feel they could do masterfully. It's incredibly satisfying when that faith pays off, as it did here in spades.

Since I commissioned this of course, the pending cover of Hellblazer 7 has been previewed in which we see a different manifestation of Daniel than we see here. I'm clearly biased, but I think this one is the more outstanding of the two.

It's one of those where the more I look at it the more I love it. I always loved deep space and nebulas and the colors shimmering from Daniel and mixing with the space background are so lovely. He also has him in the classic Daniel garb and with the emerald, two things I didn't ask for but were so happy when I saw them. Martin is such an incredible talent, and I am so grateful to have this beautiful painting. He really layers the paint on thick in some spots, which I think comes across in the scan, especially towards the top of the piece when the iridescent dream energy is making a sort of halo or crown. Just beautiful, thank you, Martin, and thank you to Dan Scott for facilitating for pickup at C2E2.