Update: At SDCC, Adam Hughes put his imprimatur AH! on this piece. He chuckled at the disclaimer he had put on long time ago. I've taken off everything that was an argument that it really was by Adam Hughes, but kept in my story with the piece.
This is a wonderful example of early but mature Adam Hughes. It's from his "Dave Stevens Period", the time when the acknowledged influence of that late artist was strongest. It's prior to his adopting a uniform imprint, the AH!.
There's a story behind my getting this. I won this early on in my collecting via Ebay. I was delighted until it arrived. Then I saw the words "Adam Hughes didn't draw this!", that's the worst way to sign your art. The seller did not disclose this and clipped the image so that neither that nor the, "don't sue me," bit on the margin didn't show. I got on the warpath. The seller said that AH did this all the time because of fear of lawsuit, (something that still needed to be disclosed). My eye was not as discerning back then and I, honestly didn't look at it much if at all after seeing the inscription. Taking some bad advice, I sent it back for a refund.
It was relisted, with the offending parts showing and sold for about half what I had paid. Which was low enough that I would have bought it again, AH or no AH, except that it would have made it look like a set up.
It came up again years later. It went for less than is typical of a Hughes, and about twice what I paid years ago. I'm more than twice as wealthy now as then with more than twice the imcome, so it worked out.
