This is my Kent Williams grail. I know the term gets tossed around a lot, but this is it; everything I want in a Kent Williams piece.
This will be long. There will be some rambling (most likely), some tangents (also likely) and some squealing (very likely). You have been warned.
This page combines four of my favorite things, one of which I never thought would actually happen: 1- Kent Williams, 2- panel page, 3- dealing with a friend and 4- The Sandman.
I have to admit Kent Williams took a bit to grow on me initially. I started reading comics around '93 and The Sandman around '95. I think I was 14 or something. I loved the stories but being an Image kid the art, while cool, wasn't the main reason I bought the book. As I got older and finally hit college I began to appreciate the art in The Sandman in particular, much more. Of course by this time pages were not really available or affordable for me. More than that though I began to appreciate just how cool Kent Williams is. His characters aren't pretty in the common sense. They are full of angles and texture. His lines (or strokes in his paintings) are full of energy, without excuses. His works feels dynamic even if it's 'just' a portait. I picked up everything of his and when I met Kent at a tiny con in SF in... 2001? I admit I was seriously star struck. But the man is just really nice.
At that point I decided that by the time I was 30 I was going to own a Kent Williams (didn't happen, but I did manage to do it by 33!).
The problem if you want to call it that is that I am super picky when it comes to his work. More than with any other artist I wanted a b/w piece with a male portrait/ figure and a nice hand. I have a thing for hands and together with Brian Stelfreeze I think Kent does the most beautiful hands. They are just so full of expression. But those citeria limited the amount of art available. Don't get me wrong I would love to own a painted piece (again a male portrait type piece would be awesome) but realistically, painted pieces are out of my price range. Heck most pages are out of my price range!
So I looked. The pages that were available weren't hitting the spot or were way over budget. Then at the beginning of last year I found a page from The Fountain. It wasn't perfect perfect as it was missing a panel (which would have been a stat but the stat wasn't included) but it hit the right spots and it was affordable. It had a great portrait... So I emailed and set everything up. Unfortunately it turned out that the page couldn't be found. I was offered replacement pages but like I said, I am extremely picky for some reason when it comes to KW. So I passed. I can in all honesty say I was really bummed out. It wasn't the dealer's fault, in fact he was very nice to offer other pages, but you know how it is when your heart is set on something.
Fast forward to now. With SDCC going on I figured CAF would slow down as it usually does. But I still checked and nearly fell off my chair when I saw this page. Fear of Falling is one of my favorite Sandman stories. Not only that but this page hit all the right marks; portrait(s), a beautiful hand and storytelling! And it was FS. So I emailed. I was worried I will admit that. It's a Sandman page. Granted it doesn't have Dream on it but it was still a Sandman page. If you've been following the prices you know what I was thinking. But it never hurts to ask.
I am happy to say it worked out =)
I have to thank a few people. First of all, Troy. You know why. Thank you! Then I have to thank all you SDCC goers who missed this. A lot of you are thinking 'na this isn't my thing' but even if you do, thank you anyway. SDCC tends to tie up peoples money. People don't check CAF as often. I consider myself lucky. So thank YOU.
On a side note, I was looking through my comics again, just playing 'what if'. Fear of Falling is a 10 page story. 4 of those pages feature Dream and so by default aren't really affordable for me. That leaves 6 pages. 1 of them that I know of is in a permanent collection (read, stupid offer kind of page). That leaves 5 pages of which 1 hit all the marks for me. This one. In fact if you look at all the pages, only this one hits every spot. The others are all missing that hand that I want (though I would make an exception for a Dream page). There is one more page of the book that I would have made an exception for (page 8) because it has a fantastic shot of Todd. But let's face it, for me, for what I wanted and want THIS is the page. I couldn't be happier. I always knew I would own a Kent Williams at some point in my life. I just never expected it to be a Sandman page.
Now, dare I start hunting for a John Watkiss page from Soft Places? That might be pushing it...
Also... can. not. stop. smiling! I might be done with actively collecting (aka hunting).
