Gen 13 (vol 2) #17 cover by J Scott Campbell (1996)

My 2nd J Scott Campbell Gen 13 cover!!! Finally!! As always, there is a bit of a story here. I first tried to get this cover last year from a CAF buddy, shortly after I scored my Gen 13 #1 cover. Still drunk on the pure joy of achieving that grail I immediately wanted more lol. So I tried to find more available Campbell Gen 13 covers but there were none. But I did know a guy who had one and I had luck talking him into selling me something before so I figured why not, never hurts to ask. When I reached out, he was actually willing to deal but the price was going to be high. I tried to look into selling some larger pieces but it would have cost me too many pieces that I didn't want to sell. So even though he offered me very generous time payment terms, it was just too much to commit to if I didn't have a huge chunk of it upfront. So I ended up having to pass on it.

Cut to a year later and I am helping a friend who wanted a certain cover from a dealer and was looking to trade one of his best pieces for it. So rather than letting the dealer get the piece, I bought the dealer's piece for my friend and got the piece he was going to trade. I was hoping it would be enough to entice the owner of the Campbell and it was! So I used that piece and another to trade toward the Campbell cover and made the deal happen and couldn't be happier. I just had to take the long road to get there. :)


So this is another great pick up I was able to get in a large trade recently with fellow collector Brian S, whom I had gotten one of my Jim Lee Rogue pages from in the past and who has always been very cool to deal with. This piece is another dream come true cover for me, as finding Campbell Gen 13 covers available is super hard and it is always VERY expensive when you do. But with the power of trade I have once again been able to achieve an awesome piece far outside my budget realm. (in the shallow side of the pool lol) I will stop short of calling it a grail as the #1 cover is that to me and this one doesn't have any of the ladies, but it is still a great score for me to add this to my always growing Gen 13 collection. Thanks again, Brian!


I also own the color guide to this one by Joe Chiodo, so I am including that in the additional images as well. (the color guide is also in my other Gen 13 gallery for guides and sketches, along with some of the interior page color guides from this issue as well) The cover was used again for one of the Chromium Special Edition #1 reprint books they did in '99, so I have CGC 9.8 copies of #17 and the Special Edition also, so I am including pics of those as well in the additional images.