CISCO KID - Gift for Joe & Muriel Kubert!

As a long time massive fan of José-Luis Salinas' Cisco Kid newspaper strip and as a collector of those originals, it's such a thrill to own this piece, which Salinas illustrated and gifted to the Kuberts in 1979. The primary reason this piece excites me is because Salinas passed away back in January of 1985, wasn't an American comic book artist, and therefore was not in the habit of drawing illustrations for fans. So he would've done extremely few such pieces throughout his career and life and to the best of my knowledge, this is the only known existing illustration of Cisco and his horse Diablo, outside of the original strip art.

If Salinas were alive today and was willing to do them, he would undoubtedly be able to command thousands per commission and I know fans would be forming long lines to get them. So the absolute rarity of such a piece, combined with knowing that it is personalized to Joe & Muriel Kubert and was treasured by them until Joe's passing in August of 2012, really reinforces what a privilege it is for me to own it.