House of X #6, page 7

"Family... friends... and allies."

House of X has been one of the more important X-Men stories in recent history, and it also got me to read X-titles regularly again for the first time in years. Pepe Larraz is not an artist I knew that well before, but I loved his work in House of X (boosted by the colorist Marte Gracia). Given all that, I really wanted to pick up something from the miniseries, but Pepe does most of his work digitally these days, so there are very few original pieces of art. I saw some House of X monoprints (and a few originals) appear on CAF but had no idea how they were being sold until after missing the second (or third?) art drop. Finally, I found out about an art drop and was able to pick up a House of X page monoprint from Pepe's art rep.

I was hoping to get something with Professor X, Magneto, and Moira since they're the key characters to the story for me; and this page checks two of those boxes (fingers still crossed for a Moira page). This is the first full appearance of the Quiet Council, and I love how Pepe captured everyone's personalities in what feels like a standard roll call page. The highlight for me though is probably Emma and the air of condescension around her, from her facial expression to the way she's reclined in her seat. Also, even though it's a digital effect, I do love the use of the digital zipatone/dot pattern.

Thanks, Miguel!