The Darkness #14 pg17-18

Is there a piece in your collection that you could call your “First Love”? Well, here’s mine. Starting up back in late 2017, my first piece was $100 and the exposure to art was quite overwhelming. When diving deep into the world of CAF, I discovered and rediscovered so many old feelings, stories, and characters that fed into the youthful nostalgic years. One of the characters was The Darkness. Growing up in Hong Kong, the presence of the mafia was always felt and in fact often looked up to because they “ruled the streets”. So when I came to America, the next best thing was Italian mobster movies. Driven by family traditions and guided by honor, I loved everything mafia related when it came to TV and film. So when The Darkness came out that brought my nerdy world of superheroes and cinematic world of crime families together, it was genius. I also remember when I first saw this page, my jaw literally drppped. In fact, it was one of the first comic art pages I showed my wife that she didn’t make a weird face after. (I knew that meant something) but the price was always too high for me but now I know why beyond the fact that it was one of the few left from the Benitez, Weems, and Galli team. When I went to pick it up from Marco, we had a great conversation and he told me the moment that Joe had gifted this piece to him and how proud he was to steward it. Well, 20 years later, this first love of a piece of art was a gift from my wife that I bought for myself for our 5 year anniversary! (Yes you read that right) enjoy!