Zatanna and Hellboy

I showed this piece to Albert Moy who confirmed it was Jim Lee's inks. Then I showed it to Jim Lee. He said he remembers the piece from the Speed Inker's Challenge. I guess this was some event that was held in SDCC 2005.

I asked Richard Friend about this piece, and this is what he replied:

Around 2005 Iron Chef on the Food Network was a popular show. The chefs would get random ingredients or a theme and have one hour to create a dish. So at Wildstorm we started doing that with art challenges. We had Wildstorm artists who would go up against each other and as it gained some popularity they even had a few artists outside Wildstorm participate. I am nearly sure Michael Turner did one maybe against Jim or J Scott Campbell..it's been a long time, but I think they participated in one.

Hellboy and Zatana was a fan suggested theme. Two characters wasn't the norm most times, or if ever I don't think. I don't remember any other two character pieces. To do 2 characters in pencils and inks in an hour is quite fast. But we did the piece at the Wildstorm studio. Jim inked me, and I penciled the piece. At that time it was interesting. I think Jim had inked me 3 times and I'd only inked him once or twice. But I drew it in about 20-25 minutes and then Jim did the finishes/ inks. Jim inked it in about 30-35 minutes and he did the backwards lettering. I didn't know enough about Zatanna as a character to know any details about her powers back then.