Nexus: The Newspaper Strips #4

I had wanted to get a nice example of Steve Rude's Nexus for a while, but always seemed to be on the back burner as other things came up. Saw this page in the April 22 Heritage auction (that was a crazed auction!) and immediately put it on the "like-to-have" list. I loved the over-sized, strip-nature of the page, the Nexus title header and "continue" prompt at the end, the amount of ink Rude put down, Nexus breaking panels, a tangent quote striped in by Roman historian Cato the Elder for some reason. Loved everything about it.

Rude wanted to create a Nexus series that was big and bold in the way of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant and Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. Originally appearing online-only in October of 2014 as Nexus: The Comics Strip #4, this page first appeared in the first printed version of Nexus: The Comic Strip #1 in February of 2016. All four issues were collected in 2020 in Nexus: The Newspaper Strips -- The Coming of Gourmando.

Checked all the boxes for me ...

Except, once again, I had a few other pieces targeted in that same auction and one Marvel page in particular that I just HAD to have -- was going all-in no matter what. Unfortunately, I got blown away on that page, couldn't believe I had lost it. I sat there dazed and the rest is a blur. When the Nexus page came up later a bidding fever overcame me -- I swear that computerized auction voice was Satan himself. Good thing I love this page because it will be with me for a while (one and done).

"No risk it, no biscuit" -- not Cato the Elder