Dark Angel #6 Cover featuring Excalibur

Every night I check out all the new art that's been posted for sale throughout the day and then I got to this one. Open it in a new tab to see it at full size. Hmmm, very nice Hitch piece, but it's Marvel UK Dark Angel. Close the tab. Two seconds later I go back and look at it again. It's Dark Angel and not Excalibur, but that's a really good Kitty Pryde! Close the tab again. About thirty seconds and the rest of the Koch update goes by and I look at it a third time. Now I ask myself how many times (if any) did Hitch do Excalibur. Wikipedia says two issues. Crap. When am I going to find another time Hitch drew her and in the old costume no less?

So I add it to the basket and go through the check out process. That's right, with Koch you're putting in a request to buy the piece, but you don't know if someone might have beaten you to it and they just haven't updated the site yet to say it's sold. So I don't get my hopes up and go to bed later. The next morning I checked my email; there's instructions on finishing the transaction.

A week later it's in my hands and I'm admiring the zipatone and reading the notes that I presume Hitch wrote to the other creators. He points out that Kitty's right hand is going through Dark Angel and sticking out, so that the colorist doesn't miss this detail. I just love how Hitch used to be so heavily influenced by Alan Davis and this piece totally shows that!