Vril Dox II Sketch Card by Derec Donovan

Derec Donovan became the main penciller for the R.E.B.E.L.S. series shortly after it launched, and I remember appreciating his clean, precise artstyle from the very first page of his that I read. I picked up a large Andromeda piece from him a few months back, but always wanted to get around to commissioning some of my favourite R.E.B.E.L.S. characters, too. My chance came when he was running several WhatNot streams to raise some extra funds for his trip to SDCC. I commissioned a sketch card, and of course for my character I had to go with the man himself, Vril Dox II, in the outfit he wore throughout the R.E.B.E.L.S. series. The design is great, from both a story- and character-based perspective. After having his leadership of L.E.G.I.O.N. overthrown by his own son, you can tell life on the run has not been treating him well by his stubble and the way his hair is starting to grow out.

Derec did a fantastic job on the card, too! These days, he's working with liquid acrylics, which flow like watercolours but provide some very strong, saturated colours. As always, his placement of shadows is very precise, and so is every single line and brushstroke. I love the spacescape background he went with, and also the expression he gave Vril, which you could interpret as being very determined and collected, or very tired and resigned.

Considering Vril is one of my favourite characters, I'm a little surprised it took me some three and a half years of collecting to actively commission a piece with him. I'm glad I went with Derec, because he knows the character well, and I knew he would do Vril justice. Derec even mentioned that after nearly thirty years since he worked on R.E.B.E.L.S., it was a lot of fun to "return to his roots" and draw the characters again, since he rarely has the chance to, these days.