Barry Kitson might be my favourite comic artist, and Jeff Moy might have perfected my favourite "look" for the Legion, but if you were to ask me who draws my favourite character, Brainiac 5, better than ANYONE else, my answer would be one Francis Portela.
Francis was the one of the two main artists for Paul Levitz's "Retroboot" of the Legion in the late 2000s, and then became the primary artist for the team during the New 52. Those were some of the first Legion comics I ever read, and I think the experience of getting excited every time I saw Portela's name on an issue's credits was where my love for comic art, and not just comics in general, really began. While the old greats like Swan, Grell, and Giffen are rightfully seen as some of the best artists the Legion's ever had, I think Portela deserves a lot more recognition as one of the modern "greats"! He's certainly my favourite artist to work on the Legion in the last 20 years.
When I learned that his art reps would list commission opportunities for all of their artists, I realized a Portela commission was actually in the cards for me! I checked their website almost religiously for over a year, waiting for my chance, and when it finally came and my email was sent, I was so excited I could barely focus on anything else for the rest of the day. I asked (of course) for Brainy, "just as Francis drew him during his run on the New 52 Legion", and boy, did he ever deliver!
There are so many things I love about this piece that I could write a whole essay here, so I'll try to contain myself. First off, I've always found that Francis plays around with "camera" angles and perspective a lot more than many other artists, so I enjoy that this commission also features some great "Portela Perspective" (my own invention, patent pending), looking down at Brainy with an angle you don't really see in a lot of commissions. He'll also often include Legion symbols in the commissions he does of LSH characters, so I was glad he included one in mine too, even though I didn't specifically request it!
Francis usually works by doing his pencils digitally, printing the bluelines, and then inking over them, and this piece is no different. This, of course, means that the inkwork is absolutely beautiful. Each line is SO clean and precise, and he never skimps on the details - I've always especially enjoyed the way he draws the textures and creases of different fabrics, like Brainy's coat, here. He was definitely the right artist to work on the Retroboot Legion, with their more detailed costumes.
And speaking of Brainy, well... what more can I say? It's Brainiac 5 by Francis Portela, it's perfect. The smug expression, the hand on his forcefield belt... he definitely knows something you don't. A lot of somethings, probably. All the details of the costume are incredibly accurate, too, which is always a big sticking point for me in my commissions. I was actually able to message Francis after he posted this piece to his Instagram, and thank him for doing such an incredible job. He said that drawing Brainy again was like meeting an old friend, and mentioned that he even took the time to go back and look at his old Legion work to make sure he got all the details in the coat right. The absolute best part, though, was learning that Brainy is one of his favourite Legionnaires, too!
Francis will also sometimes add digital colours to scans of his pieces when he posts them to his socials, so I've included the coloured version of this piece in the additional images gallery.
I wanted to save something special for the 100th piece in my CAF gallery, and I couldn't think of anything better than this commission! To think that all those years ago, when I was marveling at Francis's art for the first time, I had no idea I'd one day have a piece of it to call my very own!
