Phantom Girl by Larry Mahlstedt

This showed up on eBay a few months ago and I knew right away I wanted to give it a good home in my collection! Larry Mahlstedt was the Legion's inker in the early to mid-eighties, and this piece was drawn right at the peak of his and Keith Giffen's artistic prowess on the title. It's also worth noting that this is far and away the oldest piece in my collection, and probably will be until my budget gets big enough that I can start competing for older Legion art.

It's always fun to find a piece fully rendered by an artist who usually only inks over other artists! I really enjoy having the chance to see what Mahlstedt's own artstyle looked like. I imagine this was likely a convention sketch, and I love the personality Mahlstedt brought to the piece, forgoing the usual, "perfect" pin-up post and injecting a little humour by having Tinya's powers acting up on her. Maybe his thought process was that Tinya was trying to strike a typical pose, leaning against the wall, only to get distracted by something and lose her focus. There's some lovely work put into rendering her floating belt and the draping fabric of her sleeves and bell bottoms (bell bottom PG is the best PG, if you ask me!). The shading is subtle but effective, and I love the little speech bubble Mahlstedt included. Definitely a very unique piece, full of character - both from Tinya and from Mahlstedt, himself!