Tempestuous Private Eye - Unpublished version

This was not the version he included in Violent Girls (from Fantagraphics Underground) but a discarded version. I might be biased, but I prefer this version over the one he chose for publication. But that is probably the owner of the piece saying "Mine is best."

I do have to apologize over this scan. I use a phone app for my scans and this one is in a frame. I love it and want to keep it in there. The bright white in the middle is the flash of the phone. Dammit. But I wanted to share this wonderful image. Also, I love Richard Sala and want more people to see his work, even if the quality is not the best.

I should say a little about Violent Girls. This was a collection of 40 watercolor illustrations that he did. All were of sexy girls holding weapons or looking menacing AF. They were first shown on his social media (he was big in his later years with getting his work online) and then Fantagraphics put this out in a wonderfully produced limited edition called Violent Girls. I was not feeling wealthy when he had the originals for sale, so I passed on them. But a few months later, he started selling a few unpublished versions and I jumped on this one. It is one of three pieces in my collection that I cherish the most.

Richard Sala passed away five years ago this month and I still miss waiting for the next work to come out.