I've been an LSH fan since the earliest days of my comic collecting life. I got my first Adventure Comic featuring the LSH while sick with pneumonia in the 3rd grade and I've been hooked since. I own virtually every appearance from
Adventure 247 ($25 back in the day) to today.
The Shooter/Swan/Klein era is remains my favorite art era, but the
Dave Cockrum,
Mike Grell and
Michael (Mike Nasser) Netzer runs contributed mightily to my love the team.
As you might imagine, a Swan Legion piece has the number one spot on my
grail list. When I failed to win
a recent charity auction featuring the entire team, I was was quite sad, but then I saw this piece.
I contacted the then owner -
Mike Napolitano - and we quickly arranged a deal. I remain thrilled with the piece and Mike's service. Mike told me the following about the creation of the piece:
I met Swan several times (mostly tagging along with Spencer Beck). Great guy! This is a commission he did for me in the early 90's. I asked for Mon-El, Shadow Lass, and Superboy and gave him a general description of the scene. He did the rest. I was shocked when I saw the size of the piece and the beauty of the pencils. I have 5 or 6 similar pieces - KK and Nemesis Kid, various legionnaires and the fatal five (you can see a few of them in the Legion Companion). Toward the end of his life we worked out a deal, I would pay his insurance every month and he would do random sketches in a sketchbook at his leisure. He never started, he passed away a few weeks later.Unlike Mike, I started collecting art too late to contact several of my favorite artists and writers. There's a lesson there somewhere. I'm still looking for a group shot of the team by Swan, but with this on the wall, there's no rush.
Anyway, enjoy the artwork. I do.
BTW, If you like Curt Swan's work, you will probably enjoy:
1)
My published Legion page (Legion/LSH (1983) #306 Pages 17-18)2)
My Superman Commission
