Dark Horse Comics #4 Predator Cover Leopoldo 'Leo' Durañona

I have read stories in other galleries about how they feel a certain page has somehow been fated to them. This is how I feel with the pages I purchased from Leopoldo Durañona. Not only did I get what, in my opinion, was his best original comic art cover, but I was able to purchase the only two Aliens unpublished pages he had left that featured an Alien within them.

So here is the story: One day I was looking on eBay to see all of the different comics with the Predator on the cover. I happened to find a listing for Dark Horse Comics #4 with a half cloaked Predator. I thought it was a cool and unique looking cover, so I went to comicbookdb.com to find out who the artist(s) was. The cover was done by one man, Leopoldo Durañona. I then went to Google and typed in his name. It is interesting to note that I have done this sort of thing before and not found anyone I had been looking for. Google returned a page that features Leo standing next to one of his beautiful paintings. It also listed his email address.

At this point, I thought it would be a shot in the dark, but I decided to try the email address out to see what would happen. The email just said that I was interested in the original art to Dark Horse Comics #4 as well as any interior pages that featured the Aliens characters in them. I asked for Aliens pages because I saw a Dark Horse Presents Aliens cover in which Leo had been given credit for working in the book. He just didn't work on the Aliens part of the book, I later found out. So it is extremely odd that I would even get Aliens pages to buy because Leo never did any published Aliens art!

So back to the email....I sent the email out thinking the cover was long gone, and I wouldn't get any Aliens pages either, because they had all been sold as well. Much to my surprise, Leo replies to my email and states he has the cover as well as two Aliens pages he would like to sell me. Isn't that amazing though??? Leopoldo has been hanging onto this cover featuring my favorite movie/comic book character for 17 years!!!!!!!! Who would have thought the cover would still be in the artist's possession after all these years???? The other interesting part is that his representative in the U.S was visiting relatives in Argentina. This made it possible for Leo to give the art to him for transportation back to the states and for me to send him payment knowing the art would be shipped via Fed Ex from a U.S. location.

Anyway.....dealing with Leo and his representative Robert have been a very pleasant experience. Leo is a true professional, and an amazing artist to boot! Thanks again for parting with this Leo! I feel like you have been hanging onto this piece for me for the past 17 years, and now it has come home to a HUGE Predator fan.