George Perez - Robin, the Teen Wonder

George Perez was one of the defining mainstream comics artists when I was growing up, he was critical to the New Teen Titans becoming a best seller. He made each member look fantastic and individual, and perhaps there is no finer example of that process than his work with Dick Grayson as Robin, who he made look REALLY sexy not in spite of, but partly BECAUSE of his fantastically silly outfit.

So when I say that George Perez has been on my radar for a commission for a long time, I'm not understating the case. But a co-incident time of his taking commissions and me having the money had never come about.

So when last year it DID come about, I had to make the leap. I went almost the whole hog and asked for a pencil-toned full figure picture, which was most of my bonus for the year, but what the heck.

Now what with one thing and another, it took a while to get it, but I can be patient, and with George Perez you really don't mind waiting at all as you know you'll be getting something awesome at the end of it. Of course, there are the little concerns one has in a one-off commission; Was I too specific? Not specific enough?

Any such worries were, of course, groundless. I left my preferences as open as possible, to allow Mr Perez as much leeway as possible, and the choices he made I can only applaud.

Suffice it to say that when this arrived in my inbox, I think I was robbed of the power of coherent speech for some time. And that's as nothing compared to actually seeing it when the real thing arrived in the post. Terrific isn't it?