Strong Guy by Nelson! ~ X-Men Ultra '95 Fleer trading card painting

I finally managed to get a Nelson painting from the mid-'90s trading card sets when he was doing all kinds of great stuff! YES!!!

His Ghost Rider covers really caught my attention, (still looking for the Ghost Rider Wizard Mag cover he did:) and I was always a huge comics/trading card nut so I definitely noticed his work. The Wildstorm Gallery, Fleer Ultra and the Marvel Masterpieces painted-art card sets were awesome because of the great artwork, and you got to see a more "realistic" version of characters you love. So I really wanted to get pieces from those artists that really struck me from those awesome card sets, and that was Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Joe Chiodo, Nelson, the Hildebrandt Bros, Joe Jusko, & Bo Hampton primarily. I liked a lot of others too, but those were my faves. So I have a few Chiodos & Hamptons and now a Nelson, so 3 down and still many to go;)

The last time I came across an original Nelson painting for sale (which doesn't happen often, as his stuff gets swallowed into permanent collections fast!) it was a Spider-man one, and at the last second my highest bid was doubled and I lost out. So I went hard on this one even though it isn't a favorite character. (I do like Strong Guy don't get me wrong, and he's part of my favorite X-Factor team period of the '90s when Joey Q was doing it:) Guido aka Strong Guy was one of those funny characters who brought the comedy relief to the team, and a superhero that moonlit as a bouncer which made him even cooler. And that crazy baby hair is always good for a laugh. But as usual, I digress:)


This piece measures about 8x11 on a larger 10x15 board and is done in acrylics on thick artboard. It is card #111 from the Fleer Ultra X-Men 1995 card set, and so far the only Fleer Ultra card I've stumbled on for sale. So glad I was able to win it.


I just love the additional images feature here on CAF, so I also included digital pics of the full artboard and a coupe close up shots of the art so that maybe I can convey the sheer awesomeness of this piece. Amazing in person is all I can truly say:) I also included a pic of the actual card, but you'll notice that the actual piece is so much more bright and colorful than the published piece. Such is always the case with paintings. So hard to reproduce. But as usual, I digress......