Christmas 2022: Showcase 56, page 13

2022 has been significant, I turned 70, I retired and took a sabbatical (for the most part) from collecting original art.

So leave it to my wife to make the end of the year special.

Katcher Storm as Barry Kitson labeled her in the Obama issue of Spider-Man wanted to do something special for my birthday and I told her, "Let me see what sparks my interest and then we'll go after it."

I debated doing another Justice Society commission but I've had a lot of JSA commissions done and it's pretty hard to top the assembly of artists who have made my JSA commissions so treasured.

Then for the first time ever I saw a Red Ryder Sunday and went after it, but got out bid.

Months rolled by and I just did not see anything that would be really special to mark my seventh decade.

With Christmas approaching Amy suggested I might want to combine my Birthday and Christmas present together.

That's when I took a more active interest in Heritage's early December sale and saw a page that immediately brought back the magic of reading that issue as a child.

I got the go ahead to bid away and hence Showcase 56, page 13 will soon hang on one of our downstairs walls.

It's all Murphy Anderson whose work I use as reference for Hourman commissions. P> I have been a huge fan of Murphy since I first read his Hawkman, actually before that due to his Justice League covers, but I did not know who was drawing those covers that were always better than the interior art on the Justice League.

I own a Kane and Anderson page as well as an Anderson and Kubert page, but never a pure Anderson... until now.

I think this page meets all the criteria of making my 2022 birthday and Christmas special.