I'm organizing this gallery to showcase my five best pieces with explanations as to why I think they are the best. This is the gold medal winner.
Alex Ross is the best artist ever to work in the comic field. He is a master of realistic painting. Most artists who paint comic art either devote themselves to covers and the equivalent of pin ups or make artistic compromises to do story pages. Ross is a prolific producer of both full color pin ups and interior pages that maintain the quality of the typical painted poster.
He creates a universe that is both believable and heroic, populated by realistic yet iconic protagonists. The people are each individually produced all with varying faces, bodies and attitudes, avoiding the common pitfall of having characters who are distinguishable primarily by their costumes and hairstyles. This is difficult and rare.
This piece is a rare glamour shot of a character with whom Ross seems to feel an affinity. It is the superheroine as supermodel. Had I been asked, I would have had Medusa's costumed identity up front with the civilian counterpart inset. The piece is oversized and even better in person than it appears here. It was made on thin paper and I did not want to handle it to the extent necessary to scan it. This is a combination of at least two different photos shot at different angles. It didn't photograph well without the flash and the flash reflection caused parts of the image to look scaly. The paper is nearly white and appears gray here as a result of the color adjustment necessary to make the image itself appear close to the real picture.
