Last weekend, at Boston Comic Con, I commissioned my first sketch from an artist.
Now, the Con had some legendary artists in attendance, including Neal Adams, George Perez, Howard Chaykin, Lee Weeks, Mark Bagley, Michael Golden, James O'Barr, and dozens of others, including Tim Sale, who might be my favorite living artist in the industry right now.
Sadly, the greats like Adams, Perez, and Chaykin were so swamped by fans seeking autographs that they wouldn't have had time to draw a custom sketch for me, and I didn't have the hundreds of dollars it would have cost to commission them. Also, Howard Chaykin scared the $#@% out of me, but that's a story for another day.
However, tucked away in the periphery of Artists Alley with the smaller venders, I met a man named Greg Moutafis. Greg had a lot of prints and sketches on display, and I liked his work. I asked him if I could commission an original sketch of Black Canary and he said sure.
He was very gracious and accommodating. I paid in advance--I won't say how much I paid, but it didn't my bank--and returned an hour later to find this wonderful piece of art that was all for me!
Greg was incredibly nice. He said this was the first commissioned piece he was ever asked to draw at a convention. I even had to remind him to sign it before he handed it over. Thanks, Greg!
That's brilliant, getting a something like that!
ReplyDeleteSo lucky!
I wish I could've met some of those artists - Bagley is doing great things on Fantastic Four at the mo and of course Perez is THE legend to me, second only in my eyes to the 'King' Kirby.
Don't blame you for being wary of Chaykin - back in the early 90s I bought his Big Black Kiss and Im still traumatised[!].
Again, great to get a drawing done specially. Well done!
Today I got a nice piece of merchandise - a dual DC Legends action figure double set - Katana and Wonder Woman!
The WW figure was unfortunately the current character with the black boots and silver accoutrements - regular readers of the Diana Prince as the New Wonder Woman blog will know of my reservations about all that - but the Katana figure was spot-on! Virtually a recreation of the Birds of Prey look. Don't know why WW and Katana were plastic-wrapped together but happy days anyway.
Sweet! I like!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Frank!
ReplyDeleteKarl, I almost talked to George Perez towards the end of the con. The line for him had dwindled down, but I had nothing for him to sign and it didn't look like he had any prints for sale. And by that late in the day, I just didn't have the cash on hand to commission anything.
The crazy thing was, I saw Perez leaving about twenty minutes later, an hour or so before the con ended. He was just walking alone down the alley toward the entrance/exit, and the crazy thing was, it seemed like there was a bubble of space around him extending ten feet in all directions. As if the seas of con attendees were parting for him--but the super crazy thing was, nobody was staring at him, or even looking at him except for me. It was like he magnetically repelled everyone away! Craziest damn thing I saw all day (other than the twelve-foot-tall Bumblebee cosplay suit)!
Also, I LOVE Chaykin's Black Kiss!
ReplyDelete