Monday, October 23, 2017

Sarcasm Kid's NYCC 2017 Legion Sketch Collection


This being my first year as a contributor for Super-Bloggers means I also have the opportunity to show off all the Legion sketches and commissions I get at comic shows throughout the year, starting off with New York Comic Con 2017.

This year I did not get as many sketches as I'd hoped. My time was more restricted than it usually is during the convention, which only meant I was able to focus more on quality instead of quantity, as I tend to try and commission as many artists as I can at these shows. Let me just say how glad I am I decided to set up several pieces in advance.

I'll be starting from the smaller pieces to the more detailed commissions.





First up is Spaceopoly Lad by James Silvani, who's mainly been doing work for Joe Books and their adaptions of different Disney comics like "Darkwing Duck." James is one of those artist I'm never able to get my book to in time but I finally made the effort to get to him this year.


Following that is a Silver Age style Glorith of Baaldur by Robert Hack. This is my first Glorith sketch, and I chose the Silver Age version because Robert's best known for his artwork on the "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" horror comic set during the 1960s. I even brought my copy of "Adventure Comics" #338 for reference and got to joke with Robert about the Time Trapper whispering his evil plot to his supposedly competent henchwoman.


Amy Reeder is one of my con sketch regulars, in fact the first sketch she ever did for me was of Dawnstar back at NYCC 2010. I was torn between getting Laurel Gand and Black Lantern Zor-El because this month is Halloween, but decided on Laurel because I already have an Andromeda sketch from Amy. I plan to start a theme of all of Laurel's costumes as a reference to Amy's work on "Supergirl."


This was one of the last sketches of the weekend, Veilmist by Dominike "Domo" Stanton. I originally wanted to get Wildfire's brother, Squire Burroughs, but there wasn't enough time and I didn't want to settle for a smaller sketch of Squire. This is my first colored piece of the Khundish Legionnaire and I love the use of reds and pinks.


It's always fun to get sketches from Art Baltazar, and my original plan was to get the Stepford Cuckoos from Marvel, but since I reconsidered and focused on the Legion, I went with one of the less fondly remembered Legionnaires from the FYL era. Still, Art managed to make Devlin O'Ryan very dynamic.


My friend Travis Ellisor tagged me in a conversation on twitter between him and Nate Stockman, mentioning I could probably get an obscure Legion character from Nate at the convention. Rising to the challenge, the one character I believed would fit Nate's style perfectly was the infamous Dr. Orbal from the Silver Age. Nate didn't disappoint.


This is one of several advanced pieces I set up for NYCC, and you won't know who the character is so I'll explain. When DC and Milestone Media did their "Worlds Collide" crossover, the last issue included a parody of the Legion's future and mentioned a group called "The League of Super-Teens." The characters never actually appeared beyond a monitor board listing all their names and symbols, which got my incredibly pissed off when I was unable to find more info on them. So, in 2011 I began commissioning Bobby Timony to create the Super-Teens based on my ideas and designs. This one is Sterno Boy, a combo of Fire Lad and Hotstreak from "Static Shock." He's a greaser type teen bonded with a can of sterno which gave him fire abilities. I wasn't expecting such a superb coloring job from Bobby but I am in love with everything about it.


I love commissioning Amy Mebberson at NYCC, but I always manage to say the wrong thing to her and I worry she must think I'm some sort of creep. I tried to avoid talking too much and commissioned my favorite version of Saturn Queen, the Eve Aries from "Absolute Power." Since Amy's done so much work with the Disney Princesses comics, I asked her to draw Eve with a pose similar to Mother Gothel from "Tangled" as an oddball reference to her being Batman and Superman's surrogate mom. After all, mother knows best.


My latest addition to the Legion Academy sketches is the Westerner by Rich Bernatovech. Rich did this one at home and I'm so glad I followed through on my long standing desire to get the Westerner from him, because look at that coloring and the starry background. It's perfect!


I don't focus much on the Wanderers. In fact my only real goal for a Wanderers sketch is Silver Age Quantum Queen by George Perez, out of a desire to commission the Legionnaires who didn't appear in the splash page in "Legion of 3 Worlds" #5. That said, I thought Ben Caldwell's style was a match for the redesigned Wanderers, and after commissioning this one I've decided I'll try to follow up and get ALL of them.


This was the only heavyset piece I commissioned at the show this year. I only recently began following Stjepan Sejic's artwork but knew OF him from several pieces he did online and from the sexually explicit "Sunstone" series, so I figured he wouldn't have a problem with doing a kink piece of Lightning Lad. And WOW do I love everything about it, especially those arms. Commissioning Stjepan and his wife Linda was one of the best decisions I made for this show.

So that's about it for NYCC 2017 from me. I'm already making plans for next year's Legion sketches, and in the meantime, here's the Prince Evillo sketch I got Ben Caldwell to do as a gift for my friend Alec.


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