The first day of this year's con didn't start out well for me. It was miserable and raining, and one of my bags broke on the way to the Javits Center so I had to carry it around in my arms. I brought too much reference material with me so I had a hard time deciding which artist to visit first and got immediately overwhelmed. One highlight at least was me snagging a bunch of the new Legion flight rings they gave away at the Retailers Breakfast thing I had to attend for my boss at the comic store.
The second day was much more enjoyable and less stressful. I got plenty of signatures and was able to meet up with some people to talk and chat, including Colleen Doran and Gail Simone.
The last day was fun too, and I finally got to meet my friend Ariel from tumblr (though we only hung for a few minutes). The one downside was Joe Prado telling me my three commissions weren't finished yet, and I'll have to wait til January when he gets free time to work on them. However, Joe did offer to do something extra for me as a gift so that's cool.
With that said, let's finally move on to the commissions!
The first commission I received for NYCC was a pre-show piece from Nathan Stockman. Nate did a head sketch of Dr. Orbal for me at NYCC '17.
I set up a Multiverse design commission of a Legionnaire from him to add to my design collection. I considered doing it with Nate last year but didn't get the chance to set it up.
Nate did a redesign of Karate Kid for me as Earth-27B's Sumo King, on account of my friend Travis Ellisor has commissioned Nate a lot over the years and I know Travis loves Val. I figured he might get a laugh out of this if he saw Nate do it.
Nate said he had so much fun working on this he digitally colored it for me at no extra charge. I was impressed by how quickly he finished it, since it was weeks before the convention. God knows he did so much more with the idea of the character than I imagined in my head.
While I was talking with Nate Stockman on twitter, he mentioned his favorite Legion reject was Plaid Lad of the FYL Era. Because I was so touched by the amount of effort Nate put into Sumo King, I kept that info in mind while I was trying to figure out what to commission from Marcus To.
I contacted Marcus immediately when I learned he was taking commissions for NYCC, but I couldn't choose a character at first. Hearing Nate say Plaid Lad was his favorite gave me the idea to get the above piece from Marcus, figuring Nate would get a laugh out of it. I love the little plaid bits hovering over the guy's fingertips as well.
As luck would have it, I got to see my friend MJ Kim, whom I've referred to as "sewerbetta" before, at NYCC. I discussed the idea of meeting up with her and her boyfriend and possibly having lunch with them since I only really see MJ at MoCCA Fest. The lunch idea fell through, but she was doing a signing at the Valiant Comics booth.
Oh, did I mention she was doing the signing with PAUL LEVITZ? You guys are never gonna believe this, but MJ's working with Paul on a miniseries for Valiant called "The Visitor." It comes out in December! I flipped out when I heard MJ's working with Paul, since I've been getting Legion artwork from her for years since she's a fan of the cartoon. I first started following her because of fanart she did of Brainiac 5 and Lightning Lad. And now she's collaborating with one of THE Legion creators!
While at the Valiant booth, I got Paul to sign my set of the Who's Who issues while MJ worked on this Storm Lord sketch. Storm Lord is one of the Multiverse designs in my collection, the Lightning Lad of Earth-27B. I decided to start a sketchbook solely for pieces based on the Multiverse designs I've been getting, but MJ's sketch is the only one I got at the con since I didn't plan for more ahead of time.
I figured I should get at least one sketch of the new Legion designs, so I got newbie Monster Boy from Juan Doe. I mainly remember Juan's artwork from "Joker's Asylum" but he's recently been working on Dark Horse's "Strayed" series. I thought his style was a good fit for Monster Boy.
Arielle Jovellanos is one of those people I frequently see at cons, but after getting one quick sketch from her a few years ago I kept going by her table, saying hi, and wanting to get something from her but never following through. I took some initiative and got this piece from her on the second day.
Modular Lass is one of the members of Dark Horse's Quantum League, their Legion pastiche in Jeff Lemire's "Black Hammer" universe. This is the character as she appears 25 years later, after the League's dissolution. I specifically wanted Arielle to capture the scars on her face and asked her to include the cigarette.
Nik Virella's become a con regular for me these last few years and she's always sweet to me. Since she worked on Marvel's short-lived "Hyperion" series with Chuck Wendig, I got her to do Hyperius, the Superman of Earth-8 in DC's established Multiverse. Earth-8 is DC's parody of Marvel comics, with Hyperius based on Hyperion of the Squadron Supreme.
Who are based on the Justice League.
Yes, Hyperius is DC's version of Marvel's version of DC's Superman. Crisscross!
As a sidenote, Nik also had a surprise for me this year, and let me have an R2-D2 sketchcard someone commissioned her to do two years ago they simply never picked up. She said she thought I'd appreciate it since I'm always getting stuff from her.
My friend Alec gave me the idea to get this sketch from Michael Fiffe because of Fiffe's "Copra" series. The unique and odd character designs in Fiffe's work gave me the sense he'd be perfect for Membrain of Wildfire's "Dead Earth" Legionnaires.
I got a Polar Boy sketch from Sina Grace while he was doing a signing at the Boom Studios booth for their "Power Rangers" comics. I always thought Sina would draw a good Brek because of his work on Marvel's "Iceman" comics. I only feel bad because I kind of held up the line while he drew this, since I thought the signing would just be us being allowed to walk up to the table. Still, Sina was super nice to me and remembered me from last year's Flame Con.
In 2017 I got Ben Caldwell to do a sketch of Quantum Queen, which gave me the idea to do a theme with Ben involving the rest of the Wanderers. This year I followed up on the idea and commissioned him to do Elvar.
I expected Ben to do another headsketch like the previous one, so this was a pleasant surprise. Although I guess since the price was higher I should've expected it would be more detailed.
Daniel HDR was another artist I contacted before the convention regarding his sketch prices, and I didn't want to be rude by not following up. I got Daniel to work on this piece of the FYL era's Monica Sade since no one ever really talks about her and I needed a more detailed piece next to the quick head sketch Ron Randall did for me years ago.
I initially paid for a color piece but Daniel was kind enough to offer a partial refund since he wasn't able to color it after all. The details are immaculate.
Kristen Gudsnuk was the last commission of the convention proper, finishing off Sunday with this color sketch of Spider-Girl. I met Kristen last year at a local comic convention where she did a piece as a birthday gift for my friend Andreas. I am floored by how well she was able to color this one despite her having like an hour before the con ended.
Last but not least is this post-con commission done for me at home by Rich Bernatovech. In 2017 Rich did the Westerner for me, and a few months ago he did one of the Wildstorm Legionnaires. Since he doesn't do sketches at cons and he lives nearby, I arranged for him to work on this swimsuit Monstress piece after the convention ended. I picked it up from him at the Millennium Hotel on West 44th Street, where my friend and fellow Legion fan Alec works.
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