SwanShadow Thinks Out Loud

In our two previous Comic Art Friday posts, we looked at two of the new artworks I commissioned at this year’s WonderCon. Today, we’ll look at the last of my big scores.

A commission from Brian Stelfreeze topped my wish list for WonderCon weekend. Brian is, in my rarely humble opinion, one of the most unique stylists in comics today — no one else’s work looks quite like his, and vice versa. To the best of my knowledge, this year marked Brian’s first appearance at WonderCon in the years that I’ve been attending, so I was determined to seize the opportunity to commission a drawing from him. I own two of his pieces that I’ve purchased from other collectors — a Wonder Woman and an Elektra — but it’s always extra-special to get something that the artist created for me personally.

I offered Brian the opportunity of drawing either Storm or Supergirl. “You can’t go wrong with either one,” he observed, as he looked at the reference pictures I handed him. When Brian saw that I requested Supergirl in her costume from the mid-1970s, he immediately gravitated toward that choice. His finished artwork used Cheryl Ladd — the “other” blonde from the classic ’70s detective series Charlie’s Angels — as inspiration.

Brian’s Supergirl reflects the artist’s affection for both the character and the era from which her costume derives. In the vernacular of the times, I’d call this creation “solid.” It appears that Mr. Stelfreeze would concur.

One of Brian’s fans shot video of him while he was drawing his Supergirl. Check it out:

I commissioned one other new piece at this con — a nifty portrait of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, drawn by Tom Hodges. I don’t usually collect color art, but I make the occasional exception, I made one here to allow Tom to do the drawing his way — in particular, to take advantage of this bright blue drawing paper that makes a perfect backdrop for the blue-suited Spirit. I like the fresh energy Tom brought to this legendary hero.

And that, friend reader, wraps this review of WonderCon 2011. That’s also your Comic Art Friday.

This entry was posted on April 29, 2011 at 12:13 am and is filed under Comic Art Friday, My Home Town, SwanStuff. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.