Happy Anniversary! Top Ten Supergirl Commissions!

I continue my semi-self-congratulatory tenth anniversary of Supergirl blogging by looking back at my every growing collection of commissions. I am pretty lucky that New England has a good convention scene that allows me the opportunity to run into creators on an annual basis. And I am also lucky enough to have a job where I can moonlight an extra shift to fund a convention season, allowing me to at least try to get commissions.

As I write this, I have just under 100 commissions in the collection. Initially I got them on separate Bristol board and would frame them. But I quickly ran out of wall space in the comic area of the basement. It also was kind of hard to share the collection. So a while back I switched to sketch books which I now bring to conventions. It has served me well. I know have a portable art gallery. And artists who I do commission seem to like flipping through the book themselves.

As part of this 10th anniversary celebration, I have been looking at some Top Tens and figured my commission collection was a natural for such a list. The problem is I love all my sketches. So picking a top ten feels like I am rejecting the others. So I am presenting the top ten commissions that stuck out to me today. Ask me tomorrow and I might pick a different 10 all together. And these are listed unranked and alphabetically by artist. This is just the top ten.

If you love any of my commissions, please drop me a note. In the mean time, on to the list,.

Jim Cheung - I get the sense that this one would always appear on a top ten commission list of mine. I absolutely love this one. I am blown away by the copic work here. This was one of the first commissions that I paid more than I was anticipating for. But I absolutely love it. This was from way back in 2009 when the Boston Comic Con was held in the basement of an insurance building. That show has grown over the 10 years.

But seriously, this one is just incredible. When flipping through the sketch book, people always stop on this page. Always.

Terry Dodson - I have always been a big fan of Dodson's work. When I heard he was coming to Boston in 2016, I did my best to reach out to him to see if I could land on his commission list. Dodson takes a long list over the first day and then decides which ones he is interested in doing. It is akin to a lottery and I usually shy away from that because I would rather give the money to an artist than leave with it in my pocket after losing the lottery.

Luckily, Dodson was able to tell me at the end of the first day I made the cut. I decided to go with the 70's Hot Pants costume and Dodson said it was the first time he had been asked to draw that outfit.

This one is incredible. I love how he makes the sleeves seem sheer. I love the salute pose. This one is crazy good and would also probably make it to every top ten list.

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez - How do you approach a legend and ask for a sketch? Well, you trip over your words a bit and then get sent to talk to his handler. Garcia-Lopez was taking a short list of commissions, head shots he would do on the blank first page of his art book. I was able to switch things a bit to get it in my sketch book instead for a very reasonable price.

This is just about perfect. There is a reason why JLGL's fans say 'praised be his name'. I love it.

I also find it interesting that this is another 70s outfit which made the cut. I just started branching out into other costumes.

Daniel Govar - I discovered Govar at the Boston Comic Con a while back. A buddy of mine got a Destiny (from the Endless) commission which was gorgeous. So I decided to get one of my own in 2014. Over the years, I realized I missed an opportunity with Govar to take advantage of his painting with colors to get a flame wing Supergirl from the Peter David run.

I went back and forth about getting a second Govar piece but then realized I had to. This time I went full Earth Angel. I love this piece as much as I love this run. And everything from the flame wings to the steaming eyes, to the action of her swooping down all works.

Jamal Igle - I have three pieces from Igle. One is from early in my commission days, one a buddy of mine grabbed for me at San Diego. The other I got in Baltimore and I love it, the Linda Lang commission.

In the end, I chose to highlight this one because it shows the young Supergirl Igle was drawing in the book at that time while putting her in the full shirt/red skirt costume that I really like.

There is no underestimating Igle's influence on the character recently. So I am very happy to have three different sort of takes on the character by him.

Aaron Kuder - Kuder had just been announced as working with Greg Pak on Action when he was listed as a guest at the Granite Con. His first Action book hadn't hit the stands but he had done some covers and an issue of Superman with Scott Lobdell. I could tell immediately I would love his style. So I ran to his table and was lucky enough to get on his list.

This is another big winner for me! I love how the color makes it all pop. I love the subject matter, Supergirl destroying a machine gun. And I love that look of intensity on Supergirl's face. Just perfect. And great that I could get a Kuder early in his career.

Jim Mooney - I lucked into getting this commission. I knew someone who knew someone who knew Mooney's handler. I was able to get this Supergirl/Streaky commission early in my commission collecting. In fact, this was the first post on this blog!

Mooney is a Supergirl legend so I was thrilled to get this. Honored to have this in my collection and would always include it in a top ten commission list.

Phil Noto - my first commission was bought on a whim, a Mark Teixeira piece at a local con. The next one I got was David Finch, again on a whim. But this Phil Noto piece was the first one that I planned on getting. I have always loved Noto's work. I love his style. And I knew Noto would be the table I ran to when I went to the Baltimore Comic Con many years ago. This was the first time I understood about timing, making sure I was at the table early to get on the list.

This is a gorgeous piece. I also think this is the first commission I obtained as a collector. I knew I would be getting more after this.

Sean Phillips - this is another early one, obtained for me by a buddy attending a con in NYC. I have been a long time fan of Phillips work, first noticing it when he was on Hellblazer. He had done a fill-in issue on the PAD Supergirl which I also loved. So I knew I wanted one from him if possible.

My buddy got a Constantine commission at the same time. Apparently Phillips said that drawing Supergirl was interesting to him because he was not asked for super-heroes a lot. I love this one.

Steve Rude - I love Rude's retro-style. When he made a rare East coast con in 2010, I knew he would be my #1 target. This was when Boston Comic Con had left the insurance building basement and moved to a local hotel. I assumed that Rude would have a line so I was shocked when I ran into the con and was first on his list.

It was then I realized that my taste in artist or creator of interest at a con might not be the same as the majority of con attendees.

This is such a beautiful commission with a hopeful Kara looking off. I love it.

And so those are the top ten commissions ... at least today. My commission list is over here if you want to gander at the creators I have sketches from. Also, you can use the commission tag to limit the posts but those also include prep posts, not just the commissions themselves.