Clayton Crain & Humberto Ramos

The comic art community is a great community. I have met a lot of great people out there who are willing to help one another out with sketches and commissions and tips on where to find rare art. It's really a wonderful thing. These are two examples of that kindness. Clayton Crain NEVER comes to the tristate area. To be honest I don't even know if he does any cons besides Emerald City. Fortunately Colin Solan was able to come through for me by getting this awesome acrylic painting of Gambit & Mr. Sinister by the X-Force & Ghost Rider Marvel exclusive superstar.





Another example is this Gambit sketch by one of my favorite artists Humberto Ramos. I treasure my WWPhilly commission I got from Humberto but am always looking to add more of his art to my collection. This was purchased from Almando Rodriguez who got Humberto to sketch this at Megacon.

Weapon X: First Class Cover #3 by Michael Ryan

This is another piece of artwork I got at New York Comic Con 2009. It's the Weapon X: First Class #3 cover featuring Wolverine & Gambit. The detail that Michael put into this is just absolutely amazing.

NYCC 2009: Joe Benitez

NYCC 2009: David LaFuente

I wasn't too familiar with David's work besides working on an X-Men: Divided We Stand backup story and the Patsy Walker: Hellcat miniseries. However, I saw that he was doing sketches for only $20 and his style was really cool. I was standing there talking to him while Brian Bendis walked up to him to discuss their upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man relaunch. As he was personalizing it he decided to write Bendis then corrected it. I expect great things from David in the future.

NYCC 2009: Stefano Caselli, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Fabio D'Auria

After getting my name on Jimmy Cheung's list it was off to Stefano Caselli & Giuseppe Camuncoli's table.

Stefano was recently named one of Marvel's Young Gun artists and it's no wonder why. His work caught my eye when he was working for Devil's Due Publishing because of a little book called Defex. That book was written by Marv Wolfman and was supposed to be an ongoing series but ended up being just a 6 issue miniseries. Nevertheless it was Caselli's art that made me pick up that book. He has recently gone on to work for Marvel and is currently a Marvel exclusive artist. He's worked on Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways, The Initiative, and is currently working with Brian Bendis on Secret Warriors.
Thanks to Stefano for another great image of Gambit & Rogue.





Sitting next to Stefano was Giuseppe Camuncoli who has worked for Wildstorm doing Captain Atom: Armageddon, the Intimates, and is currently working for Marvel on the X-Men miniseries X-Infernus. Cammo's style is a lot of fun. Thanks Giuseppe for this great Gambit commission and for doing the Iron Fist commission for my brother.



Both pieces were colored by Fabio D'Auria.

NYCC 2009: Jimmy Cheung

In case you have been living under a rock Jimmy Cheung is amazing! His art on Young Avengers propelled him to the superstar artist he is today, but it was his work on X-Force and Uncanny X-Men that introduced me to his unique style. He later went on to cocreate Scion for Crossgen comics. He's currently a Marvel Exclusive artist.


With that introduction I think it should be pointed out that Jimmy Cheung was my number 1 must get commission at NYCC 2009. His art just amazes me and he is an absolute complete professional towards his fans. I've seen 2 pencil commissions he's done of Gambit in the past, but recently he has started to ink and use grey tones on his commissions for an added value to the fan. He spent a lot of Friday working on this and I'm still amazed by how great it looks. I think it perfectly captures the early romance of the characters.

NYCC 2009: Philip Tan

The convention began for me with this incredibly detailed commission of Gambit & Rogue from Philip Tan. Philip has worked on titles such as Uncanny X-Men & Spawn and is currently a DC exclusive artist. Thanks to Kirk Dilbeck for arranging this commission in advance of the show.

Click the image for a larger scan.