Monday, March 2, 2020
2016 Vandal Savage Amazing Houston Comic Con commission by Karl Altstaetter
The nice thing about being middle-aged is having the disposable income to get commissions specifically for a blog you only irregularly post to, so that they sit around for so many years that the details get fuzzy (a condition also accelerated by middle age.) Did I get this piece is 2015, alongside the Ice Jam Sketch? Probably not, as that was the year I was putting together the J'Onzz Family Portrait that took up so much time and money. I doubt I'd have the funds for a full commission, plus I think I specifically got it because Altstaetter returned to Houston the following year. But I thought it was at the late Space City Comic Con? Eh, more likely the Bishop co-creator would repeat at Amazing, right? All best guesses, obviously.
I liked the idea of getting the Golden Age villain Vandal Savage drawn in a Chromium Age fashion by a Bloodstrike artist, especially as in his '90s tussles with the Alien Atlas he was more prone to the Bronze Age stylings of Messrs Velluto, Bernardo, and Semeiks... Karl Altstaetter