Today's post is essentially an unexpected bonus for me. I need to post some reference shots for an artist doing a commission and figured why not post them here. And since this is for mass consumption why not post some random but relevant thoughts as well, eh? The artist (today) is JK Woodward, who is currently having a nice sale on commissions he will mail to your home; starting at only $35 too! The subject matter of my commission is the Michael Golden DR. STRANGE portfolio. I say JK is the artist today because I am asking artists to do their version or an homage to these classic images that I loved as a youthful lad. I was lucky to have Darryl Banks do a version, or homage really, of the portfolio cover a few years ago. Here that is, in all its' glory!!!

There are six plates, in addition to the wonderful cover. I am going to have JK take his shot at one of the three portfolio plates shown in this blog post. Basically I think these three, of the six, suit him best. Besides, I already have a version of the Eternity plate done by Otis Frampton. I dig that one as well and would show you if not for this unwieldy image adding feature. Back to the ones for JK to choose from, here is the The Ancient One plate.

I am not the first person to realize that hindsight is 20/20, but I can be amazed quite often at how things take on added, or more accurately altered, significance over the years. I often discover in my midlife years that what I thought was old back in the day was in fact quite new at the time. For instance, in college I had these portfolio plates on my walls. The Dormammu one here was right over my bed. How could the ladies resist?

Oh I was so cool.

I certainly was too cool for school, as my second semester gpa of 0.75 for 16 credits would attest. What a Nightmare. But those portfolio plates worked their magic on me. I remember buying them in New Brunswick and I thought they were some rare and ancient treasure overlooked since the seventies, man! I loved them all immediately, and it turns out the portfolio was far newer than I thought it was. It came out in 1983 and since I came to New Brunswick in 1985 it probably arrived in the comic store only a short time before I did. But we went home together. I had it on my walls until I got married, and who knows what happened to those plates when the wife took over the home decorating. But I got a new set not long ago and have it proudly displayed not far from this computer. The wife, she came around soon enough.

UPDATE 2/5/12: apparently JK chose to do The Ancient One, the first of the three plates presented above.