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Comic Art Friday: Always be yourself, unless you can be Mary Marvel
A couple of years ago, I met a talented Canadian artist named Sanya Anwar at a local comics convention. Sanya created this gorgeous Art Nouveau-inspired portrait of one of my favorite heroines: Isis,...
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Comic Art Friday: Royal Air Force
People often ask me, “Where do you come up with all of these ideas for Common Elements commissions?” The truth is that concepts strike me in the most random ways. I’ve literally been driving in the car...
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Comic Art Friday: A thousand points of light
Let’s get straight to the particulars of today’s featured artwork, officially #114 (of, currently, 127) in my Common Elements commission series, shall we? On the left is Orion, one of the key players...
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Comic Art Friday: Frankenheimer’s castle
People who know that I’m a film buff sometimes ask me, “What’s your favorite movie?” Which is, of course, an impossible question to answer. I love many movies for many reasons, and they’re not...
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Comic Art Friday: The Jackie Robinson of comics
Allow me to begin today’s festivities by wishing you a happy Jackie Robinson Day. In the event that you’re not a baseball aficionado — in which case, I might think somewhat less of you, but we can...
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Comic Art Friday: Sisters are doin’ it for themselves
The tricky part of developing my Common Elements themed commissions is rarely the concepts themselves. My brain just naturally takes the bizarre twists and turns that uncovers previously unseen...
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Comic Art Friday: Uncaged in Vegas
If you know me well at all, then you know this: I loves me some Las Vegas. Which might seem a trifle odd if you do indeed know me, because then you also know that I’m not much of a gambler (I enjoy...
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Comic Art Friday: Even an android can fly
Listing all of the comic book stories that left a lasting impression on the nascent Uncle Swan would prove an impossible task. But one of the tales from my youth that I recall most vividly, and that...
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Comic Art Friday: Oh, Bombshell! My Bombshell!
Way back in 2008 — two entire election cycles ago, if we’re counting — I started a new commission theme designed to combine a pair of my favorite interests: superheroines, and aircraft nose art....
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Comic Art Friday: Tigra, Tigra, burning bright
Within the superhero community, there’s a tiny subset of characters who’ve had the unique opportunity to be two different superheroes at various stages of their careers. I’m not speaking here of, say,...
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Comic Art Friday: You’re my best friend
Throughout the long history of my Common Elements commission theme, the overwhelming majority of its concepts have sprung from my own fevered imagination. Not to be all egocentric about it, but it’s my...
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Comic Art Friday: Omakase
I rarely commission an artist with the words, “Draw whatever you want.” Now, I don’t script my commissions the way some collectors do — I know several people who provide excruciatingly detailed...
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Comic Art Friday: Full circle
Given the scope of commissioned artworks in my collection today, it’s almost unfathomable to think that as recently as 12 years ago this month, I’d never commissioned a single piece of art. In fact,...
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Comic Art Friday: Lords of Atlantis
I read today that Atlantis Resorts, the company whose commercials for its rather awesome-looking tourist destination in the Bahamas run frequently on TV here, is planning its first U.S. property in...
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Comic Art Friday: How do YOU spell Spectre?
With Halloween rapidly approaching — how did it get to be October already? — I thought it apropos to delve into the Common Elements catalog for this ghostly offering, beautifully designed and rendered...
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Comic Art Friday: Who’s your Goblin King now?
We’re having our first truly grim, gray October day here in the Bay Area, which makes it the perfect time to continue the pre-Halloween theme we began with last week’s Comic Art Friday. Since our post...
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Comic Art Friday: Battle royal
We’ve been bingeing our way through Season One of The Crown on Netflix (capsule review: beautifully staged, solidly acted, flows slightly more rapidly than molasses in January). In light of this, it’s...
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SwanShadow Gives Thanks: Triskaidekaphobia Edition
Welcome to the thirteenth installment in my annual outpouring of gratitude. Each Thanksgiving since 2004, I’ve devoted this space to a reflection on some of the many people, places, and things that...
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Comic Art Friday: Things are about to get hairy
Hey, did I mention that I’m going to be on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on Monday, December 5? Now I did. I’ll have more to say after the show airs. But for the time being, make sure to set your DVR....
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Comic Art Friday: A drink of ink
I haven’t done a post like this in some time, but having recently received a pair of commissioned pieces back from master inker Bob Almond, this seemed an appropriate occasion to revisit the subject of...
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