So heres something you guys havent seen before. Back in 1988, I was in junior high, and had the good fortune to meet Paul Smith. He lived in Santa Barbara back then, and he judged an art contest I had entered over at the local comics shop. Having a fair amount of moxie for my age, I invited him to come be a guest speaker for my junior high art class, and Paul was gracious enough (and probably amused enough) to accept. This began a brief friendship/mentorship between us—I think I saw him once or twice, and showed him my horrible 13 year-old drawings each time, and he of course only said nice things and gently pointed out areas where I could improve. One day, only months after getting to know him a bit, he told me he was leaving town—packing up his bike and heading out on the road. He invited me to come by his small studio to say goodbye. And when I got there, he took this pencilled page off his drawing table, signed it, and handed it to me. Youll see its from Nexus #49, the issue he was working on at the time. To this day, I have no idea why he gave me a pencilled page, which he then re-did—maybe he wasnt totally satisfied with it? Its virtually identical to the printed version, but one panel is definitely different, and in my opinion, I think I actually got the better version! The icing on the cake is that the back of the page has two fun sketches of Spider-Man and Green Lantern. Regardless of what his reasoning was, it instantly became, and continues to be, one of my most treasured possessions. Not just because of the beauty of the art, but more importantly, because Paul could see that I was serious about pursuing art, and he wanted to encourage me. And encourage me he did—I now freelance as an illustrator for a variety of magazines and newspapers. His affirmation played a crucial role in my professional career. Its fun to now get to tell this story to a group who will appreciate it. Thanks so much, Paul.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:11:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015