But is it Art?

Hell yes it is! Here's a shot of my birthday gift to myself from last year...a page of original art by Darwyn Cooke from his phenomenal comic book DC: THE NEW FRONTIER (page 354 in you Absolute Edition, keeds!). If I had to make a list of my top favorite comics of all time, NEW FRONTIER would rank somewhere in the top five...and Darwyn Cooke would warrant a similar placement on a list of my favorite creators. All of which makes me pretty thrilled to own this piece. I don't buy a ton of original art...wall space in the house is pretty limited, and, well, I'm cheap. But I figured if I was ever going to bite the bullet and lay out some cash, this was the time to do it.

A few notes about the presentation...the piece arrived unlettered, but I really wanted to have the word balloons filled if it was going to hang on the wall. I initially wanted to place a clear sheet of acetate with just the lettering printed on it above the art inside the frame, but my printer didn't have any transparent sheets large enough to cover the entire image. I briefly considered lettering it myself (a discipline at which I'm at least fairly adept), but quickly came to my senses. Finally, I decided to print the words within the balloons onto a separate sheet of paper, cut them out, and affix them with just the slightest amount of archival adhesive. I can almost hear the tightening of fanboys sphincters everywhere...including my own. Still, it looks good now...I suppose time will tell if I made the right choice.

Had it framed at Michael's for just under a hundred bucks...UV protected, glare-free glass, which makes a bigger difference than I thought it would. Happy birthday to me!