An ex-girlfriend commissioned the Grand Master himself to do this for me way back in 1998:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37219663@N00/5736891821/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Couldn't fucking find it for the last two years (I'd assumed I'd hidden it somewhere so safe even I couldn't find it!) and every couple of months I'd tear the house apart to look for it and then BAM! There it is, staring me in the face yesterday!
It's so pathetic too. I spoke to O'Neill by phone once and made a complete fucking tit of myself. I'm not one to get starstruck but I was completely overwhelmed (and caught off-guard) courtesy of a friend who was speaking to him and handed me the phone but didn't tell me who it was on the other end. Lame. Tried real hard to sincerely explain how much his art and style had meant to me when I first discovered it but made a right shite of it and just started drowning and came across like some gibbering fanboy imbecile. Even O'Neill had to tell me to calm down. Hahaha!
Anyways, years later I'm over here living in Los Angeles working on FG and redemption comes calling. I see O'Neill's doing a League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen signing in town at Golden Apple. The embarrassment of that phone call still burns brightly so I go down and join the (surprisingly tiny) queue to meet the man and explain who I am, thinking there's no way he'll even remember. But he does! Haha! He remembered doing the commission and the pathetic phone conversation that preceded it and the man's a total gent and fires this out for me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37219663@N00/5736891881/sizes/l/in/photostream/
...and I go home and sleep well that night knowing a wrong has been righted...!
Great story and that commission is arsom.
Flickr didn't load in Firefox for me for some reason, so in case anyone else is having trouble seeing the pics, here they are (hope this is okay, blackmocco!)...
(http://i.imgur.com/y9FcN.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/tIZuC.jpg)
It's a nice sketch, but the commissioned piece is amazing. If I'd not been able to locate these for a day, let alone two years, I'd go completely loony. Great stuff!
Great stuff- he's a bit good that fella.
WOW. That commission is insanely good man. Great story as well. Kev is a gentleman and a scholar.
Those are fantastic sketches.
Quote from: ming on 19 May, 2011, 06:59:21 PM
Flickr didn't load in Firefox for me for some reason, so in case anyone else is having trouble seeing the pics, here they are (hope this is okay, blackmocco!)...
It's a nice sketch, but the commissioned piece is amazing. If I'd not been able to locate these for a day, let alone two years, I'd go completely loony. Great stuff!
Thanks Ming. I wasn't sure how to display the pieces in my post so just left the links.
Haha! Yeah, it just drove me fucking crazy I couldn't find it. I have a place to store all this stuff and it wasn't with the rest so I started having horrible visions that maybe I'd accidentally thrown it away!!! It's a big piece too. 11x17 comic board.
Quote from: blackmocco on 19 May, 2011, 06:31:00 PMCouldn't fucking find it for the last two years (I'd assumed I'd hidden it somewhere so safe even I couldn't find it!) and every couple of months I'd tear the house apart to look for it and then BAM! There it is, staring me in the face yesterday!
Your story gives me hope - I have lost my Xmas card from Brian Blessed and so I can still hope it'll turn up. However, it is hardly in the same league as that Kevin O'Neill commission though, I think not knowing where it is for 5 minutes might be enough to cause me physical harm.
Quote from: Richmond Clements on 19 May, 2011, 07:01:01 PM
Great stuff- he's a bit good that fella.
I predict big things for him.
Seeing what he looked like at Kapow , I think he looks like Jigsaw from the Saw films.
Now THAT is freakin' sweeeeet.
Book 1 style at the bottom and a more League style Nemesis at the top. Stunning.
Thats got to be one of the best commissions ever !!! :o
Deadly!
Quote from: blackmocco on 19 May, 2011, 06:31:00 PM
An ex-girlfriend commissioned the Grand Master himself to do this for me way back in 1998:
...
Couldn't fucking find it for the last two years
I'm with Ming Block - how in grud's name did you do
anything else whilst not knowing where that was?!
It is superb, natch and a cool story to boot.
M.
holy shit !
That is all.