Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween Partier in New York # 2 (illustrated by Lars Brown)

Happy Halloween!!! I hope you all went out and bought Sandman Overture yesterday. It's a fantastic first issue!!! In "The Last Sandman Story" (published in Dust Covers), Neil Gaiman recounted a story where he met Choronzon in New York at Halloween.

As you would expect, on Halloween, in New York, there were people having a good time and partying. This woman is one of the Halloween Partiers in NY while Neil is speaking with Choronzon. She is pretty easy to spot. She’s the only naked partier.

She can be found in The Last Sandman Story page 4 and is in panel 9, as well as along the sidebar.

Lars did a great job with this character.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Snakes (illustrated by Max Rugers)

When Morpheus decides to call on the three witches to determine the location of his stolen tools he needs to travel through dreams finding references to certain things within the minds of those asleep. He encounters the gallows, the honey, the crescent moon and the snakes easily enough.

This portrait is of the dream snakes that Dream uses to call upon The Hecateae.

The Snakes appear in Sandman # 2, on page 17 in panel 4.

Max did a great job with this portrait. I like that his snake had a colorful pattern on it that resembles fire.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Serial Killer # 41 (illustrated by Ron Chan)

I love this portrait. It’s fantastic and creepy and Ron did an awesome job with it!!!

This is one of the serial killers who attended the Cereal Convention from The Doll’s House storyline.

This particular serial killer is sitting in the audience listening to Nimrod’s introductory speech as the convention gets under way. He is sitting in the front row.

He can be seen in Sandman # 14, page 12, panel 1. He is in the front row of the audience, the second person from the left.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Previous Carnifex of Aurelia # 4 (illustrated by Max Rugers)

Carnifex Carys XXXV goes into hiding during a revolt against his kingdom. He hides in the tombs of the previous Carnifex’s of the realm.

This is a previous Carnifex. He was somewhat mummified after his death and kept in this tomb.

He can be found in Sandman # 52 on page 22 in panel 4. He is on the far right and is wearing green robes.

Max did an awesome job with this character. It’s horrifying and creepy and beautiful!!! It’s really disturbing…

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Man From The Ancient Necropolis # 1 (illustrated by Lars Brown)

This is one of the men from the ancient Necropolis.

Scroyle tells the others gathered for the air burial at Mount Calamon about his conversation with a traveler regarding the origins of the Necropolis Litharge.

As told by Scroyle, when a group of strangers entered the Necropolis, which is no longer named, and asked for the cerements and for the book of rituals used for their funeral rites, the Necropolitans laughed and called them mad. According to the storyteller, who happened to be Destruction, the hearts of the ancient Necropolitans were hard and did not care for their duties.

This is the reason the ancient Necropolis was destroyed and Litharge became the new Necropolis.

This man appears in Sandman # 55, on page 16, in panel 2. He is on the far left. I really like this portrait from Lars. He added a nice touch to this character with the skull insignia on his vest.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Old Woman # 1 (illustrated by Emonic)

Rose travels to England in hopes of discovering the answer to the cryptic message given to her from Zelda, who said the message from from Rose’s Grandmother, who is dead.

Rose arrives in England and goes to Fawney Rig, where Unity Kincaid spend a majority of her life asleep. Fawney Rig was originally the home of Roderick Burgess and later became a nursing home run by Paul MaGuire, the lover of Alex Burgess, who has been asleep since Dream’s escape in 1988.

While wandering around the house Rose encounters three women who are residents of Fawney Rig. One of the women, Magda Treadgold, tells Rose a story of a Man Who Loved The Ladies.

This man would try to romance any woman with a pretty face and once they outlived his desire he would move on to another woman. Well, one day he saw a beautiful woman bathing in a river and he promised her that if she was his “lady-love” he would give back the clothes he had hidden. She agreed but only under the condition that she would be his wife and would be married at the next church they passed. He agreed and promised saying things like “If I don’t marry you, may that the worms shall eat me and if I don’t marry you, I wish that our children might grow wings and fly away.”

She became his “lady-love” which is really just a polite way of saying that they had sex.

On their travels they passed a church, but the man made an excuse as to why they could not be married in there. Eventually she became pregnant and needs a house to live in.

The Man finds a cottage inhabited by an Old Woman. The man went into the house and found the Old Woman was asleep in the bed. She was old and weak and the man smothered her and buried her in the midden heap, which is a dump for domestic waste.

It is unclear if the woman was a witch or simply an old woman. That aspect changes depending on who is telling the story.

This is that old woman.

In the published comic we never see her face, only the moment where she is being killed and so Emonic had to give her life based on the glimpse we see of her in the bed being smothered by the Man Who Loved The Ladies.

Emonic did a fantastic job with this character. I really like his interpretation of this Old Woman.

This Old Woman appears in The Kindly Ones…in Sandman # 62 on page 12.

Friday, October 25, 2013

John Hathaway’s Driver (illustrated by Max Rugers)

When Dr. John Hathaway visits Fawney Rig, in Wych Cross, England, the home of Roderick Burgess and his Order of Ancient Mysteries, he is driven there by his personal driver.

This man is his driver.

He appears in Sandman # 1, on page 1, in panel 2. He is the second person to appear in the Sandman comic series and the first character with dialogue.

Max has done a lovely job with this portrait. I really like the subtle details and texture on his face.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Dr. John Hathaway (illustrated by Russel Roehling)

Hi...remember me. Okay, yes, it's been a while and I feel guilty, but things have been incredibly busy here at the Sandman Portraits HQ and sadly I've been neglecting all of you... Sorry. It won't happen again. Honest.

I do have some exciting announcements, which I'll save for another time.

Next week is the release date for the first issue of Sandman: Overture. I am sure that you are all as excited as I am.

To celebrate the release next week I've decided to post new portraits every day until next Wednesday!!!

First up is...well, the first character to appear in Sandman....

John Hathaway was the senior curator at the Royal Museum in London.

On June 6th 1916 Hathway visited Roderick Burgess at his manor in Wych Cross, England and brought him a copy of The Magdalene Grimoire, which belonged to the museum. Hathaway’s son, Edmund, was killed the previous week when his Destroyer was sunk off Jutland (in the Battle Of Jutland in WWI). Burgess believed that with this book he could capture Death and prevent people from dying again, a subject which spoke to Hathaway after his recent tragedy.

In June 1920 during an overdue inventory of the Royal Museum’s catalogues it is discovered that several books and manuscripts were missing and John Hathaway came under suspicion.

Hathaway planned to kill himself and in his suicide note he implicated Burgess in blackmailing him to obtain books and documents that originally belonged to the museum. Hathaway used a knife, one of the museum artifacts, to kill himself. Unfortunately the letter was destroyed, through magical means, by Burgess and so the truth about his involvement was never discovered.

John Hathaway appears several times in Sandman # 1. He is actually the first person to appear in the entire Sandman series.

This portrait was painted by Russel. He did a stunning job with this character. Not only did he capture the personality of the character perfectly, but he also managed to capture a creepy atmosphere around him. This is a fantastic portrait!!!