Emissary # 11 (illustrated by Max Rugers)

In Season Of Mists, Lucifer leaves his dominion in Hell and gives the key to Dream as he locks he doors behind him.

Once word gets out that Dream has the key to Hell, emissaries from various groups come to ask for the right to rule Hell.

This character is one of the emissaries that’s waiting for Dream to allow these guests to enter his palace. This emissary appears in Sandman # 24, on page 23, in panel 4.

One thing that I love about this particular portrait is that Max took a completely unique approach to this character. In the published comic we can see only the silhouette of the emissary. I imagined this character to be a man with bed hair, probably because his hair looked similar to the Sleepy Boy Lego mini figure. Max saw this character as being a woman and he drew an exceptional portrait of this character. I have no idea what she is an emissary of (but that is the case with a lot of the background emissaries who visit The Dreaming). I think Max’s approach is significantly better than anything I had in my head.

This is an absolutely outstanding portrait.