OA 6: old-school Valiant BWS homages commission by Mico Suayan

I first saw Mico Suayan's art in Valiant's Bloodshot Reborn: holy shit was his art love at first sight! (Mico is "pretty" too, inside Mico-joke, LOL). Mico's artistic style and command of copics have always impressed.

I made a point to reach out to commission Mico (my first commission from any artist) back in March 2018 -- through Court Gebeau at Comiconart.com (Mico's art rep at the time), with this request:

"Hi! I'd really like to get on Mico Suayan's Commission List. I'd like a 11" x 17" Copic Markers cover. Not sure about a background, happy to pay for one or partial one if Mico has an idea -- though the simpler the background likely the better... Given I have the following 4 character idea: An homage to a hybrid of 3 different old-school Valiant Barry Windsor-Smith (BWS) covers: Bloodshot from Bloodshot #1 being the main character and focal point in center firing his gun. X-O Manowar from X-O Manowar #4 in foreground laying on the ground shot by Bloodshot. Archer & Armstrong from Archer & Armstrong #11 in the background looking up at Bloodshot (instead of Solar) in shock. I'd also love for Mico's signature to end with "After BWS". I'd be happy to provide further context and/or pictures of the covers via email as needed."

See the additional photo for this piece that shows my rough visual layout I photoshopped to help Mico reference for exactly what I wanted. Mico crushed this commission, couldn't be happier with it!!!

I also commissioned Thomas Mason to color it using old-school colors cherry-picked from the various original covers that were incorporated into the piece. Thomas is a great artist and colorist!