Rare Darryl Andrews Convention Art Donated to Canadian Museum of Cartoon Arts

By Bob Barnes

Special to DFG ONLINE



A rare piece of Darryl Andrews convention artwork has surfaced. The piece, entitled, "Decision 2000 - To Begin Again?" was drawn at the 2000 Carnage City Comicon by the Captain Nepto creator for a fan who wished to remain anonymous. Reached for comment, Mr. Andrews said, "It was drawn during one of DFG's dormant periods. Dan and I were considering a relaunch but other areas in our lives were quite full and it never happened." Prof. Martin R. Schoedel, the official DFG historian who holds several graduate degrees, including two in panelology, commented on the work's significance, "The work is significant for several reasons. First, Nepto is drawn with a full mask, but no wig evoking his early, but not earliest golden-age appearance. Yet, he is also sporting his new capeless look, from the third series, and with the signature trident isignia which was prominent in the second series. It seems that Mr. Andrews was trying to evoke a sense of old and new in a profound way and was obviously toying with some aspect of nostalgia and a vision of looking forward. It might even suggest an early wrangling with the concepts that we are now seeing fully developed in the new Captain Nepto Prime series! Secondly, the pictures on the table are of classic Nepto villains, the Jester, Blaster, Mummy, Alligator, and possible the Unknown Strangler (or maybe Death). What is important to note in this is that Andrews was considering returning to the one shot Nepto vs. villains stories, again of the earlier years... the kinds of stories that were told only sparingly during the Spy '96 series. Finally, it is significant because it a mixed media piece -- a mixture of pencil only and pen and ink... very rare in the corpus of Andrews convention art." Once this reporter woke up after that ponderous interview, he consulted renowned DFG collector Javier Santamotzarello on the works value. "I would suggest that at today's market, if the work were to sell at auction, I would expect nothing less than at least $15,000, given the work's significance!" However, it is unlikely that the work will be sold, as the anonymous collector has donated it for display in the permanent DFG exibit at the Canadian Museum of Cartoon Art.