In the summer of 2008 I attended Wizard World Chicago, this was my third appearance in Chicago for their shows and I wanted to make something really cool. Just a few months earlier I had met Greg Horn, a phenomenal illustrator and painter who has done amazing work for Marvel Comics including covers for She-Hulk and Ms Marvel. Yeah, he draws some pretty knock out women. After Greg and I talked we thought that it would be great if I recreated one of his pieces of art.

After a little back and forth discussion, it was decided that I would actually recreate 8 of them! Marvel Comics big event that summer was Secret Invasion, and featured a host of shape-changing aliens known as Skrulls being discovered as having replaced a number of famous Marvel superheroes. Greg had painted a series of portraits showing such characters as Captain America, Spider-Man and Wolverine revealing themselves to be Skrulls. We chose 8 of those paintings that I was going to put together Brady-Bunch-style on the pavement in front of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago.

Flash forward a few months and I arrive in Chicago to find massive construction work in the place I was supposed to create my chalk art. They show me a new spot inside the hall in the Convention Lobby. Only one problem, I didn’t bring any material to draw on. Scramble time! One of the convention staff is kind enough to run me around in a car to find some art supplies, and I end up finding 8 black matte board panels that were about 3 feet wide by 3 and a half feet tall.

By this time I had missed the entire first day of the show, so I proceed to lock myself in my hotel room and draw until the break of dawn on the boards creating the outline images to color in chalk, a process I normally do a week or more before a show. After a BRIEF nap, I stumble to my spot on the show floor and proceed to log over 40 hours in the next three days recreating Greg Horn’s amazingly detailed artwork. I was one tired chalk artist I can tell you that.

The final product turned out great though, and two of the panels even sold to happy art lovers. I still feel bad that I wasn’t able to make that ONE giant mural for Greg, and still insist that I owe him one every time I see him at a show. Enjoy the images below.