Accurate picture of me and @kath-ballantyne right now.
Which one am I?
Well, you’re the one who was curled up under the Winter Soldier blanket like five minutes ago because we’re actually under 30C today, and I’m the one drinking from a Cap mug, so we’re either branding ourselves or fangirling each other, take your pick.
Steve Rogers in 1944: I know I’ve never seen combat and have actually never won any kind of physical fight, ever but I’m going to go alone 30 miles behind enemy lines and defeat an entire factory full of squid Nazis by myself in order to save Bucky because I refuse to believe he’s dead
People in 2016: We sent a SWAT team after Barnes and we know Rogers will be upset but we told him to chill out so we’re sure it will all end well without any grown men crying on the floor in Siberia
One of my ALL TIME favorite Captain America comics is “Man Out of Time” – a fantastically written miniseries by Mark Waid and GORGEOUSLY illustrated by Jorge Molina ( @jorgemolinam ) that retells the story of Cap coming out of the ice. It deals with the weight of loss of his removal from his own time, greiving over Bucky’s loss (and remembering him after the Brubaker soft retcon of being about 20 when he “died”).
One of the most striking moments to me is at one point in a flashback, Cap is talking to Bucky about what they want to do after the war is over. Bucky says that he always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon – he never saw it – and it is a part/represents of what they’re fighting the war for.
At the end of the comic, as Cap has some time to himself, he travels to the Grand Canyon for Bucky, as a way to deal with his loss, and this moment happens:
And, well, this moment always gets me. Steve going there, drawing Bucky, and “showing him” the Grand Canyon in the only way he can. It’s his way to try to start to move forward.
It was always a dream of mine to see an epilogue, of Steve being actually able to take him there in person after he finds out he’s still alive. This weekend, I was able to make that a reality.
I had the distinct privilege to be able to commission Jorge Molina himself (the original artist of Man out of Time), at Wizard World New Orleans for just that scene, and here it is:
I am BLOWN AWAY by the work he did – this is a traditional media piece, done in inks and copic markers, and the values he worked in, the expressions, the dynamic pose that conveys the awe of the location, and yet still have it be a tender, quiet moment between the two of them. in the Grand Canyon, Steve with the sketchbook, hand squeezing Bucky’s shoulder, both masks off and taking in the natural majesty of the canyon.
And God, to see Bucky looking honest-to-god /HAPPY/.
;__________;
Thank you SO much, Jorge, this is everything I could have wanted and more.
Maybe I’ll be able to (ditigally) color this some day 🙂
This is incredibly beautiful and so damn uplifting that I could cry. The amount of detail for a con commission is stunning. It’s like he always had that picture in his head, and was just waiting for an opportunity to create it.
Bucky Barnes discovers sugar, demands coffee, makes a variety of
involuntary noises, cuddles up to Steve Rogers, regrows a limb, and
fakes it ‘til he makes it at being a person.
Hey, I’ve been recced! Thank you to @hurtcomfortbucky
[Image: Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers, and Sam Wilson sitting with their backs to the viewer; Bucky, Steve, and Sam are wearing shirts that say “if lost return to Natasha” and Natasha is wearing a shirt that says “I am Natasha.”]
honestly i was just planning on doing this with steve and bucky but then i was like “let’s be serious they would both get lost and sam would be dragged along somehow and natasha would have to bail them out” so then this happened
knitting in the dark 