A special story behind the new cover of issue#16

[Vanessa]

Dear readers,
I wanted to announce that the issue #16 will be in color (!) and for the royal members will be colored even the full hot issue #15! :)

But there is a detail that I would like to announce, the cover of issue #16 (on which I'm working on right now) has a very special story.

When I was a child at the middle school I had a classmate named Simona who loved my drawings and she always asked me them. One day in the 1996 ( we were still friends even if we changed schools for the high school) she saw my newest sketches of William and Mary (which you'll see in the Mini Bon Bons soon) and she asked me my very first commission! She wanted to pay me! She asked me to draw the most beautiful scene I could make with these two characters with my Pantone Markers, and I did. She gave me "30,000 lire" (the Italian currency before the Euro), equivalent to about $ 50 today.

For me it was a lot...my first furry commission from a friend :)

And then she framed it and hung it in her house.
I made a color print of the drawing for me, but the quality is not very good because it was not used to make the prints with your scan and computer, but I went in the copy center where was a photocopier.

My friend Simona is married, has a daughter and six years ago I went to see her home after 20 years that we didn't see us, thanks to Facebook. To my big surprise (even by Marco who was with me) I saw that she had framed on the walls ALL the drawings I had given her since the middle school! Everyone! And many were really bad ... I was moved. There was also the latest artwork with Mary and Willam and I told her: " Believe it or not these characters now are the main character of my comic!" :lol:

Some days ago I had a chat with Simona and I asked her if she still have that drawing of Mary and William because I found my print for Mini Bon Bons archive
What she told me was terrible...

She had a house fire two years ago ( she does not write often on Facebook and has not told this story on the internet, she told me by the phone).
A huge fire that destroyed the entire lower floor of his house including the room of his daughter who has lost everything :( . Luckily they were out of the house. In short, it was a terrible news.
Now is all ok and she renovated the house.
Also the paintings and drawings on the walls were burnt and so are my drawings.

I said, "Simona, I have a photocopy of that artwork, it is not like the original but I will come to visit you and I'll give you it ... and since I have to draw a new cover for my new issue I decided that I will draw the revisiting of that artwork 20 years later. And I'll give you that too! "
She was so happy! And me too to have such a good friend that always supported me :)

I do not know how to show you that this story is true because it is amazing, but maybe I can do the screen capt our conversation (which are in Italian)... and when the cover will be finished I will make a topic on my Facebook page to tell the story where Simona will answer :)
But I assure you that is the truth.

The next cover of PBB will be a remake of an illustration that I made in 1996 for my classmate best friend, exactly 20 years ago, and it was destroyed in a fire.

For me it is really important and wanted to tell you that.

[Caroline]

(( Hey cat-Vanessa,

That's such an awesome ending to that story! And it's equally as awesome that your friend kept all your art for so long!

Um... not sure what else to say. Your anecdote made me smile from ear to ear. Thank you for sharing that slice-of-life. :) ))

[Miss Scorpia]

I loved to hear this story!

[ToddRogue69]

That was a very cool story, Vanessa. I sure can't wait to see how the cover turns out, I'm absolutely positive that it will be amazing.

[DesertWolf]

Awesome story. Can't wait to see the cover.

[Silvador]

I look forward to seeing it. :D

[Symphony]

I'm glad you shared this story with us, Vanessa. Such personal details and insight, make your artwork all the more fascinating to see.

I can't wait to see the cover ::bouncy::