Captain America's Chip Zdarsky Shows Off His Art Collection - Creator Owned Art

Chip Zdarsky is the talented writer/artist who has worked on several fan-favorite titles, including Howard the Duck, Daredevil, Sex Criminals, Jughead, and Batman. In 2026, Zdrasky spearheads Armageddon, a new Marvel event that will take place across several series, including his Captain America run.

Comic Frontier asked Zdarsky to participate in our Creator Owned Art series, where comic creators share some of their favorite art pieces from their own personal collection and the stories behind them. Naturally, Zdarsky shared more than 20 pieces! Check them out below.

I love art. But I’ve always been too intimidated to buy originals. Part of it is just feeling like I’m the caretaker of an irreplaceable thing, which is scary to me. Part of it is just straight up money anxiety. I never have a problem buying things I need for work, or buying things for people I love, but for me? Nope. No way, no how. Never.

There have been a few exceptions to this over the years and I’m trying to get over whatever anxiety I have about, you know, treating myself, but the majority of art I own are gifts from friends and people I’ve worked with, which are incredibly special to me as a result.

Here’s a recent exception to my no-purchasing hangup. I did the Lucca comics festival in November and there was an art dealer with a lot of stunning original comic pages. I loved going through them all, but also I have a weird thing with comic pages where I can love the work, the technical ability, but little of it feels like it works as a framed piece of art. So, I instead gravitated toward this illustration, which I now need to get framed.

It’s by Anna Brandoli and is just a quietly beautiful image with lively linework.

So, yeah! I’ve decided for this article to show you everything that’s on the walls of my studio. When things slowly started opening up over Covid, I had a bunch of work framed and finally put them up. There are enough pieces that I went with a “salon-style hanging.” Here’s one wall:

This is one of the only originals I’ve purchased. When I saw it I knew I had to have it. It’s by the comic artist Veronica Fish, and it’s a lovely, striking painting. We actually ended up working on an issue of HOWARD THE DUCK together after I bought this.

The next two pieces are by a Toronto illustrator named Wil Davies. He passed away a few years ago, but I was lucky enough to work in a studio he worked out of as an intern/assistant, mostly assisting other illustrators, but being in awe of Wil’s work. He was essentially retired by that point, and one day he walked into one of the studio rooms and dropped a giant stack of illustrations and said to take what we wanted. The call went out across the city and a bunch of illustrators descended on the studio to claim pieces by this master of illustration. I snagged a few and am still blown away by the work.

Graham Roumieu is a friend and one of Canada’s greatest illustrators. His mind is on another level. I don’t know why, but this is one of the funniest pieces I’ve ever seen. It never fails to make me smile. I think it’s the guy in the bottom right just quietly going back into that non-granola bar.

Seeing Jim Cheung pages come in during my time on Marvel Two-In-One was a revelation. Nothing is an afterthought in his work. When we were wrapping up, I asked if I could buy a page and he very kindly sent me this gorgeous piece of Reed and Doom. I actually had this framed with glass on both sides, as he has some rudimentary pencils on the back and I didn’t want to permanently cover those up.

Yes, it’s Phil Collins. No, I’m not a Phil Collins fanatic. But I am a Kagan McLeod fanatic. For anyone who doesn’t know, Kagan’s one of my best friends and the artist behind INFINITE KUNG-FU and a book we did together, KAPTARA. He mostly does illustration work and this was a piece for a newspaper that just looked so damned good and effortless I had to have it. You’ll be seeing a lot of Kagan pieces in this round-up.

My oldest friend is an illustrator named Ben Shannon. He’s one of those guys who can do it all: ink, watercolour, oil, digital. He had a brief period of doing these impasto still-lifes, and gave me one of my favourites.

Another old friend, Gord Wiebe, is maybe my favourite all-time illustrator. A beautiful mix of collage and paint, everything he does feels so well-considered and playful. He doesn’t do much artwork anymore and that’s a crime. Go seek out his work and be amazed.

Okay, yes, this is one pf my pieces. I don’t have it hung up because I’m in love with myself. I have it up because it reminds of an amazing trip and time in my life. When my book SEX CRIMINALS just came out I did a trip to Austin, Texas to appear at a small, indie convention. I didn’t quite realize the book was as popular as it was and found myself stunned most of the weekend that people wanted to meet me. Part of the trip involved a local printer making prints of my work. This is one of them: silver ink on brown paper, and I never felt fancier.

A beautiful gift from the illustrator Yuko Shimizu for my birthday. She towers in her field and is also just a lovely person. She also knows I’m a pervert.

Okay, so, when SEX CRIMINALS took off, I had the dumb idea to contact Jim Davis of GARFIELD fame to do a variant cover for us. He very kindly rejected me and sent an original drawing of Garfield dressed as me (since he saw photos of me dressed as Garfield online). That piece is in the house. This is the note that accompanied it. My real name is Steve so that’s why it isn’t addressed to “Chip.”

What a world.

Another Kagan McLeod. You think I’m going to turn down an old man Magneto? Absolutely not.

And another Wil Davies. I love the brush tests along the top and the instructions pencilled in for the magazine production staff.

This is actually me again, an art school project—the only one I ever kept—that I have hanging up over my work desk. I have it up just for quick anatomy reference. It still comes in handy all these years later.

And if I ever need to see the bones….

SECRET SKELETON.

Here’s another piece by Kagan. Again, just effortless. Most artist would give everything to be able to create such an alive, beautiful piece using so few brushstrokes.

A random Archie page! I was doing a store signing and kept staring at this piece, with its perfect Stan Goldberg cartooning. I believe the store owner said it was $20(!), so I tried to buy it, but they gave it to me as a gift.

A HOWARD THE DUCK page gifted from Joe Quinones. My first big Marvel gig and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner. Joe is one of the best cartoonists in the world and a great guy. This particular page is a favourite of mine, the “workout montage. Just perfect.

Another Kagan piece! I swear I’m not obsessed! This is his HISTORY OF RAP print, where he drew a zillion rappers. It’s a wild piece and a must-have for anyone into hip hop.

A gift from Erica Henderson from our time on JUGHEAD. A dream gig and I still can’t believe Erica managed to do this and SQUIRREL GIRL at the same time.

One of my rare purchased pieces. I’ve been a huge fan of Sean Phillips since forever, so when I met him at TCAF I had to buy a page.

So, my mom’s uncle was an illustrator named Arie Snellman, who I idolized when I was young. His basement studio was a magical place for a kid who loved to draw. When I was about to start kindergarten he sent me this piece, which you can only imagine affected me deeply, probably the biggest thing setting me on a course to become an illustrator myself.

Years later, when I had graduated from art school for Illustration, Arie was dying of pancreatic cancer. One of the last times I saw him he brought me down to his studio and showed me around in a way he hadn’t before, one illustrator to another. And then asked me to take his remaining clients since he couldn’t help them any longer. I said of course, took the materials and contact info, and didn’t cry until I got back out to the car with my parents.

I thought I’d lost this piece, so when I finally found it, yellowed and tattered, I knew it was finally time to get it framed and on a wall.

And, finally, during my time on JUGHEAD, Walt Simonson ended up doing a variant cover. Now, it’s impossible to describe how much of an influence Walt has been on me as a writer and artist, so I was overjoyed at this. I reached out to him to ask if the piece was for sale. And next thing I knew an incredible gift arrived at my home, this Walt Simonson original. I’d heard stories about his kindness and generosity, and let me tell you, they’re all true.

And yeah, that’s everything that’s up in my studio! I have more in the house, and a lot in drawers still. My New Years resolution is to get everything either framed and up or put into proper books. So many of the artists I’ve worked with over the years have been incredibly generous, giving me originals from books we’ve worked on together. I feel incredibly lucky and absolutely terrible that I haven’t presented them in any sort of way that’s respectful of the work. I’m going to do it, I swear! Thanks for, uh, looking at my stuff!