Mister Miracle's Mitch Gerads Talks The Sheriff of Babylon - Creator Owned Art

Mitch Gerads is the multiple Eisner Award-winning artist behind Mister Miracle, Strange Adventures, Batman, and Batman: One Bad Day - The Riddler. Gerads regularly collaborates with writer Tom King, with his first team-up coming in 2015’s The Sheriff of Babylon for Vertigo.

I asked Mitch at Fan Expo Canada 2026 about one of his favorite pieces of art from his collection as part of a series called “Creator Owned Art.” He talked about getting the cover art for issue one of The Sheriff of Babylon from the late comic legend John Paul Leon. Here’s the story behind the encounter.

Mitch: Yeah, so what's funny is that I'd emailed [John Paul Leon] prior to New York Comic-Con, right before the book came out, and I told him I was interested. I was very new. was very new to Big Two comics. I had done 20 issues of Punisher, but still felt like I was a new kid. And so I didn't make enough money for, like, awesome art purchases. Yeah, but I saved up, and I was like, Oh, I want this number one cover.

What's funny is that that's also the same show where Tom and I met in person for the first time. We've met on the phone a million times. But he found out I came back with it because I went up to John's table and met him, and he's my all-time favorite comic artist. And I was just beyond thrilled to get that piece. And I brought it back to show my wife and Tom and everyone. Tom was so mad because he wanted it so bad. But I got to it first. And that's still a thing we joke about all the time… how I own that cover.

As I said, he's my favorite comic artist of all time. And so, just to confront that was nerve-wracking. And he's, he was the nicest person you've ever met. God, what a loss. But the other part was the money issue. Like, I didn't know what that number was gonna be. Who knew? But he gave me a very good, good price on it.

It is framed. Next, it's a double frame. So and then there's a print that he signed to me, the color version. So those are side by side in a very nice green and brown frame to match the aesthetic.

Thanks to Mitch for talking with me!