Koike says he's always admired the design, and the utility, of the Skyraider, particularly when considering all the oddly-shaped aircraft that came before and after it, often meant to perform only a subset of the duties possible with this highly capable plane. "I like the AD-5, and rather than the full gray which I've drawn many times for box art, I wanted to draw a pretty girl in midnight blue wrapped with a red polka-dot ribbon." The aircraft he choose is a plane of Marine attack squadron VMA-322 seen around 1955.
This print is recreated using offset printing on heavy art stock identical to that used by Koike for his originals. It is printed at 100% of the size of the original artwork, and all color reproduction has been approved by Koike personally. Ships flat.
This is the original artwork, hand-painted by Shigeo Koike on heavy art board using acrylic paints. This original will go on sale sometime in mid 2011.