On the Vertigo blog, Group Editor Shelly Bond provides a glimmer of hope for any artist who views the annual DC Comics portfolio review at Comic-Con as akin to tilting at windmills: It's through that process last year that she discovered Chrissie Zullo, cover artist for the upcoming miniseries Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love.

"I remember commenting on how much I liked her painting style — specifically the balance of the pretty and the 'don’t think you’re going to take me home just yet' power," Bond writes. "Chrissie has a mercurial charm, evident not only in the alluring execution of her figure work but also in her choice of rich, traditional color palettes. She finds inspiration from classical painters such as Jean Honore Fragonard and Francois Boucher, and modernists alike, including comic book artists Winsor McCay, James Jean and Adam Hughes."

So she asked Zullo to put together a few "mock" Fables covers to determine how the artist handled composition and typographical elements.

"When her camera-ready samples came in a few weeks later, I couldn’t believe my eyes," Bond writes. "And strangely enough, at that very millisecond, I was looking for a cover artist for the new Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love miniseries. One of Chrissie’s images in particular happened to look like Cinderella so it seemed like there was more than a good chance that she could handle this fantastic first assignment. Upon showing Chrissie’s samples to Bill Willingham, he replied 'Hire that woman!' on the spot."

Sure, Zullo was only one out of "the hundreds/thousands" of portfolio submission, but still ... that qualifies as a glimmer. Yeah?