Incal panel contest...too late

Ian MacEwan runs a very wonderful site by the name of Quenched Consciousness where he regularly posts rare and not so rare (but still great to see) images by Jean 'Moebius' Giraud. He recently ran an Incal panel contest, inviting folk to draw a panel from Moebius' book The Incal. Sadly, I didn't know it was running and only found out after the contest had ended. Lucky for me Ian was gracious enough to let me contribute a panel for the exhibition that is being held at Floating World Comics in Portland, Oregon. Many thanks Ian!

It was a very weird experience doing this panel. At one stage thinking "what's the point?!"
It reminded me, as if I need reminding, just how gifted Jean was, how much of a master craftsman he was. His line, when studied, is quite sublime...clean and controlled to the point of being god-like.
I made some adjustments to my version, changing the proportions of the panel somewhat as the original that appears in the book is narrower to fit onto the overall design of the page. I also moved Deepo, the main character's (John DeFool) concrete seagull, as I'd made room for him at the top.
I never really meant mine to be a copy, I'd intended to jam the idea, but as I was drawing it I found myself disagreeing with any changes I was making, thinking that the original was so perfect I might as well just try and do my best to let it influence me. All in all I felt it was a waste of time, but then, I did learn a lot from doing it, or rather was reminded, gratefully, just how much I loved Jean's work and miss him.

Here's the original for comparison...