Nice to see an old friend...

My good friend Frank called me last week to let me know he'd be in town for a signing Aspen was doing at Jesse James Comics in Glendale, AZ (http://www.jessejamescomics.com/site/). I like to hang out with Frank anytime he's around and I'd never been to this particular comic shop so I was looking forward to the visit. I guess the way it works is that since Jesse James Comics paid for an exclusive comic to be produced (Executive Assistant -- Assassins #2), Aspen agreed to come out and do a signing at the comic shop, which I think is pretty cool.

Jesse, the owner, was a really nice guy and I got talk to him for a few. He's a huge Hawkeye fan like my youngest son and he had a whole wall dedicated to his personal collection of Hawkeye comics/art. Turns out when he was young he got to meet Stan Lee and Stan asked him who his favorite character was. He looked around and saw that copy of Avengers with Hawkeye prominently displayed on the over so he said "Avengers". Then Stan was like, no, that's a team, who's your favorite character? So he said Hawkeye, which he was really indifferent about at the time. So why did he continue to focus his collection on Hawkeye? Because otherwise he would have felt he was lying to Stan and he didn't want to do that, .

I was hoping to browse through some Bronze/Silver Age books while I was there, but there weren't any. Jesse said he had a bunch in the back he was going to be bringing out in the next couple weeks so I think I'll have to make a return visit...trying to put together a reading copy set of Avengers #1 - #200, and I'm always on the hunt for high grade X-men appearances.

I'm glad I had a chance to hang out with Frank and the guys from Aspen a little bit, and he even hooked me up with about 50 books I didn't have so that was way cool. Didn't even know there was a Soulfire volume 2 and 3, or that volume 4 just started so I'm looking forward to reading those! I'm a pure Marvel fan, but there's no doubt Soulfire is a great book (Charismagic was a fun read too), plus I gotta support my friend. Speaking of Soulfire, I had to take a pic of the main character, Grace, who made an appearance at the signing. She looks so amazing that I asked if Aspen hired her, but Frank said no, she lives here locally and just decided to come out on her own (she was at the Aspen booth at the SDCC as well). He said, and I quote, "we have the BEST fans!"

Til next time...

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