The show was fast and easy, but this journal is very lengthy. Be warned!

Ok, so like my last journal said, I was in Miami this weekend for the Florida Supercon!

I originally planned on going to the show on Friday, then heading back to Tallahassee on Saturday, but I found out that two people I wanted signatures from were only going to be there on Saturday and Sunday.

So Saturday was the day I had to go.

Now, Ronnylama sent me a number of his issues for signatures from three of the four people I was going to see! Who were these people?

Dave Gibbons

George Perez

Bob Layton

Jose Delbo

I only had one for Delbo. More on that in a minute. But I had a number of issues for the other three, just as Ronnylama did. But before I get to these issues, let me tell you what the undisputed master of Good Karma on the CGC registry did for me!

Along with the issues he wanted me to get signed for him, Ronnylama also sent me a number of comics for me to keep and get either submitted or signed for my personal collection! Some of these I am waiting until September for the Baltimore show to get signed, but some I submitted at this show, and a few I got signed at this show!

The Master of the Flea Ring Circus thanks you, oh great one, for your extreme generosity! You are the BEST!!!!!!!!!

Now back to the show. It was a lot smaller in size than Megacon was. The problem was, there were just as many people wanting in! In fact they never stopped letting people in during the entire time I was there from 10 in the morning until about 3! The line was around the entire building when I left!!

It was so crowded in there by 12, that you would be literally standing in the same place, sometimes for minutes, just to get a clearing to move a few feet!

SHEEESH! Luckily, I was there early and had advance tickets, so I got in quick and when they opened the doors, I went straight to the CGC booth, turned in my issues that were just being submitted, and got a witness to go with me in search of signatures.

As we got to Laytons table, no Layton. Hmm.

So we went to Gibbons table. No Gibbons yet either. ooookay.

What about Delbo? uh uh.

I really began worrying at this point. Were they going to show up much later in the day? Did some of them back out at the last minute? OH NO, I thought!

Then we arrived at the table for Perez, and there, with his shiny head and white gotee was the man himself! FINALLY!

There were about 10 people in line already so I got in line and pulled out both mine and Ronnylamas issues in preparation. as I stood watching him, it became very apparent, very quickly, that this was one heck of a nice guy!

He was happy to do sketch after sketch after sketch for people, who usually gave him some money for those, but he flat refused any amount of money for just signatures, no matter how many you wanted!I know, because I tried to give him some and he would not take it. Just shook my hand and thanked me for my interest in his work. Awesome!

A beautiful and quite well endowed girl dressed up as Poison Ivy showed up at his table and he stopped everything to come out from behind the table and get someone to take his picture with her on his camera!I think he was just trying to cop a feel, but it was still neat.

Once I got those done and got them back to the CGC table, I went to see if any of the others had arrived yet. HALLELUJAH, Dave Gibbons was seated at his table scrawling away!

I rushed back to the CGC booth, got a witness, and proceeded to get all of both mine and Ronnylamas Watchmen issues signed by him! He was also very nice and did not ask for any money, but I offered him $20 for signing my issues anyway and he took it and thanked me and shook my hand as well!! Great Guy!

On my way back to the CGC booth with these lovelies, I saw that Bob Layton had just arrived at his table! FANTASTIC! So I turned in the Watchmen and got a witness to follow me over to Layton.

He was sitting there, doing a sketch for nobody in particular, being that no one was getting anything signed or drawn by him when I showed up. He turned out to be just as nice as Perez was!

While I was getting Ronnylamas issues signed by him I kept telling him that these were for a friend of mine and he kept nodding his head and making silly remarks like SUUURE, SURE THEY ARE, and winking and laughing. He was extremely nice!

In fact, I asked him about one of my issues in particular that did not have him attributed to it in the original CGC notes on the label, since I had noticed his name on the cover down in the bottom left. He told me that he HAD helped with both the cover and with three pages of the issue that he finished for Perez because he had gotten sick and could not finish them before the deadline. It is cool to learn those types of things from the creators!

The issue was Marvel Fanfare #11. Once I was done with our comics from Layton, I took hem back to CGC and asked them if they could inform the graders about the Layton involvement on the issue so they would apply his name to the label notes. They told me they would and even wrote it down on the form for the graders. So we will see...

BTW I also offered him 20 bucks and he told me that he had never accepted money for his signatures in his life, and was not about to start now. He also was just glad that I had enjoyed his work over the years!

So the only one I needed now was Jose Delbo. I had one issue, Transformers #50, for him to sign. I went back to his table and there he was! So after getting a witness and heading back, I placed the issue in front of him and was told by one of his helpers that it was $15 for the sig.

This was the only time anyone had asked for money straight up, so I was fine with it. I was only getting the one thing signed after all, so no big deal.

The one thing I noticed about Delbo was that he seemed to be having a slight bit of dimentia starting to possibly set in on him. He took a moment to find the pen that was lying right next to him and had to do a test signing on a blank piece of paper before he actually signed my copy. He seemed to hesitate with everything that he did. I overheard the helpers telling someone else that he was 80 years old now.

I know he is going to be at the SDCC in a couple of weeks, so anyone who is going to that show, let me know if you see him and get the same impression or not.

Anyway, after that, I WAS DONE WITH THE SIGS!!! HOOORAY! or so I thought...

By this time the floor was getting awfully crowded, and I wanted to really look around but it was VERY difficult. As I went from booth to booth, I looked in a few boxes and just happened to come across a BEAUTIFUL copy of Xmen #112, which Surfer99 had mentioned to me in response to an earlier journal as a great issue to get signed by both Perez and Layton!

I looked it over very carefully and figured that with a pressing, it is probably going to get at least a 9.6 and maybe a 9.8! So I bought it and had Perez and Layton sign it as well and turned it in to CGC! I cannot wait to see how THAT one turns out!

I then went upstairs. Yes, there was an upstairs. There I picked up a couple of prints, including a limited edition TMNT panoramic print by Bowie. It is limited to 1000 copies and this was only the third show they had offered them at, so mine was 46 of 1

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