My eyes may be bigger than my signature expectations.

Beware, this is the longest journal I have ever written!

Baltimore was awesome! I will always remember this show and hold it near to my heart. So without further ado, here we go....!

It was a dark and stormy night....

Ok, it wasnt stormy, but it was dark. This was because I left my house on Friday at twelve fifteen in the morning. After all, I was traveling from Tallahassee, Florida all the way up to Baltimore, a 15 hour drive. I know, why didnt I fly, right? Because I am terrified to ever get into a plane. As long as my feet are connected to something that is in turn connected to the ground, it doesnt matter how high I am, but separating myself from the ground and putting me at the mercy of a machine that I have absolutely no control over whatsoever is just not my cup of tea.

So anyway, I drove. And drove. And drove... See a pattern here?

Tnerb kept in touch throughout the long journey, and once I arrived in Baltimore, I checked into my hotel and walked five blocks to meet up with him and his lovely friend he brought with him for dinner. We talked and talked and showed each other some of the things we brought for each other to see in person and exchanged a few gifts.

I gave him a very personal copy of What If 47 in 9.4 that my father and I acquired back in the late 80s. Sienkiewicz did the cover and we are both fans of his work, plus it puts in his hands something that I know will mean so much more to him, being that it comes from me and my fathers personal collection.

In turn, Tnerb handed me 3 raw Marvel Graphic Novels that I dont have yet. #2, #3 and #34. I realized I could get #3 signed by Starlin at the show and #34 signed by Tom DeFalco as well. He also brought a DC graphic novel of Star Trek Debt Of Honor that I have never remembered seeing before.

I could tell just from my first impression that Tnerb was a kindred spirit and a person that I was going to love to hang around. Similar interests, personalities and attitudes make me feel like I now have an older brother. I will always look forward to those rare times when I can spend time with him again. His friend is no different. I will enjoy any opportunities to meet her again as well.

Once we finished dinner, I walked back to my hotel and proceeded to look online to see if there was anyone at the show I could get the Star Trek issue signed by. Sure enough there were 3 people at the show! So cool!! I went ahead and read the graphic novel that night before I went to bed so I could at least have read it before encapsulating it. It wont get a top grade but that doesnt matter. Its what it means to me, having come from such a wonderful friend.

Anyway, I got up Saturday morning at 6:00 and went to stand in line at the convention center for all of us even though the show didnt let in until ten o clock. I was like the 10th person in line! An hour or so later Tnerb and his friend showed up and we hung out until they let us in.

While standing in line, I found out from someone that apparently the Simonsons

might not make the show because Walt had come down with a nasty stomach flu that he had acquired from Louise earlier in the week. I was so bummed because I had 27 things for Louise and 16 things for Walt to sign, but what can you do? Sick is sick. They love the fans and love to talk and spend time with them, so for them to not show up meant Walt was pretty bad. We would just have to see how it went.

OH. The answer to the Gameshow Trivia journal is... READY?

JONAH HEX #1 AND #2.

Both to be signed by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez!!! These will be the only SS 9.8 copies in existence once I get them back. Assuming they retain their grades, of course.

So anyway, once they let us in, we went on a rampage of signatures. We started with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. I had over twenty things for DeFalco to sign and three things for Frenz. In fact, half of the things I had for DeFalco were also for Louise for double sigs.

DeFalco was a nice guy and so was Frenz. I actually made Frenz laugh out loud while getting something signed by him, so that was cool. Then we went back to the CGC table and spent a while coordinating with them for setting up open invoices and getting another witness for more sigs.

I will say right now that while I have had a lot of luck with my timing and sheer volume of signatures in the past three shows I have done, this show was a whole different animal. I had more things to get signed for this show than almost all three of my last shows put together! So by the time I got done with DeFalco and Frenz, I wasnt sure that I was going to get it all done.

But back to the show. While waiting for the next sig chance, we found out that Mike had set up a private signing for Sal Buscema for $10 per sig. This might cost a little more, but it would make it so we didnt have to stand in a long line for Sal, who was only going to be there on Saturday from 1 to 4 anyway. While those were getting done, we could be working on other things. I had 19 issues for Sal, so it was $190 for me to get them done this way, but this is almost certainly the last chance for a Sal sig at a show since he DOESNT do shows. He is 77 years old and the only reason he did this show was for the Hero Initiative.

There was a little time until Mike went for the private Sal singing, so we went to Mike Mignola next. I had 2 items for him, including a New Mutants issue that he accidentally started signing in the spot I had for Sal to be added later. Whoops! Oh well, just have to get Sal in the other spot. No biggie. I also picked up a copy of the first Year of Monsters issue that he signed and personalized for me. Neato!

Then we went on over to Jim Starlin next. I had 3 items for him. He refused to use my silver sharpie on one of my issues because he has an allergic reaction to metallic markers. Interesting. So I had to actually remove one of my copies from the bag for him to sign. It came out great though, so no worries. Then back to the CGC table.

At this point, Tnerb and I gave Mike all of our issues for Sal to be signed. Some of mine still needed other sigs as well. But Sal was more important than anyone else at this show. Tnerb had been with me up until now getting his items done as well. Now he went off to get something to drink for us and check out a few things with some friends of his at the show.

I went with Darren to get a few other sigs. I got Adam Hughes on my Star Trek Debt Of Honor. Darren said that CGC has NEVER had a copy of this Star Trek Graphic Novel come through them before for grading, so no matter what the grade is, it will be an OAK! I think it will get a 9.2, so thats not too bad. Besides, its not the monetary value as much as the sentimental value to me anyway.

Darren then went with me to get Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez on my Jonah hex issues. While I was in line for him, they cut the line off behind me so Jose could go get some lunch, but luckily, I was within the line already and got him done! YAAAAYY!!!!

We went back to the CGC table and took care of some more organization. At this point, Tnerb went to stand in the EXTREMELY LONG line for David Finch. His line was insane for the entire show! Poor Tnerb wound up waiting for an hour and a half just to get his sig for Finch! Luckily I was able to coordinate a witness for him at the righ

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