Writers, and getting OA signed by them

[Sideshow Bob]

OA collecting is different for every collector. I've tried to keep my focus on books that I really enjoyed both the writing as well as the artistry. This last year, after acquiring a number of pieces of modern OA, I found out where the writer was signing books and brought a representative piece to have it signed. Typically, meeting a writer at a Con will mean standing in a line populated with some guy making a pitch to the writer, followed by a fan with one book waiting patiently, followed by a guy with 20 books and a CGC representative to get his signature series 9.8. When I turned up with a piece of OA, it was a different reaction entirely. Here are those reactions; please share your own if this is something you've done yourself.

 

Charles Soule

Soule wrote a ton of books last year, all while running his own law firm in Brooklyn. She-Hulk, Swamp Thing, Superman/Wonder Woman and Death of Wolverine were the highlights of his Big 2 runs in 2014. He also kept up writing on his own project, Letter 44 on Oni Press, which also got a TV option on Scyfi Network. I asked Charles to sign a pivotal moment in Letter 44 where the alien spaceship is first revealed. After just getting through a stack of books to sign, his jaw dropped when I handed him the splash page. He said that he never gets to actually see the physical OA since it gets scanned in by the artist (Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque) in Spain and then it goes to the publisher electronically. He sat there for a good minute soaking it in, seeing the original form of his thoughts on paper in their original form. When I asked him to sign it, he paused as though it might be defacing the art.

 

Joe Hill

Joe Hlll is Stephen King's son, and when you meet him, it really is like you're meeting the younger version of the master of horror. Joe, a New York Times bestseller in his own right, was doing a book reading at a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and as he was doing book signings, I put two covers from Locke & Key which he had written for IDW in front of him to sign. The artist, Gabriel Rodriguez, lives in Chile and his art is notoriously hard to get. Joe just paused and again soaked it in. He has a couple of the originals in his house, so it wasn't completely new, but seeing these in the wild was a new experience for him. All he could do was gush over how great Gabe was a partner, and grudgingly signed the covers, acknowledging he had little to do with how great they were.

 

Scott Snyder

While Snyder is known for his work on Batman, its the work on The Wake (ok, the first half of The Wake) that was mind-blowing for me. At NYC Special Edition this year, he was good enough to make some room at the end of the line for people with kids to get signatures. With my daughters in tow, we were one of the last people to get his attention, and when I pulled out the splash from The Wake with the art by Sean Murphy, he held it up in veneration. Another example of the writer never seeing the physical product of his work (always a digital scan), he shifted it to catch the subtleties of the ink wash that Murphy is known for.

 

Joe Kelly

if you don't know who Joe Kelly is, you should definitely read I Kill Giants. Although my daughters know who Ben 10 is (a Joe Kelly creation), I just am a huge fan of Joe and Ken Niimura's Barbara in I Kill Giants, one of the most poignant stories of youth attempting to understand death that hits on so many levels. Somehow, Ken fit a commission into his schedule for me, and sent it off from his office in Japan. When I asked Joe to sign it, the clock stopped for him. He sat and contemplated it, asked if he could take a picture to post it online, and then asked for a proper pen to not overshadow the work itself with his signature. Then he sat and looked at it some more.

 

***

So these are my most recent examples. I would be very interested in hearing on other experiences, like with OA being presented to Claremont on X-Men or Denny O'Neill on Green Lantern/Green Arrow.

 

Also, do you think that the writer signing OA somehow devalues it as an artist-centric creation?

 

Thanks

Bob

 

 

 

 

[vodou]

Just my opinion - but go forward I'd keep all these guys away from the Sharpies.

[Meeley Man]

Also, do you think that the writer signing OA somehow devalues it as an artist-centric creation?

 

Not at all. Writing is an artistry and art form of it's own. It is every bit as equally creative as drawing is, too. I would not see getting a writer's signature on a page of original comic art as a devaluation of it. At least, so long as the bubbles and caption are on it. With more modern art, where they have eliminated the writer's "presence" on the page, I'd be less inclined to, but on a page where the dialogue is still be to found, I'd not hesitate for a moment to have them sign it. After all, the writer is a part of the creative team that made that page happen.

[Sideshow Bob]

Just my opinion - but go forward I'd keep all these guys away from the Sharpies.

 

Yes, that was a lesson I wish I had learned earlier.

[AKA Rick]

To me, the team of Artist and Writer is like "Music" and "Lyrics" an equal contributing part to the important creative process So, with that, I think it only adds to the value and desirability and is appropriate (unless you're getting a piece signed by Stan Lee for the sake of getting his autograph because he created the character but had nothing to do with the writing of that story at all, which I've seen all too often)

 

I'd always get all signatures discreetly in pencil, it presents more elegantly in the margins outside of the artwork and truth be told, if a person were ever to want to sell/trade the piece, a penciled autograph can always be erased if it's an aesthetic deal breaker to the future owner. Big bold signatures in markers, which distract from the beauty of the artwork is sometimes a bit gaudy.

 

It's too bad the art of hand lettering or including lettering stats on the original art as part of the production process is extinct on traditional mainstream published comic art.

[Terry Doyle]

 

Impressive piece of artwork, by the way (thumbs u .

[Terry Doyle]

As a huge fan of the original Outer Limits TV series, with the Harlan Ellison-penned episode 'Demon With a Glass Hand' my favourite teleplay, it's at the back of my mind, that I'd love to have a signed dedication affixed to one of my OA examples.

 

Currently, I have a trading card (with the author's mug-shot) signed by Harlan. Mr Ellison confirmed to me (via his web-site's chat room) that he sat down and personally signed each and every one of those cards, so it is genuine.

 

Later on this year, I'll mat and frame one of the Marshall Rogers pages from the 1980s DC Graphic Novel adaptation of the famous Outer Limits teleplay. I'll include the Harlan Ellison signed trading card in the framed set-up (along with signed cards by two of the episodes stars, Robert Culp and Arlene Martell).

 

Wouldn't mind some kind of signed dedication from Harlan, but I'm a bit hesitant about asking as I imagine he gets inundated with such requests . . .

 

We'll see.

[Nexus]

I don't get my art signed often (it's never been a huge priority), but a couple of experiences stand out for me:

 

1. I took a stack of YTLM and EX MACHINA art for Brian K. Vaughan to sign many years ago. He spent a bit of time looking over every page. He had also never seen a J.G. Jones cover in person before and especially appreciated those. It was a fun chat.

 

2. I had Robert Kirkman sign my WALKING DEAD Compendium cover a few months before the show came out. WD was already big, but not the monster property it is today. Anyway, he was very interested in the art and had a lot of questions. My guess is that he may have been interested before, but didn't have the time to pursue it (or didn't want to devote any resources to it). I heard afterward, though, that he started buying up a lot of choice WD art.

 

I have other favorite writers' sigs on some of my other art (e.g. Alan Moore, Garth Ennis) that I didn't get myself. Still happy for the sigs to be there, though.

[Solar]

I like getting writers to sign interior pages from dialogue-driven series. Ennis on Preacher, BKV on Y, Gaiman on Sandman, etc. Since that's a lot of what I collect, I guess I'm a fan of writer sigs. Always in the margin of course.

[zhamlau]

I absolutely love pages signed by penciller, inker, writer, and in rare cases the Letterer. It adds to the experience. Those 4 people are the ones who directly created every aspect of that page. The only thing I ask is that anyone who signs the page signs it along the margins.

 

 

[chrisco37]

When I first started collecting art, I had writers sign pages. Now, I probably would hold back (although I'd have Alan Moore sign a page, if I had one. And I'd probably have Ellis sign my Planetary and Transmet stuff).

 

Azzarello did it for me, but he definitely thought it was an odd request. Mark Millar thought it was awesome.

[Eric Seffinga]

Me as well. And the same. Gaiman has signed many of my pieces over the years. He even wrote a little custom paragraph on the back of a framed Zulli painting done for his unreleased Sweeney Todd project.

[JasonDaTwit]

I've gotten one piece signed by co-writers and the artist.

 

It was a penciled piece by Luke Ross for a story n JONAH HEX by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray. I was able to get them all to sign the art last year at NYCC. They signed at the bottom of the page and nowhere near the art. I know Sal Buscema will sign right on top of the art (God knows why). I wouldn't want the sigs to detract from the piece. The writer is just as important as the artists as they both created this image together to create a full narrative.