Did You Meet Your Comic Book Heroes? 1 1

[TupennyConan]

On 5/2/2023 at 10:28 AM, KingOfRulers said:

How many of you have met your heroes from the world of comics? For those of you that have, please share your experiences!

From 2010-2021, I  owned and operated comic conventions, and as a result was able to meet a lot of wonderful creators. For years, we were bringing in approximately 20 creators per convention. We had some incredible talent come through our doors.

I've always called George Perez my favorite comic book artist of all-time. There's that saying, "Don't meet your heroes". There's countless stories of everyone's wonderful experiences meeting George Perez. I'd like to say I had such a wonderful experience with George, but unfortunately mine wasn't as magical as most. George wasn't mean or rude, but he wasn't particularly friendly or open either. I'd want to chat with him, but he'd give me the cold shoulder. My only reasoning that I can come up with as to why, is that he was stressed or overwhelmed by his lines at our conventions.

I never got to meet any of my other heroes from the Golden Age and Silver Age, such as Jack Kirby or Stan Lee.

I did get to meet Dave Cockrum at Heroes Con in 2006, which was one of my favorite experiences at a convention. Dave is definitely one of my comic book heroes. This was my first out-of-state convention, and only four months before Dave passed away. Dave was such a nice guy to me. He signed my X-Men #105 and #107. I also had an X-Men #99 price variant that Dave signed and it was CGC signature series'd. I wish I got a picture with Dave.

You're my comic book hero. 

[Artboy99]

I have met several creators but one of my favorites was Bernie Wrightson. It was the Calgary Expo in 2012 which was the first show I did as a vendor. Our booth was right in the line up of fans who were there to see Leonard Nimoy: lines of people who didnt bat an eye at our comic boxes. My friend @piper had requested an art commission from Keith Pollard and asked if I could pick it up from the artist. I had brought my Wrightson "Frankenstein" high quality print with me rolled up in the tube we had our booth signage in and hoped I would get the opportunity to meet Bernie. When Nimoy was at his table our booth business died, we didn't sell anything during that Saturday afternoon. I stepped away from the booth and went to the artists and I was in luck as Bernie's table was right beside Pollard's so I was able to chat briefly with both artists and picked up my friend's commission and I got my print signed. 

I absolutely love this drawing, the detail has always captivated me.

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Artboy99

[Robot Man]

On 5/2/2023 at 1:35 PM, KingOfRulers said:

That's awesome that you got to meet so many greats.

I'm assuming these guys were among your meets: How was your experience with Jack Kirby or John Buscema? 

Never met Buscema

Met Kirby a bunch of times. He was always at SDCC which was in my "back yard"

Maybe the first time was at SDCC at the El Cortez Hotel. Jack would sit by the pool after dinner and "hold court". This particular evening we spotted him and Will Eisner just sitting alone talking and smoking cigars. We quickly ran up to our room and grabbed some books we had bought that day. They were just sitting talking about the old GA days. I had Eisner sign my Spirit #22. Jack signed several books. New Gods, Mr Miracle and Forever People first issues. While doing so, he accidentally knocked off a little cigar ash into one. He was real embarrassed but I didn't care and just blew it away. Kind of wish I had left it...

Pretty soon Roz came down and "rescued" him by telling him it was past his bedtime!

[Robot Man]

I have always been a huge EC and MAD fan. In 2000 SDCC had an EC reunion with most of the still living (at that time) EC greats. Attended all the events including the banquet and sat at Jack Kamen's table. He gave me his EC pin right off his jacket when I admired it. I remember walking down a long row of tables with them all signing autographs. I had brought a couple of my favorites from each of them. Some EC's and some more obscure stuff I thought they would like seeing. Sadly, was kind of like the last supper as they started passing away quickly soon after. A weekend I will never forget.

I also took this book. Something I would schlep around when ever I knew any EC or more specifically MAD people were scheduled to attend. Most are gone now but so many great memories...

[Robot Man]

At another SDCC they invited a slew of Underground artists. Spain, Gerdes, Sheldon, Trina Robbins, Robert Williams and many others. Met them all and got lots of autographs. One of my big favorites was there as well. Rick Griffin. Being a CA surf kid, I grew up on Surfer Magazine and loved his SF concert posters as well as his UG work. He had a small booth that was set up like a tiki, grass shack. He was sitting on a rug on the floor selling his art and posters. I remember handing him a joint and he sketched a cool Murf the Surf on one of my old Surfer magazines and signed it. Man, good times!

[*paull*]

ALWAYS meet your heroes.  As long as you are a patient, decent, and kind person.  I have always been rewarded with wonderful experiences, especially in the comic book world.

Here are some of my favorites:

David Mazzucchelli - super lovely and very generous.  Just a wonderful guy.  I highly recommend the videos on Youtube where he explains comic book storytelling techniques.  You'll be better for it.

Chris Ware - Love his work and love him.  If you have an opportunity to see him give a presentation on comics in general and his work, do it.

Jim Steranko - Yes, he's intense.  But also super generous to his fans.  He wants you to have a memorable experience.  I was never so nervous to meet a comic book creator when I first met him around 1991.  But he will quickly win you over and you'll enjoy the ride.

Norm Breyfogle - Absolutely loved and love his work on Detective and Batman.  Just a great guy.  Miss him.  Rest in peace.

Jay Disbrow - Fantastic to meet someone who worked during the pre-code era. I always enjoyed his work and he was a very kind and generous man.

Stephen Bissette and John Totleben - Met them around 1990 or so.  Always adored their work on Swamp Thing.  Still have my Bissette sketch of Swamp Thing.  Really nice guys.

Bill Sienkiewicz - Such a cool guy.  I've always been a big fan.

Neal Adams - very fun and easy to talk with, even if he wanted to talk about the "growing Earth theory"

Paul Chadwick - Always a Concrete fan... it was a thrill to meet him in the early 90s.  Very kind man.

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by *paull*

[aszumilo]

I've met a few

Jim Starlin - Very nice.  Was only able to talk to him for a short while as there was a long line behind

Jim Steranko - Great guy to talk with.

Neal Adams - Some say he is not very nice, but, the few times I met him, he was always nice and very chattable

Bob Layton - Talked with him for about 30 minutes.  Had some great stories about how his mother never understood what he did until the first Iron Man movie came out.  My nephew didn't think his art was that great, so, I told Bob he said that.  Bob handed him his portfolio and my nephew said h was great, to which Bob replied "Thanks, my mom thinks so too".  My nephew came away a fan of his art. 

Kevin Eastman - very nice guy to talk with, even for only a few minutes. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few here.

Edited May 3, 2023 by aszumilo

[KCOComics]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:52 PM, KingOfRulers said:

Some of the nicest creators I've met were those pictured below: Pablo Marcos, Allen Bellman, and Ron Wilson. I wouldn't call any of them among my "hero creators", but I will say that Marvel 2-In-1 Annual #7 pencilled by Ron Wilson is among my favorite comic books.

Other creators that I always had great interactions with that come to mind are: Neal Adams, Bob Camp, Dave DeVries, Mike Perkins, Arvell Jones, Joe Giella, Carl Potts, Khoi Pham, Sean Chen, and Mike Mayhew.

I spent allot of time with Allen Bellman at a Boston comiccon probably 8 - 10 years ago. 

He was an incredible person! Filled with energy and very sharp. He told me a number of great stories about the old days and his experiences with some of the legends of Timely. 

[KCOComics]

I was never one to go out of my way to meet creaters.  

We hit a bad spell of losing legends from our hobbies. Perez, Adams, Sinnott (to name a few)...and I thought to myself, if I ever wanted to meet these guys, if only to tell them how much I appreciated their work, I should act.  

I met Sterenko last year and he was great. I would love to meet Romita Sr, but I think I read, he won't be doing shows any longer.  

[Domo Arigato]

I've only met one comic book artist, and have mentioned it in here before..  I don't really do conventions, but did go to a couple of small local ones in Indianapolis several years ago.  At one of them, I saw some art that I thought was incredible, so I walked up to the booth to check it out.  A young man there engaged me in conversation.  I didn't know who he was at the time, but it ended up being Stuart Sayger.  Imagine the nicest guy in the world, and then double that.  Just a great guy that was very eager to interact with anyone who wanted to talk to him.  I saw him again at the next local convention, but didn't talk to him.  A young boy had walked up to his booth at that time, and Stuart was focusing all of his attention on engaging with this eager young fan. 

On a side note (but not comic related)......I was at a motorcycle show in Indianapolis years ago and happened to spot Rupert Boneham (made famous from being on the Survivor show) at a booth he had set up.  He was selling autographed copies of his book to raise money for his "Rupert's Kids" charity......I think they were $10 each.  I just walked up to say "hi" real quick, and he stopped me to talk for a bit. 

He asked me if I had read his book.....and when I told him I hadn't, he handed me one and said he wanted me to have it at no charge.  I told him I would be happy to pay for it, but he said it was a gift and he didn't want me to (you could tell he was just really proud of the book and wanted me to read it).  I thanked him for the gift, and when he reached his hand out to shake mine, I stuck a $20 bill in it and told him that was for his "Kids".  The look of appreciation on his face was obvious, and the thanked me profusely.  All of those stories about how nice the guy is.......all true.  

 

[KingOfRulers]

On 5/2/2023 at 8:32 PM, Robot Man said:

Never met Buscema

Met Kirby a bunch of times. He was always at SDCC which was in my "back yard"

Maybe the first time was at SDCC at the El Cortez Hotel. Jack would sit by the pool after dinner and "hold court". This particular evening we spotted him and Will Eisner just sitting alone talking and smoking cigars. We quickly ran up to our room and grabbed some books we had bought that day. They were just sitting talking about the old GA days. I had Eisner sign my Spirit #22. Jack signed several books. New Gods, Mr Miracle and Forever People first issues. While doing so, he accidentally knocked off a little cigar ash into one. He was real embarrassed but I didn't care and just blew it away. Kind of wish I had left it...

Pretty soon Roz came down and "rescued" him by telling him it was past his bedtime!

Wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing. What year do you think that was?

I would love to have met Eisner as well. I'm not into the Spirit, but really love his graphic novels.

[KingOfRulers]

Lots of positive comments about Jim Steranko. I agree with this. We featured him at our conventions several times. As the showrunner, he was a pretty "high maintenance" guy in terms of the things he was wanting from us.Nonetheless, he is a very friendly man. Very charismatic, high energy, and full of great experiences that he loves to share. Even being high maintenance, I loved having Steranko at our shows. Steranko's awesome!

[F For Fake]

On 5/2/2023 at 5:14 PM, Gonzimodo said:

I realize now how I didn't appreciate enough at the time going to Mid-Ohio Con every year from the late 80s to the early 2000s.  I met so many amazing creators but was too shy to really speak to most of them, and a lot of them have now passed.  I never really liked getting comics signed, either, but I've got a couple convention programs with multiple signatures and sketches that I love looking at now.

John Byrne was not at all the curmudgeon I'd heard about when I met him.  He was always friendly to everyone I saw.  Walt and Louise Simonson were absolutely the nicest, most genuine people you could ever hope to meet.  Mark Waid was very cool at the time, although he's since, um, gotten a reputation for bad behavior.  Roger Stern was awesome.  I was always too shy to engage with the Golden Age guys, but I remember Martin Nodell and Sheldon Moldoff being really cool and gracious to me and my friends.  I had a very embarrassing encounter with P. Craig Russell when I tried to compliment him and confused some of his work with Charles Vess.  He laughed it off, said he was honored to be mentioned in the same breath as Vess, and let me slink away with my dignity somewhat intact...

Yeah, Mid-Ohio was a blast back when I went, which was the mid/late 90's. That's where I met Cockrum and many others. Oddly, that's where I met Byrne, and while I said I wouldn't speak ill of creators, I'll say he wasn't friendly when I met hm. Wouldn't even speak to me or the other folks in line, just took the book, signed it, handed it back. And I agree, I've heard people talk about Waid being brusque, but he was very nice when I met him. Also met Nodell and Moldoff there, as well as Dan DeCarlo. Also Paul Smith, Denys Cowan, Jeff and Phil Moy, Cory Corani, Roger Stern, Steve Lieber, and so many more. Hmm...oh, Bendis, pre-Marvel, you could talk to that dude forever. Very nice guy. Mike Oeming too. Oh, and early, pre-fame Paul Pope, he was always there and very nice and easy to talk to, doing sketches and signing. Seemed very down to earth for a guy that would eventually become kind of a "rock star" artist.

Not from Mid-Ohio, but other creators I can recall who were over and above nice would include Jeff Smith, and yes P. Craig Russell was delightful as well. Evan Dorkin has always been extremely nice and generous with his time, as has Sarah Dyer. Art Adams has always been very cool. Darwyn Cooke was great, Phil Noto always very nice. Tim Sale and Kevin Maguire weren't particularly talkative or engaging, but they weren't rude either. Wrightson was very, very quiet, but certainly nice enough. Sienkiewicz was a lot of fun. Yes, of course, everyone meets Steranko, and yes, he's a hoot. Frank Brunner was very nice. 

Really, I'd say 95% of the creators I've met have been great, and the remaining 5% usually weren't outright rude so much as they were just completely disinterested and disengaged. And, you know, that's fine. I don't take it personally. But for sure, I'd say if anyone has a chance to meet a "hero", go for it. Most of the time they're great, and if they aren't, chances are it has nothing to do with you.

[Ken Aldred]

On 5/3/2023 at 11:52 AM, KingOfRulers said:

Lots of positive comments about Jim Steranko. I agree with this. We featured him at our conventions several times. As the showrunner, he was a pretty "high maintenance" guy in terms of the things he was wanting from us.Nonetheless, he is a very friendly man. Very charismatic, high energy, and full of great experiences that he loves to share. Even being high maintenance, I loved having Steranko at our shows. Steranko's awesome!

He is.
 

I was once walking through a convention and accidentally almost hurtled briskly straight into him as I turned a blind corner. I’m much taller and heavier-set, but he deftly performed a quick, hyper-responsive sidestep out of the way, avoiding physical injury and any creasing of his immaculate, tailored suit, utilising lightning fast reactions honed by years of experience as a magician and escape artist.


I was impressed.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[Gonzimodo]

On 5/3/2023 at 8:30 AM, F For Fake said:

Hmm...oh, Bendis, pre-Marvel, you could talk to that dude forever. Very nice guy.

Ah, yes, back in the days when Bendis still had hair, the poor guy would sit there all alone at his table with this Goldfish books, just begging someone to come talk to him...  I never actually met him, because I wasn't familiar with his work at all, so I figured I'd have nothing to say.  Totally missed opportunity on my part. 

[SeniorSurfer]

Though I'm pretty shy, I would have loved to meet Stan, Jack, Frazetta and Eisner but living in South Florida and not having any major conventions for the time they were more active attendees, I never got the chance.  I would have been dependent on parents for travel to cons that were further away and that wasn't exactly their idea of a great vacation.

I did get to meet two of my favorites:  I met and spoke with Neal Adams several times and each time he was extremely friendly, relaxed and conversing with everyone at length.  The first time I met him was many years ago while he was at his booth with only 2-3 fans around, holding court on his future projects, space theory, etc.  I circled around several times until I got the nerve to slink closer, at which time he included me in his conversational eye contact and I became more relaxed.  This was before slabs or witnesses, and I eventually screwed up enough courage to ask him to sign my copy of GL/GA #82, which he did on the bottom margin of the first interior page.  Many years later when I was selling my collection I forgot it had been signed and sold it along with all the other books.   If any of you guys have a copy, probably around a 6.0-7.0 with that sig location in black ink, this could be its provenance.

I met Steranko more recently (couple of years pre-COVID).  He was nattily attired in a grey suit and turtleneck - just as I pictured he would be, so I had upped my own con attire for the occasion.  There was a formal line of about 7-9 people to see him, which quickly changed into a half-circle around his table as he started an impromptu 15-20 minute class on his thought process in the composition of one of his prints:  The B&W Noir where Chandler discovers the body of a nude woman murder victim.  I say class and not speech or dissertation because he went through every portion of that print and engaged his fans by asking questions about each object, each angle, to see if they were understanding how it all tied together, giving them insight on its conception and his thought process as it was composed.  It was really fascinating and I wouldn't have missed it for anything.  You even got an additional observation on his sense of how he wanted his fans to remember their encounter:  At the end (and even during his comments) some people tried to take photographs, but he stopped them, noting by way of patient explanation (paraphrasing) that they should just listen, immerse themselves in the here-and-now, enjoy the moment without being concerned about keeping any physical record and keep the memory instead.  Reminded me a bit of the sense that people on vacation just continually snap pictures, all-the-while missing the surroundings that extend beyond the camera/cell phone boundaries (the "big picture," if you will).  At any rate, it resonated with me and I do vividly remember the encounter, as well as having a greater appreciation whenever I see that painting.

[F For Fake]

On 5/3/2023 at 9:26 AM, Gonzimodo said:

Ah, yes, back in the days when Bendis still had hair, the poor guy would sit there all alone at his table with this Goldfish books, just begging someone to come talk to him...  I never actually met him, because I wasn't familiar with his work at all, so I figured I'd have nothing to say.  Totally missed opportunity on my part. 

 I was an early fan of AKA Goldfish, Jinx, then Powers, etc. so it was kinda neat and fun to watch his star on the rise, because he seemed like a legit nice guy and I enjoyed his work.

[TupennyConan]

It was Megacon 1999 when I met Barry Windsor-Smith for the only time.

I was 29, flush with cash, & just re-entering the hobby after having been out since about age 17. It was my first show back & I took a really nice looking date with me for the weekend. She was a ballet instructor. Megacon was still a large hotel show in downtown Orlando then.

She & I stood in a long line to meet BWS. She didn't know who he was or anything about comics. When we arrived at his table, he ignored me and immediately began flirting with her, delivering a wide variety of rapid fire, charming remarks and compliments. Finally he asked if we were together. When she said yes, he told her to make me buy his OPUS I, which he was vending at the table. She did & so I did. Still have it. He continued to ignore me as he signed the book for me, and my first ever Conan 1 on the splash, which I had just purchased from Dale Roberts. The first time I'd met Dale. I still have the Conan. It's probably 9.4. 

As we were about to leave the table and allow the long line behind us to advance, he finally left my date alone & spoke to me.

He said: Why the hell would you wear that shirt on a date with her? 

I don't recall my reply. Here is about what the shirt looked like. He asked the correct question.    

 

[Gonzimodo]

Here are the Mid-Ohio Con program books I got signed.  These things just blow my mind a little more every time I pull them out.  I don't immediately recognize some of the signatures, but the guides list all the guests, so I can go back and figure out who most of them are.  All of these were free, so it was a great bonus when someone would knock out a quick sketch, too. 

I don't know why I did this only these two years. 

[F For Fake]

On 5/3/2023 at 9:46 AM, Gonzimodo said:

Here are the Mid-Ohio Con program books I got signed.  These things just blow my mind a little more every time I pull them out.  I don't immediately recognize some of the signatures, but the guides list all the guests, so I can go back and figure out who most of them are.  All of these were free, so it was a great bonus when someone would knock out a quick sketch, too. 

I don't know why I did this only these two years. 

Awesome! That really takes me back.