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Let's hear your Signature Stories! Here's my John Byrne Signed Experience
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48 posts in this topic

If I'm not mistaken, I think Jim Starlin is allergic to the silver portion of silver sharpies, so he will not use them.  I've also found him pretty polite about it.  Seems like a reasonable policy for him.

I guess I don't understand the sour attitude over different colored sharpies when allergies aren't a factor.  I can even understand not wanting to swap markers every 5 seconds in the interest of keeping the line moving...but this was the last person in line.   Some creative types have some weird quirks.  (shrug)

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Great story Adam. One of my favorite Con memories of you was the first time that you and your wife brought your little man to either Gem City or Mid-Ohio. If I recall correctly, it was quite some time before he warmed up to ol' Fingh. He kept looking at you two like you should be running away in fear.  Those years - 2008-2013 - were probably my favorite collecting years.  

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3 hours ago, seanfingh said:

Great story Adam. One of my favorite Con memories of you was the first time that you and your wife brought your little man to either Gem City or Mid-Ohio. If I recall correctly, it was quite some time before he warmed up to ol' Fingh. He kept looking at you two like you should be running away in fear.  Those years - 2008-2013 - were probably my favorite collecting years.  

Good times!  

That was the Gem City show.  Our son was less than a year old and he was VERY unsure what to make of you.  But it was a very good time.  I lived in Fairborn/Dayton for a few years as a kid and it was a trip going back there with a son of my own.  We even ate at the same Bob Evans I used to visit as a kid.  Plus Kevin Eastman was there...so the TMNT nostalgia was in full force as well.

And don't take it personally.  My wife and I did everything for that kid and it took us seven months to get a smile out of him.  lol  

It'd be great to see you at a show again sometime, Sean.

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On 11/20/2020 at 9:43 AM, Turtle said:

Here's a story I posted in General earlier this week.  It applies here, so I'll share it again:

My first comic con was Wizard World Texas in 2008.  I was living in Texas at the time and it was about 30 minutes from my house.  The highlight of the show for me was John Cassaday.  I was reading his run on Astonishing X-Men at the time (which I don't think had quite finished by that point).

He had such a long line that they positioned him out in the hallway outside of the show floor in order to control the crowd of people.  We were waiting in line for an hour or so and they capped the line a little bit behind us.  The guy in front of us had a VERY large stack of books to be signed and he was very chatty.  When that guy was done, some handlers pulled John away for a scheduled panel that he was already running a few minutes late for.  There were only a few of us left in line.  As he's getting pulled away, John looks at the few of us still in line and shouts "I'll be back in an hour.  If you're still here, I'll do sketches!".  

When he returned, he seemed genuinely flattered that we'd wait for him and happily did a few quick sketches for us.  Here's one that I consider a memento of not only my first con, but also my first time interacting with CGC Signature Series stuff in person (shout out to Frank who still helps CGC out at shows from time to time).  The book evokes a lot of positive memories.  :cloud9:

786135584_AstonishingX-Men_01SS.thumb.JPG.9fdd43015093a4768e75b7645a9c9eb8.JPG

 

Wow... what a stand up guy. I have a true respect for John Cassaday to do that. Especially considering he had no obligation to do that. 

It's always nice to hear when a creator goes above and beyond, and understand his fans. Amazing!

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Jackson Bostwick - This guy played the live action Captain Marvel / Shazam from the 70’s. It was a hotel show in Louisville (same one where I met Margot Kidder who was quite a handful). Bostwick had a hand made sign on his table that said “ALL AUTOGRAPHS $20.”  Pretty simple and easy to understand, think I.  I hand him a couple of Shazam #1 and $40. He goes - “Oh, no, those are $50 each.”  I said what about “all autographs $20?” He goes, “that doesn’t mean for collectibles. Those are separate.” So I’m standing there, slack-jawed, trying to imagine what type of SNL “The Californians” style logic gymnastics must be going on in his bag of cats mind to allow this. The irresistible force of my stunned incredulity smashed against the immovable object of his illogical avarice until finally he spoke “I have to do it because of EBay, man.”  He got his $100.

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2 hours ago, seanfingh said:

OK - here are some of my favorite sig stories.

Joe Kubert -  one of Joe’s last shows that he did CGC for was in Chicago. I used to go to both regularly and would help witness whenever I could. Joe had a lot of subs that weekend - not Jim Lee or JSC a lot, but enough to have to coordinate. He was donating all of his signing fees to Hero Initiative, otherwise, he never would have taken a dime. He was so friendly and so affable, and he really cared about his fans.  So we decided that we would divide Joe’s books into stacks of 15 or so and get them done whenever we could because he moved around a lot and didn’t stay all day.  I had done maybe 60 that day, and saw the opportunity to do my last stack.  He recognized me and we picked up where we left off - it was Hawkman or the Unknown Soldier or whatever. He did the signing, and I gave his daughter in law the $150 for HI. I was closing everything up and realized that one of the window bags had not been cut and he signed the bag. So I asked him to quick sign the book. As he picked up his pen, his daughter in law said “Wait I have to talk to the Hero people, I think we need to get another fee.” He smiled and nodded. When she turned the corner, he grabbed the book, picked a beautiful place, as he always did. He said “she is a wonderful girl, and pretty protective. If you don’t tell, I won’t either.” We shook hands, he put his hand on my shoulder and said “thanks for reading!” And that was the last time I saw him. I still have that window bag.

That scene in Field of Dreams, where an elderly Moonlight Graham tells Ray that he has to go home or his wife will think he has a girlfriend . . . that was immediately what popped into my mind when I heard this story.  What a class act.

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2 hours ago, seanfingh said:

Jackson Bostwick - This guy played the live action Captain Marvel / Shazam from the 70’s. It was a hotel show in Louisville (same one where I met Margot Kidder who was quite a handful). Bostwick had a hand made sign on his table that said “ALL AUTOGRAPHS $20.”  Pretty simple and easy to understand, think I.  I hand him a couple of Shazam #1 and $40. He goes - “Oh, no, those are $50 each.”  I said what about “all autographs $20?” He goes, “that doesn’t mean for collectibles. Those are separate.” So I’m standing there, slack-jawed, trying to imagine what type of SNL “The Californians” style logic gymnastics must be going on in his bag of cats mind to allow this. The irresistible force of my stunned incredulity smashed against the immovable object of his illogical avarice until finally he spoke “I have to do it because of EBay, man.”  He got his $100.

 

I imagine you walking around the conventions wearing an Ebay T-shirt.

I've only been accused of that with Good Ol' Walt Simonson. NYCC 2011 Hero Initiative booth.  Walt was doing sketches for $200.

Everyone seemed to be getting busts.  Thor holding the hammer, Thor chucking the hammer etc.  I walk up and say "make my Thor angry"..... Now of course, there's the mistake.  I wasn't specific. I should've said "I want Thor, arm extended into the air standing on a cliff with lightning coming out of Mjolnir"  I hadn't learned to be greedy with my sketch cover requests yet.  He proceeds to draw Thor's head similar to what you would normally get for free from him, maybe slightly worse.  Now (even then) I didn't really mind because I love supporting the Hero Initiative but I had seen him personalizing sketches.  So for $200, I don't want to see my stupid name on the artwork so I politely requested not to personalize it.   He looks me up and down * pauses * then says "ahhhhh, Ebay huh?"  I said No of course not (in my mind I was like.... well now yea)

Surprisingly, I still have the sketch!  

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I went to a show at the Westchester County Center in White Plains NY back in 2000. It was a very warm and humid weekend with no air conditioning in the venue. I walked up to where Barry Windsor Smith was sitting and he said hello to me and asked me how I was doing. I mentioned something about being too hot but otherwise okay and he offers me his bottle of water. I said I couldn't take his water but he insisted and said he could get another one so I got my comics signed and Barry gave me his water. Such an odd moment lol 

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1 hour ago, HotKey said:

I have the worst John Byrne autograph story.

I won this in an online auction. I don't know if it's real. The end. 😁

20210404_153849.jpg

20210404_153928.jpg

Eh, close enough! (thumbsu

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