Now that we have the introductions out of the way...it's time to talk about all of the incredible FanBoy moments I've had over the past few years trying to get the word out about my comic book shop. For someone whose primary purpose of going to Cons is to meet comic book creators in the hopes that some day they might come to my shop to do a signing, I sure say some messed up things. Sensitive readers should stop reading past this point because it gets ugly real fast.
It was the spring of 2005. I had signed up for two V.I.P. passes to Wizard World L.A. As part of the exclusivity of the pass, you got a private signing with John Cassaday. He would sign the new Collossus Resin Bust based upon his Astonishing X-men Collosus and one other item. I was excited. Visions of a special room for the signing or silk divider curtains and a velvet rope. Ok, so maybe my imagination was more high-end L.A. dance club than comic book convention reality where deodorant was optional. I picked out some of my variant covers of Astonishing X-men and made my way to L.A. The day had been long. I brought my son and his cousin. It was my second big convention and their first. Like most young kids, they got bored fast and we had to wait in a lot of lines. By the time the Cassaday signing came up, I was tired and short on patience. The line was long and they announced that the statues were not yet available, so they would have signed stickers applied to the base with his signature once they arrived. After about an hour and a half, we had made our way to the front of the line.
Here's how it went down:
Me: Hey John! Wow! Long Line.
John: Yeah.
Me: We waited over an hour to be here. I hope it is worth it.
John: (silent....jaw to the floor)
He quickly signs both comics. I thank him. We are on our way.
How do you recover from that? Especially when you are wearing the stores newly minted t-shirt. Especially when it was supposed to go down like this:
Me: Hey John! Wow! Long line.
John: Yeah.
Me: We waited over an hour to be here. I'm sure it is worth the wait. It's nice to have finally met you.
The second conversation is the one that ran through my head for the hour and more before meeting him. The first is how it came out of my mouth. Big difference. That ranks as my biggest fanboy faux pas to date. I hope someday I can meet him again to tell him....
John, you are an incredibly talented artist. You bring a humanity and realism to comic book art that raises the bar for other artists.
If you have any stories of FanBoy Faux Pas, email me and maybe you'll see it on the blog. Your name will be changed to protect your innocence.
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