While I was out in LA, Harlan and Susan Ellison decided to have a party and invite a whole bunch of folks, ostensibly so it would take care of everyone who wanted to visit for the next six months. Quite an assortment of folks there, ranging from comic book luminaries such as Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Colleen Doran and Jim Valentino, to Walter Koenig and a guy who looked a lot like Ed Asner probably because he actually was Ed Asner. It was a gloriously wild time, particularly when Ellison and Asner were trading barbs with delirious ferocity. I actually spent about fifteen minutes chatting with Asner. A short time later, I confessed to several other comic folks that I was fanboy enough to keep thinking, “I’m at a party with Ed Asner! How cool is that?” And immediately their heads bobbed in unison; they were thinking the same thing. So I felt slightly less geeky.
PAD
• 
I can relate. It’s probably similar to what we comic fans think when we get to meet people like you for the first time. (I tried so hard to avoid gushing when I met John Romita Jr. at my first convention last year, and even still, he was probably making a note for the hotel personnel to triple its security staff.)
However, the old “fanboy” element comes out only when we have no understanding of the person, and a heavy attachment to the personality, that odd mix of hype and public persona that turn people into commodities. If all people whose line of work make them celebrities were as awe-inspiring as our imaginations make them out to be, Hollywood’s divorce rate wouldn’t be higher than Woody Harrelson during a Pink Floyd laser show.
However, just like in romance, familiarity starts to take a lot of that allure away, and one begins to see this individual stripped of any of the trappings of fame and P.R. It’s only then, when we forget that the “celebrity” is in fact such, that he is forced to make it on the steam of his own personality and talent. A man can be judged on the quality of his friends, not his fans.
Case in Point: Peter, how often did it hit the fanboy in you during that party that you’re actually good friends with Harlan Ellison, who is not only a celebrity, but a celebrity in the genre that (I assume) you adored as a kid?
My own personal name-dropping: while working for my college newspaper (Plymouth State College, Plymouth, NH), a guy came in to drop off a letter to the editor arguing against the nuclear power plant in Seabrook, NH (now online for about 15 years). We started discussing the pros and cons of nuclear power; this guy knew his stuff. I stretched my geekiness to the limit and brought up orbiting solar collectors that would beam the power down to earth in microwave form (which I think I got from a 70’s Superman comic) and he mentioned toroidal nuclear fusion reactors in space.
After about 15 minutes of this polite discussion, I realized I hadn’t introduced myself, and promptly corrected my oversight.
“I’m Jim; I’m the news editor here.’
“I’m Elliot Maggin.”
“No.”
“Um… yes.”
“Elliot S! Maggin?”
“That’s me.”
I had just re-read “Superman: Last Son Of Krypton” that last weekend.
I still kick myself that I didn’t get his autograph on the spot, on ANYTHING, and when I wrote a piece on comics the following spring, I made countless calls to his house trying to get an interview. Oh, well…
J.
(Who also enjoyed myself tremendously at the Three High Verbals at MIT)
My brush with greatness. My family and I had flown into LAX at about 11:00 at night. By the time we got our bags, the desk at the airport where we were supposed to get our car was closed. We had to take a bus to the lot and the rental office. The place was packed and we had to wait a really long time. I was sitting outside with my mother and my brother and father were inside in line. While we’re sitting there, a bus pulls up and a couple of people got off. I didn’t notice them but my mom leaned over and said, “Hey, that’s Alan Alda!” I looked up and dámņ, it was! Hawkeye in person! I wanted to go over and get his autograph but considering it was practically 2 in the morning, my mother told me not to bother him. He went in and made a phone call. I went in and leaned over to my brother and whispered, “Hey, that’s Alan Alda!” The funny thing was that even though I whispered it, every single person in the line, including those who didn’t speak English turned and looked. Soon, he went and waited outside until a limo pulled up and he got in.
But I digress. 🙂 If I had met Ed Asner, the whole time I would be thinking to myself, “You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk.”
Well, I used to work for the Allman Brothers Band so there are several stories I could tell, but keeping it comics-related, years ago at a Sun Con comic convention in Tampa, Florida, Henry “The Fonz” Winkler came in with his son. He was staying at the hotel and just decided to take a look around. Although I would have loved to have gotten his autograph, I wanted to be respectful of his privacy so I just kept flipping through comics as he made his way around the room.
I can painfully say that I haven’t had any brushings in the comic scene. Not because I didn’t want to, but it was mainly because Ohio isn’t a hotbed of comic conventions. there are a few in Columbus, but those are normally an hour and a half away and an arm and a leg to even get in.
Comic-wise, the giddiest I ever got was when I first found PAD’s blog, sent him an email with all the fan-boy regalia, and got a response. I grew up reading BID’s when I worked for a comic store, so just the response back was like Ralphie getting his Red Rider BB gun in A Christmas Story. Lol…
My first “brush with greatness” was back in ’81 when I was serving as auctioneer at an auction at the North Carolina Chess Open Championship Tournament. At one point I went something like “…and that’s $10 from the guy in the Boston Celtics t-shirt”.
It then occured to me that said guy was rather tall…and turned out it was Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, a UNC-Charlotte graduate who was then playing for the Celtics.
My comics related brush with greatness occured when I lived in LA in the mid-80s. Was doing my regular weekly comics run at Hi-De-Ho in Santa Monica. Was ready to move to the next rack, except someone was standing in front of it. I say “Excuse me”, he goes something “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to block you”.
Hmm. This guy looks familiar. I notice that he chatted with the manager on his way out, so as I’m leaving I ask the manager “Um, was that Mark Hamill?” “Yep, stops in here regularly, but he’s about to leave for NYC to be in a play.”. In almost two years in LA, that was the only time I ever ran into a celebrity in a spontaneous way.
Wanna hear geeky? 6 October 2001. MIT. The Three High Verbals. THREE TIMES I look at my friend and whisper, “We’re in the same room as Peter David, Neil Gaiman, AND HARLAN-FRIGGIN-ELLISON!”
As you can tell, I don’t get out much. But I swear that’s the truth. I’m not making it up. Toby, if you’re hangin’ around here, please corroborate this (he stops by here from time to time).
Bill
Not to detract from the theme of this thread, but didn’t Asner do the voice of J. Jonah Jameson on the mid-90’s Spider-Man cartoon?
Anyone know if he’s a comic fan?
Not to detract from the theme of this thread, but didn’t Asner do the voice of J. Jonah Jameson on the mid-90’s Spider-Man cartoon?
I have a couple of claim-to-fame meetings, but most of them are in my role as journalist and are thus vaguely uninteresting.
Another one does come to mind. A few years ago there was a sci-fi convention in town that had David Prowse as the main guest. As it happened my brother-in-law had his engagement party that evening and took us out to one of the nicest restaurants in Indianapolis. I happen to notice that one table over, eating alone, is a fellow who looks remarkably like David Prowse. I say nothing to any of the others, partially because I’m not sure, and mostly because the last thing he probably wants is gushing fanboyism on the one hour of the weekend he’s away from fanboys.
He finished up dinner before us and when he stood up, all doubt was removed from my mind. I didn’t tell any of the others until years later; I correctly assumed that nobody at the table besides me had even a general idea what Prowse looked like.
Strange that I feel vaguely proud over leaving a man to eat his dinner in peace, but to be honest, I like this memory better than any that would have involved me introducing myself and making an awkward mess of it.
Paul F. P. Pogue
Wait; I’ll add one humorous bit. I’ve seen the Lord of the Rings movies more times than I can count; I really really like Orlando Bloom as Legolas; I interviewed Bloom briefly during the “Black Hawk Down” press tour; I’ve seen “Black Hawk Down” twice …
… and for the life of me, I *still* couldn’t tell you which guy Bloom was in “Black Hawk Down.”
I have had a couple of brushes with famous people. President Clinton, Elle Mcpherson (sp?) and Sam Neil once dated my Aunt (I’m a New Zealander.
But yesterday I was invited into my local radio station, where they took me by surprise with an intervies for a position on their morning show. The previous DJ had suggested that I would be good for the show cause I had met him a few times. If I get the job on Friday I will be interviewing Cindy Crawford.
Not to be all school year but beat that.
Harlan and Susan Ellison, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Colleen Doran and Jim Valentino, to Walter Koenig and a guy who looked a lot like Ed Asner.
All in the same room; with you; and it wasn’t a movie or a dream.
If anybody ever says to you “Sucks to be you, huh?”, then you should respond “No…, no, it doesn’t.”
A humorous moment..
In my early teens I was at a star trek convention in Philadelphia.. I was standing in line for an autograph (I think It was Marina Sirtis, troi from next gen)and Scotty (James Doohan) was walking towards us being escorted by security and man was he drunk, he stumbled into about 5 of us said something under his breath than left the convention.. 🙂
By the by this is my first time posting here. PAD you rock man.. You are by far the best of all time incredible hulk writers..
Your stint on the hulk made me buy practicly everything else you have ever written..
Actually, I had a such a moment myself, when Justice Ginsburg visited my Law School last Friday. I felt “the moment” when I asked her a question. I was also glad that I didn’t sound like an idiot to myself, even though I was really nervous.
Well, I’m a college student at Cornell University and I play the trumpet in the Pep Band. Last Saturday at hockey (where we beat University of Vermont 8-1) we had a guest conductor for our Alma Mater: Janet Reno.
Chris
I’m from Indianapolis, born and raised…so not too many celeb encounters here. However, I have been known to help with a local convention over the years. One year (it was 96 or 97, honestly don’t remember offhand), we actually had Dr. Demento as our guest!! I met him briefly, but didn’t get much chance to say “hi”. Later, though I was doing a comic book panel that I ended up basically leading discussion for…I look in the back of the room and whom do I see? You guessed it. After the panel, he actually stopped me in the hall and told me I “presented myself in an informative yet very humorous way”. Dr. Demento told me I was funny…I STILL get a charge out of thinking about that.
The Random Guy wrote: “President Clinton, Elle Mcpherson and Sam Neil once dated my Aunt”
– Man. She dated Bill, Elle AND Sam? She must be some kinda woman…
As for my claim to fame, my band supported Hawkwind back when I was a wee lad of 18. (Although how many of you will have even HEARD OF Hawkwind is doubtful, I suppose, but my 18 year old self got a kick out of sharing that particular stage… lol!)
Not exactly face to face meetings, but I consider it pretty darn cool that Scott Adams (from Dilbert) has taken time to answer several of my emails, and PAD has taken the time to respond to my questions over in alt.fan.peter-david.
Once had a very nice hour and a half conversation with Jan Duursema too, at the 2001 Mid-Ohio Comicon.
Oh yeah?
Well I once met Dallas McKinnon when he did the grand opening of a Klondike pizza in my home town.
“Who the heck is Dallas McKinnon?”
Well, he played the grizzled sidekick type on a number of shows, including the bartender on Daniel Boone, but he also did a lot of voice over work – including the voice of Buzz Buzzard for Walter Lantz studios.
My dad got him a job working in the Oregon Pavillion for expo ’86. That was a good show too.
anyway, I thought it was cool.
Ed Asner? – you mean that old guy on Gargoyles? 😉
I’m a Trek fan. Especially the original crew. George Takei was going to make an appearance in a town 55 miles from where I live. One of our local radio stations had a contest where you bought raffle tickets for a chance to meet him in my town and ride in a limo with him to the other town.
I bought 3 tickets and won. God it was fun riding with him for an hour and then having dinner with him after his appearance.
It was awesome.
My other slight brush with fame was sending away for the first several pages of PADs script for the first issue of Captain Marvel. I said slight because I didn’t get to meet him but I got his autograph on the script. Needless to say I was in seventh heaven. Peter has been my favorite author for over a decade. You RULE Peter.
Later,
Kyle
\\Wait; I’ll add one humorous bit. I’ve seen the Lord of the Rings movies more times than I can count; I really really like Orlando Bloom as Legolas; I interviewed Bloom briefly during the “Black Hawk Down” press tour; I’ve seen “Black Hawk Down” twice …
… and for the life of me, I *still* couldn’t tell you which guy Bloom was in “Black Hawk Down.”\\
Orlando Bloom was the guy who fell out of the helicopter when they first went into the city.
My fanboy moments:
I got to meet and talk to George Perez back when he rebooted Wonder Woman. He did a signing at a local comic book store and there weren’t a lot of people there. (I still don’t understand that.) Maybe thirty or so and we were able to linger and talk to him. Really great guy.
I also got to meet Neil Gaiman when he had a speaking engagement at Northern Kentucky University. He talked about his writing and read an excerpt from his book Coraline. Afterwards, he stayed around and signed books and other items for everyone. The thing of it was that all the fans had been told by the organizers that Neil would be signing after the lecture but no one had informed Neil. In spite of this he still stayed until after 11pm to make all of us fanboys (and fangirls) happy. I told him that his reading of Coraline brought to mind the image of Alan Rickman doing a reading of Dr. Suess. He seemed to find that amusing. Another really nice guy.
Fazhoul
1. Asner was also the voice of Hudson on Gargoyles. In the character bible, it notes “he hates spunk.” Funny that I think a lot of us would go geeky for Asner ahead of SF and comic book folk. Face it. Everyone loved Lou Grant. 🙂
2. My moments…
– I work on the Upper East Side and have seen Paul Newman twice, and one time he noticed being noticed and gave me a thumbs-up sign. His eyes really are that blue.
– Going to cons, you inevitably meet people whose stuff you admire. For my wife, this led to geeky fangirl moments whne she met filkers Tom Smith and Bob Kanefsky. For me, it was meeting Greg Weisman at a Gargolyes con. Before he created that cartoon, he worked on Captain Atom, and I was quite flattered when he remembered my name from the letter columns he used to edit. He’s never quite gotten used to the attention he gets for Gargoyles, BTW, but he’s been to every convention.
I forgot when I posted my last ‘claim to fame’ that I also had a more comics based ‘claim’. Dave McKean gave a lecture at my old art college once (my old art college is only about 30 miles or so from where he lives), and afterwards I had the chance to speak to him for quite a while, being one of the only students who had heard of him before the lecture and owned any of his work. He actually asked to see some of my work, and I was more than happy to oblige. He told me that my draughtsmanship and story-telling were really good, and I floated on cloud nine… well, ever since, actually.
I’m such a geek I didn’t realize you’re supposed to be in awe of comic professionals. I worked a trade show in Baltimore, shared a room with a friend (though we were to busy to sleep for two days). At the end of the show, my friend proudly displayed all the autographs he’d gotten and asked how many I’d gotten. None. It hadn’t occurred to me. I chatted with Neil Gaimen in the morning before his speech (which means I chatted and he just nodded… not a morning person). Had a nice discussion with PAD as I led him to a panel discussion. Had a protracted argument with Frank Miller about ratings on comics, and spent a good half hour with Jim Shooter (a truly great guy who no one else would talk to after Gaimen roasted him in his speech).
PAD was the funniest, Jim the nicest, Frank was a jerk, and Neil was barely there (but gave the best speech I’ve ever heard). It never entered my mind that these guys were anything other than talented regular guys.
Of course, I had gotten tongue tied with Gene Hackman and Cher when serving them ice cream years earlier (and I pìššëd øff Maddona because I didn’t know who she was).
As a kid I played games in a backyard with a girl who would later write for the tv show Boy Meets World….of course, I haven’t played games with her lately…
I was at a pool party with Rep. Richard Gephardt. He swam in my pool. (Well, my Mom and Dad’s pool…) That was quite a few years ago too.
I’ve eaten in the same room as Jimmy Doohan, just a couple tables away. Had a photo taken with him shaking my hand…and 15 years later, at one of his last cons, gotten that autographed. The sad thing, as the person with Doohan made a point of mentioning….I’ve lost more hair in the past 15 years than Doohan.
Wil Wheaton sent me a nasty email once. (I deserved it…Long story.)
And of course, every morning, I look in the mirror. Some day…
Hmmm…always lived kinda off the beaten path when it comes to possible celeb encounters (aside from autograph lines at conventions).
Did have a few encounters at those conventions outside of the “scheduled” meetings.
At a Trek Con in Sacramento I was sitting near the back of the auditorium waiting for whoever was on stage to wrap up so Walter Koenig’s time could start. I heard some folks behind me chatting and one voice sounded familiar. Turned around and sure enough, it was Koenig about 10 feet away talking with fans while patiently waiting his turn. Nice guy.
Spoke briefly with novelist Jason Henderson at a pizza party during the second Highlander convention in Denver. The swordmaster for the show also put on an impromptu demonstration/talk in the lobby for a dozen or so of us. And then later he and his wife sat next to me in the screening room during the showing of one episode. ‘Nother nice guy, and full of great stories.
Being fairly active in Buckaroo Banzai fandom online has led to some cool stuff for me. Spoke on the phone to Pepe Serna (he played Reno in the film). Exchanged emails with director W.D. Richter and Mike Okuda (he’s a fan and his wife used to work on the official Banzai newsletters put out by the studio back in the day).
Think that’s all I’m allowed to talk about. Pretty sure Sandra Bullock wanted to keep our little encounter…oops…I’ve said too much already.
Comics pros I’ve met include PAD, Denny O’Neil (there’s a long, embarrassing story there which I never want to repeat) and Jim Shooter. I don’t count signings.
Back in the 80’s I worked on a few TARDISCONs (Doctor Who cons in St. Louis). It taught me a valuable lesson in never getting too close to celebrities. For one thing, it stunned me how heavily they drank, and there were a few who went out of their way to be prìçkš–one “Doctor” in particular. Now, that being said, without a doubt the two greatest guests we ever had were Ian Marter (“Harry Sullivan”) and John Leeson (“K9”). I have a special memory of Ian because a few nights before TARDISCON ’86 I got a call from the concom–Ian wanted to talk to me. It seems he was under deadline to finish a movie novelization and his typewriter was broken–could he possibly borrow mine for the weekend? Hëll yes he could!
Sadly, he passed away a short time later from diabetes complications. What a great guy. It was truly an honor to have met him.
JSM
Rob: and I pìššëd øff Maddona because I didn’t know who she was
This has to be one of the funnier sentences I’ve read recently. Don’t know why; it just amuses me. Thanks, Rob.
Celebrity encounters… I’ve had my share…
My favorite involves Jon Pertwee… he appeared in town on the Dr. Who 1996/7 tour (can’t remember exactly now) and while speaking, we cracked and broke one of his front teeth! I met him afterwards and recommended my dentist, and the next morning, I got a call from Pertwee’s manager asking if I could take him over there… so I did!
A local Trek group I was in took Mark Lenard out to dinner when he visited here, and I did an impromptu magic show with him for the table… I have pictures to prove that one… 🙂
The worst was back when I worked for Fox out of Nashville, William Shatner was in town to do some creation-type show, and had agreed in advance to cut some 30th Anniversary Trek promos for the station… approved scripts in advance, everything was a-ok… showed up to shoot the things and all he wanted to do was plug his new book… in the promo… matter of fact, he wasn’t going to mention Trek at all anymore… I finally just rolled tape and let the man ramble, and we shelved the tape… wish I’d kept it when I left…
I know firsthand that Pat Tallman is a good kisser… 🙂
When I was a little kid in Memphis, Colonel Sanders bought my lunch, and Elvis once paid for my dinner… Sanders used to spotcheck his restaurants, and would comp the meals of anyone there when he arrived… he’d speak with everyone about how they rated the place as well… I remeber him as being very nice, and yes, he did wear that white suit… Elvis would occasionally drop in for pizza at a Shakey’s we went to in Memphis, and many times he’d pay for everyone in the place as well…
And then there’s that Peter David guy, who agreed to be an Imperial Officer for me… thanks again! 🙂
John
I’ve met and/or interviewed a ton of music personalities, but some things still give you a tingle. The fact that John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants knows who I am. Getting my photo taken with Ice-T at a music conference. Talking briefly with Chuck D. Telling Marshall Crenshaw how much I appreciated a show of his in Tampa and getting floored with a story of a relative of his that he ran into while in town. Taking perhaps the only photo in existence of Exene Cervenka and Richard Fairbass of Right Said Fred together. Talking to John Hughes and Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos on the phone. Getting answering machine messages from “Weird Al” Yankovic. Getting e-mail from Paul Dini after reviewing MUTANT TEXAS. Sitting on tour buses with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and The Reverend Horton Heat. Getting autographs from and pictures with Jamaican music legend Laurel Aitken. Giving up my seat to the great saxophonist Roland Alphonso, a few months before he passed away.
But chance encounters are even cooler. Best one: I was sitting in the old Austin airport headed home after the South By Southwest music festival a few years ago, talking with a friend and a friend of hers. A woman and a youngish guy come up and start speaking with the friend of my friend. After a few moments, my friend says to the guy, “Are you Elijah Wood?”
Naturally, he was. And I shook his hand and chatted for a moment or two. This was pre-LORD OF THE RINGS.
Another cool moment: standing next to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons at a Reverend Horton Heat show in Austin during South By Southwest, and watching him walk out and get into this amazing, flame-decorated truck that looked like something out of one of his videos.
I met John Grisham in a gas station.
It was a Sunday in the spring of ’97, and I was driving to Charlottesville, Virginia to spend some time with my then-girlfriend. I stopped at a gas station about fifteen miles south of Charlottesville to use the restroom, and since it was a fairly warm day I decided to buy an ice cream sandwich. So, as I was standing in line I noticed the man in front of me looking through the newspaper. And it clicked.
“Excuse me, sir,” I said.
He turned and looked up at me. “Yes?”
“Has anyone told you that you look like someone’s dust jacket photo?”
He gave me an odd look. “Whose photo would that be?”
“Well, John Grisham’s.”
He smiled slightly. “It should, because it’s a picture of me.”
We chatted amiably for five-odd minutes. I mentioned that I really liked A Time to Kill and The Firm. He mentioned his life-long love of baseball.
Nice guy.
Two “celebrity” encounters that I found amusing: I was working at a movie theater when I saw someone in the line for a matinee show that I thought I recognized. I had just seen Adam Hughes a few weeks before at Philadelphia’s one and only Eagle Con (Where I also met PAD…) and I knew he was a local guy. I called him into the lobby, asked him if he was Adam Hughes and got him and his friend free passes.
What made this amusing to me was that Hughes was so obviously dazed that he was getting “celebrity” treatment. I guess it’s not often that comic book creators are recognized and even more rare that there are perks attached.
The other story took place while I was attending a community college. During the fifth or sixth week of class, I was talking to a guy I spoke to pretty regularly in class although we weren’t friends or anything. Somehow my full name came up and his eyes got all big. He said two or three times, I can’t believe that’s you.
A friend of mine had fallen into the position of editor of the school’s literary journal. She complained to me that she was getting barely any submissions and what she was getting was pretty awful so I gave her a poem I had written for a creative writing class (I should mention that I have no interest in poetry and never would have written the dámņ thing if I hadn’t been assigned to.) so she could fill space.
The guy in my class had a show on the campus radio show and he told me that he had been talking about that poem for days, how it was the best thing in the journal (an incredibly low bar) and how much this poem had touched him. Meanwhile he didn’t realize that The Poet (>gak<) was sitting right there with the other mortals. So I was *his* celebrity encounter… What a letdown *that* must have been…
Okay, since someone else mentioned a personal experience on the other side of the fence, it’s okay to tell mine:
For a long, long time I wrote fan fiction and got published in a number of zines. At one point I was selling some zines at a con on behalf of the publisher, and someone came up and bought one, then noticed one of my stories was in it and asked me to autograph it.
I was floored. Someone wanted *my* autograph? For a zine story? I went ahead and did it, but I swear that at the time only one thought was going through my head:
“I wonder if Peter David feels this weird when he signs autographs for his work?”
JSM
When I managed a bookstore, I irritated the hëll out of one customer by not being able to answer what was (to him) a reasonable question: “How’s my book selling?”
He was Joe Theisman, and my store was minutes from Redskins training camp. I had no idea who he was.
As encounters with Persons Of Note go, I’d have to admit that Peter’s wedding reception was pretty interesting on its own. (I was a bridesmaid.) [//waves hi to Peter and Kath//] Harlan Ellison gave the best man speech and ragged the hëll out of my Aunt Marge for not paying attention. I also had the surreal experience of seeing George Takei discuss Peruvian politics with my next-door neighbor. Honest.
I gave Warren Cuccurullo a backrub once. That’s not going to mean much to most of the people here, but I thought it was pretty groovy.
At the Philadelphia Comicon where Peter verbally castrated Todd McFarlane, I was looking through a box in the dealer’s room. I heard a voice beside me say something. I turned and there was Harlan Ellison. Holy crap! To this day I’m somewhat peeved that I never thought to go over and shake his hand.
Also, I’d like to say that it is really cool when someone like Peter takes time to answer e-mails from us fans. You just know that he’s answered the same question dozens of times before, but he still does it. Thanks, PAD.
You know, after my last message, it occurs to me that i’ve met quite a few famous comics creators.
I went to college at the Savannah College of Art and Design becase they offered a sequential art program. I met quite a few creators – Jason Lutes, Brian Stelfreeze, Ed Brubaker, Seth, Mike Carlin, Scott Hampton, Mark Schultz, Bernie Wrightson, Randy Stradley, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, and some guy named Will Eisner.
And the cool thing was, the students had lots of time to just talk to these folks, in addition to hearing lectures and having workshops.
cool stuff – biking down the street, seeing Seth walking along and thinking – “holy crap. He looks just like he draws himself.” I knew it was him before I was introduced.
Taking a workshop from Mark Schultz where he actually showed me how to do that cool drybrush technique.
Seeing Will Eisner walk away down a cobblestone street at night under a streetlight. You have no idea. It was a perfect moment.
I paid for all my brushes with greatness, but I came away with autographs from Penn and Teller, Wierd Al Yankovic, and Jackie Chan (as well as a fantastic read in I Am by Jackie Chan — I recommend it to anyone interested in Chan, the Chinese Opera, or HK Cinema in general).
You partied with Ed Asner? In Ed’s own words from the last episode of Freakazoid!, “I’m just gonna make a fool of myself.” I agree with the above poster, but the quote running through my head would have been “Hey, Freakazoid! You wanna go for a mint?”
(I’m a bit younger than the MTM generation. “Oh, Mr. Grant!”)
rofl……..
I thought this was hilarious but not at your expense, more for mine.
As I once met PAD in san diego years ago and somehow got caught up in a conversation with him and some other comic book dignitaries and remember thinking Gee I had a conversation with peter david and no one asked me to leave!
😛
now THAT was geeky 😛
Ah, the wonders of name-dropping.
A lot of my Big Encounters [TM] have been in places where I’d expect them to happen — conventions, signings, etc. — so I don’t know that they’re worth going into.
The weird ones have been the ones you don’t expect. When I was teaching in LA, I taught at a school which tended to have a lot of Hollywood connections, so I’d run into all sorts of familiar-looking parents. I think my personal favorite, though, is the fact that I taught Jake Gyllenhaal (“October Sky,” “Donnie Darko,” “Moonlight Mile,” etc.) science in middle school. Twice. (No, he didn’t fail — I taught him in seventh grade and again in ninth.)
When “October Sky” came out, I was amazingly impressed — especially at him playing a scientist, since that was not exactly his chief interest in school. 🙂 When he was doing the publicity circuit, part of me always wanted the interviewer to ask, “So, was there a science teacher in your past who inspired you the way Homer Hickam’s did in the film?” I eventually decided that I didn’t want that asked, because two of the three answers (either “Yes” with someone else’s name, or “No”) were not going to be good for my morale. 🙂
That’s my one really fun name-drop. Haven’t had much experience on the other side of things — though, this being PAD’s site, there may be a number of people here who remember the infamous Richard Arnold interview of ’91. That got me perhaps a bit more attention than I’d really expected…
TWL
who probably should head off to teach his classes now
John Hudgens:
I know firsthand that Pat Tallman is a good kisser… 🙂
Oh, envy envy envy.
My own brushes have been pretty minor, mostly confined to email and/or gaming. It was quite a thing for me to get an email from Steve Jackson (of SJG), or have Aaron Allston ask if he could post something I’d written to another list.
A friend of mine in the San Francisco area recently encountered Robin Williams in the back room of his local comic/games shop, playing Warhammer 40k. He was wearing a Giants shirt at the time; Williams stood up, put his hands on my friend’s shoulders, and said with mock gravity, “Son, they lost. It’s time to move on.” Not long after, Williams had to leave … to appear at the Golden Globes that evening, in fact. 🙂
(yeah, second-hand is the best I can do.)