Crazy stories about your personal interactions with Comic Book Professionals...

[bminor]

Unfortunately I have none.

Except for the time I was at a teeny tiny comic book convention at Ridgedale Mall in Roseville, MN, (western suburb of Minneapolis)

Here is the story from the Minneapolis Star/Tribune paper. A twelve year old kid brought Stan Lee to Minneapolis!

http://www.startribune.com/the-time-a-12-year-old-kid-brought-stan-lee-to-minnesota/500608822/

Well I went to the convention. I was going to have Stan sign something, but I was put-off by all the hutzpah and goings on all around him.
To much schmoozing and back slapping I guess. 
So I declined to be one of the throng that was begging for his signature that day back in 1978.

B.

[darkmark (RIP)]

Met a bunch of 'em.  Anyone you want in particular?

[Crimson-Blue-Green]

I went to a convention in Mansfield, Ohio in 1986 I think.  John Byrne's She-Hulk graphic novel was new then.  I had him sign it.  Later I went into the men's room to relieve myself.  I went up to the stall and noticed the guy next to me was John Byrne!  I did not look at him for more than a second because I didn't want to be rude.  I just went about my business as did he.     Is that crazy enough? 

[bminor]

How about a Dikto story? Saw him on the street maybe???

[bminor]

Did anyone ever meet C.C. Beck?

I always loved his work. Especially the short time we did Captain Marvel for D.C. in 1972.

[darkmark (RIP)]

Never met Ditko.  My interaction with C.C. Beck was a brief correspondence in which he sent me an article disparaging DC's retelling of Captain Marvel's origin in SECRET ORIGINS.

[Rocket Riley]

Jim Steranko was the guest of honor at a Detroit Convention in the mid 1970's.  A guy I went to High School with was his assistant at the time.  So we were all hanging around with Jim and headed up to his hotel room.  Somehow I ended up carrying Jim's portfolio case which contained at the time the paintings for the G-8 and his Battle Aces paperbacks he was doing.  Anyway we all stood around outside Jim's room gabbing and the case was getting heavy.  So I set it down and leaned it against the wall.  The discussion moved into the room.  About a half hour later, Jim starts yelling "where's my case, where's my case!" and running around the room.  I remembered setting it down.  I said "I left it in the hall"  A quick mad scramble later and it was retrieved, no harm done.  The kicker to this story is that two or three decades later, I had got to know Jim very well through our mutual appreciation of pulps and hard working but obscure Golden Age artists.  At some PulpCon we were standing around and talking about Ken Battefield(sp?), the man who single handedly drew the majority of Standard (Nedor) issues in 1944-45, and I said to Jim do you know when we first met?  He said he didn't and I told him the portfolio story.  Very theatrically he raised a shaking finger to the sky, then pointed at me and thundered "That was you?!!"  Then he said "No Rich, I don't remember that at all" 

[Yoc]

Great story RR, thanks for sharing it.

[crashryan]

I've told this story in my blog but maybe it's worth retelling. Twenty-some years ago the late Manny Stallman lived nearby and we became friends. One night he and his wife hosted a party for an assortment of fellow artists. Among them was the legendary Burne Hogarth. At the time Hogarth was teaching at Art Center in Pasadena. Manny introduced me to "Burnie" (you can bet I called him "Mr Hogarth") and we chatted. Our conversation turned to artists from illustration's Golden Age--specifically, Dean Cornwell. There followed the strangest conversation I've ever had. You may have heard stories of Hogarth being...shall we say, strongly opinionated. I wasn't ready for him to be so opinionated that he'd argue with someone he agreed with! Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Though I like all of Cornwell's illustrations, I think his work from the twenties was better than his forties work."

Him: "No, no, not at all, Ron. His forties work was inferior to his earlier work! No, no, his work in the twenties was far superior."

Me: "Much of Cornwell's later mural work had a flat, cold poster style. It seemed to be inspired by Deco sculptures. I didn't think it was as exciting as his illustrations."

Him: "Oh, no, Ron, that's not it at all. Cornwell's early illustrations were much more dynamic than his later murals. Much more! No, those murals were poster-liike. Flat, almost sculptural."

And so on. Hogarth actually agreed with all the opinions I expressed, yet he still argued them as if I'd said the opposite! Very strange.

[Yoc]

And they say men don't listen.  Hehe. 
And thanks for mentioning an artist that I likely should know but haven't heard of before now.  He is very good!

-Yoc

[Defiant1]

About the craziest interaction I had was running into a certain creator at a strip club. We both started chatting. We left that club and went to two other strip clubs. Our taste in women was different, so I had to find an excuse to cut the night short. I won't name the individual out of respect for his privacy.

Defiant1

[paw broon]

I've been in the company of a lot of pros over the decades as I've attended cons and marts not only in Scotland but in England and France. Also as part owner of a comic shop, myself and the other 2 partners met and enjoyed the company of lots of artists and writers. It's odd but when out with these folk we seldom spoke about comics, just chatting about loads of other stuff. At Angouleme, many years ago now, myself and one of the others bumped into Mike Richardson and after a while decided we should go back to our hotel for a late dinner.  Mr Richardson said it was his treat, as long as we talked about anything but comics. What a great evening, great company, great oysters, and probably much better for staying away from business.
On the same theme, a couple of years ago, after the big Edinburgh Con, I was in a pub nr. Haymarket and got chatting to the legend that is Ian Kennedy, who was one of the guests - and if you don't know why he's a legend, you should. I think there was hardly any mention of comics apart from my admission that I didn't enjoy war comics, which is one of Ian's specialities.  Quite brave of me as I was also surrounded by D.C. Thomson folk.  Ian just laughed and we went on to talk about holidays in Italy.
Should I mention the fight that Cam Kennedy not quite started in a dodgy Glasgow pub at the bottom of Hope Street? Maybe not.
The evening Bill Sienkiewicz was up in my partners flat in Glasgow after a particularly good signing, he was entertaining us with some great stories. In the middle of all this, one of the hangers-on, who had inveigled his way into the flat, blurted out,"Just how do you pronounce your name anyway".  Silence for a second and our guest said, "Bill". Shut the bloke up as the rest of us fell about laughing.

It's not crazy or shocking, but I have to say that the all round nicest professional I ever met, apart from Alan Davis, was Archie Goodwin.  A lovely wee man, and having dinner with him in a Glasgow restaurant remains one of my finest comics memories.

Not a lot of craziness or scandal but I'm not keen on going into detail about a very drunken night with Dave sim, or a cheeky wee swatch at a really big name artist's porn sketches, or bumping into Grant Morrison at the Clyde Ferry after a con, and he had T**C written across his forehead. Art or craziness?