For some reason, I have a strange fear of talking to comics celebrities. This is not the case with what most people would consider "real" celebrities. When working in NYC, I hung out with Patton Oswalt and Newsradio creator Paul Simms for an hour backstage at an event, and it was awesome. We chatted hardcore videogames and comics the whole time, and I felt at home. Faced with the prospect of talking to an artist or comics writer, however, I turn into a quivering pile of jelly.
I think part of this stems from the idea I can reconcile in my head that a normal celebrity is one of many facets going into creating a product, and there are many just as important people you never see, and while there are invisible important people in comics, the majority of the work is done by one or two person teams. This incredible amount of output is staggering and intimidating.
I overcame this fear today, thanks in part to the overall Canadian charm of Jeff Lemire, who just released The Nobody through Vertigo and has a really unique looking series, Sweet tooth coming out in September. I had a virgin sketchbook I bought back before NYCC 2008 and never used, and opened it up in front of him.
"Sorry to ask you to be uncharacteristic, but I want you to draw the happiest thing you can think of," I said, reassuring myself I didn't sound like the fan currently harping Jill Thompson one seat over, laughing a chattering Salacious Crumb laugh at everything that came out of her mouth. While that pony-tailed fan began to tell her it was so cool she was in The Invisibles (as a character model for Ragged Robin) and lamented how the mainstream "just doesn't get Grant Morrison yet, but they will," Jeff had sketched this totally awesome portrait of the main character from The Nobody for me:
He says he's smiling under the bandages, we just can't see. The thought balloon was to clear up any confusion.
The yes-man in front of Jill (who won an Eisner last night, congratulations!) had disappeared, and I asked her to repeat the experiment, drawing the happiest thing she could think of. She immediately set to work, obviously having spent most of the day wishing she could witness this:
Finally, I wandered over to the Image booth and found a man speaking in a British accent that wasn't put on with a Doctor Who outfit that morning. Kieron Gillen, author of Phonogram, was manning his corner of the world with brave support from a friend. I purchased the trade of Phonogram (since I refuse to loan the singles to people anymore) which Kieron offered to sign just as Jamie McKelvie showed up. I knew it was him immediately. Part of it was the way he sat in the chair labeled "Jamie McKelvie" but a large bit was also the fact that he looks like he drew himself. I mean that as a compliment, to both him and his art.
Jamie was doing sketches for $20 and I knew this would be money well-spent. I asked him to draw whatever he thought was the happiest thing in the world. Thus began a nice twenty-minute brainstorming session about what would make Jamie happy. He decided a sleeping Jamie would be boring, and a big pile of money was too easy a sketch. As Kieron and I talked about Phonogram and comics and his upcoming projects (they're all NDA, so I learned nothing beyond, "They exist. My girlfriend quite likes one of them.") Jamie settled upon an idea. He began sketching while glancing up at the two of us deep in our discussion.
Jamie was exceedingly proud of his work:
Jamie apologized for turning my sketchbook into his power-fantasy and told me to have the sketch for free, but it's one of my favorite sketches ever!
Kieron asked me to post it on the internet so if he ends up dead of an axe wound, we'll have an evidence trail this was pre-meditated. There's a picture of me, the sketch and Kieron, but it's on Jamie's iPhone, so I can only hope it turns up on the interwebs. Jamie?
I also got a signed copy of Scalped Volume 1, because I thought Andrew Adams stole my copy... and I'm always looking for an excuse to throw money at Jason Aaron as a way of saying, "Thank you for creating Scalped. It is the greatest thing mankind has achieved."
In additon to all that, I handed out a bunch of Reed Gunther stuff! As you may or may not know, Reed Gunther is written by my good friend Shane, and drawn by his brother Chris. It's a cowboy riding a bear. That's a high-concept logline Michael Bay would and has killed for.
One of those Reed Gunther books went to Jamie McKelvie as a thanks for the sketch, and a few more found their ways into the hands of people I thought would get a kick out of them, including a ten-year old. I wasn't being nice, I was building the marketbase! That kid's gonna want issue #2, and Shane'll be there to sell it to them! I'm so glad D.A.R.E. taught me how a successful business operates!
Thanks to Reed Gunther, I got to meet Pascal Campion, and realized that he should be fighting crime. I imagine he could walk up to a robbery in progress and hand them this print at which point they'd stop and apologize:
All in all an excellent trip - Lots of fun, and now lots of sleeping.
