So, I went to the HeroesCon in Charlotte today. Guess who met Jim Starlin, chatted with him a bit and got him to sign "A Death in the Family," "Death of the New Gods," "The Thanos Quest," "The Infinity Gauntlet," "The Infinity Abyss," "Thanos: Redemption," "Thanos Annual" and a convention program.
It was a huge honor to meet him, and he was a chill guy happy to talk to the fans and sign whatever.
The dude in front of me the first time I went through the line (I went through three times =P) had about 20 single issues, and Jim signed every one of them. The guy also had a picture he'd taken of Jim when he met him at a convention in the late 80s. Jim looked at the picture and said, "No, that's not me. That guy has hair." Just extremely personable.
When I told him that Thanos is my favorite character, he said, "I'm sorry I didn't give you a better role model" -- then added, "But he's my role model too." Kind of figured that Thanos's constant introspection is an outlet for Jim himself in a lot of ways.
Apparently "Death of the New Gods" is both his most and least favorite of his own writings. I didn't want to hold up the line too long for a detailed explanation (the intro he wrote for the trade explains it a bit), but I got the impression it was because he didn't like the idea of slaughtering Kirby's creations to set up an editorially mandated story, but it had been offered to him and was going to happen no matter who wrote it, so he tried to make the best outcome of it that he could and do proper honor to Kirby. Which is still pretty boss.
Oh, and apparently we're both from Detroit. Well, I was born there anyway.
I also met Mark Waid and got him to sign "Kingdom Come." Just a really humble guy who was actually blushing over all the compliments peoole were giving him for that story in particular, which he doesn't think is even one of his best. He was proud to hear how it had espoused interest in DC comics for some people who otherwise had no interest, though.
Tim Sale was also there. Really cool dude too. He snuck away and signed a buddy's copy of "The Long Halloween" even though he wasn't supposed to be signing for another three hours. He did it because Jimmy was telling him how Sale is his favorite artist and "The Long Halloween" is the first comic he ever read and how he was going to have to leave the convention early because his wife had mistakenly left her keys with him.
So, yeah, Tim Sale is a boss too.
In other news, I got the coolest salt and pepper shaker set ever:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/eeea/
And a truly motivational poster:
http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq59/marstone2/droids-hindsight-starwars-motivatio.jpg
Also, there was a Super Petting Zoo:
