As has been well documented elsewhere in my gallery, JLA 29 by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs was my first comic and to say that it had an impact on my life would understate the obvious.
That issue was the second cross-over with the original super-team, the Justice Society of America, and the JLA. The cross-over was needed to combat the evil JLA doppelgangers -
the Crime Syndicate of America.
Due to my love of the book and her love for me, Kathy bought me
a page from that book featuring the lead villain - Ultraman. I've also had the cover homaged twice. Once as a
3D Shadowbox and once as
a parody cover based on Captain Carrot.
I have liked the CSA ever since that issue.
Not too long ago,
David Finch helped revive and reshape them for DC's nu52 in the story
Forever Evil.
David was a guest at Comicpalooza 2017 and though I had not planned to spend any money and was in line for just an autograph, I changed my mind and had him draw his Ultraman for me.
David doesn't just whip out a sketch, he takes his time and does people in order and in real-time so it takes awhile. Naturally, the folks in the line talk to each other and David. Our line would let signers with a reasonable number of books skip (I liked that).
Anyway, I came to find out that David liked Sponge Bob and that his son Isaac is a really big fan. I pointed out that the voice talent was at the show. He wanted to get an autograph from
Tom Kenny, the voice of
SpongeBob SquarePants for Isaac. I offered to use my VIP wristband to help him cut the line since he didn't have a lot of time to stand in line.
On Saturday, we made our run. We moved to almost the front of the line, they gave David a print of the characters as part of the autograph fee, and we started talking. I mentioned his comics, Tom's manager at the con looked at him, I said, "This is David Finch." The guy went all fan-girl. I have honestly never seen a comic book fan get so caught up meeting a favorite artist. He was thrilled. David was embarrassed. He gave David his money back and said he'd get the Tom and the others (
Bill Fagerbakke (
Patrick Star) and
Rodger Bumpass (
Squidward Tentacles)).
It was quite a surprise for all of us. I'm not sure that anyone else in line was impressed, but David managed to save a lot of time and money. :) I made a new friend.
