Jack Kirby, San Diego 1980

San Diego 1980. My very first US Convention. With special guests like Jack Kirby, Wallace Wood and Jim Steranko. I approached The King, when he was wandering around alone in the aisles, got a royal handshake and asked for an autograph in my Silver Surfer Graphic Novel, then recently published. Maybe not the best choice, after later reading about Jack Kirby´s feelings about that book, but he was such a sweet man and graciously signed it. This photo was taken during a fund raising auction, when The King drew this enormous, attractive Thing. I will never forget how fast he was. No fiddling around with sketching. He just started in the upper corner and worked his way down to the feet. Then the coloring, everything done with markers. A revelation. It was drawn on pretty thin paper, but might still be around somewhere. I think that it sold for around $100 in the auction.