I Like Comics

[Martin Hash]

Autographs s.jpg

“I Like Comics” is the name of a comic book store in downtown Vancouver, Washington, where I live. Vancouver is not a big place but it's across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon which is a big deal, at least in the comic book world since both Dark Horse Comics and Image Comics are headquartered there. If you're a comic book fan & collector like me and my son, Heath, it's the land of opportunity. For example, while visiting last week, Heath told me about a signing at I Like Comics:
“Dad, Todd McFarlane is going to be there,” he told me, breathlessly.
“Get outta here?” I exclaimed.
Todd McFarlane is a famous comic book artist, writer, and founder of Image Comics. His comic, “Spawn,” was made into a movie and there's rumors of another one. Image was formed in 1992, at the height of the comic book frenzy, which ultimately burst after we'd moved on, but we have several copies of vintage Spider-Man and Spawn #1 from back-in-the-day when Todd was flying high. Plus, 5 other famous guys were going to be signing, including Robert Kirkman, creator of “The Walking Dead."
“Yeah, and you and Mom gotta get tickets 'cuz you need them to get in,” Heath continued.
“You betcha,” I confirmed. We was gonna be rockin' that event.

Saturday morning, Heath and I stood outside in the drizzle & cold for 3 hours. Hey, we grew up here, what's a little rain? And Heath likes to work in the cold: go figure. We stood at the front of the line. There were other people there before us, but the store personnel must have thought I looked normal, so they put me out there for the newspaper photo. We met another comic book dweeb in line just behind us; he'd driven over from Gresham, about an hour away. He was 25, and was blown away by Heath's Comicon experiences. Those guys yaking made the time fly.

Martin & Heath in Line Labeled.jpg

Afterwards, I was so psyched, I sent Todd McFarlane an email:
My son, Heath, and I waited 4 hours in the cold to get autographs at “I Like Comics” last Saturday, and it was worth every minute of it. I’m the only-ever simultaneously licensed doctor, lawyer, accountant & engineer in the world. Don't just dismiss that claim out-of-hand because it brings me to the subject of this letter. Between my son & I, during the last 25 years, we’ve done literally 100s of tradeshows all over the world as exhibitors, specifically computer animation software. Many of those shows were Cons of some sort. (We’re collectors: I own all of Action 18-402, 2 Alex Ross pages, and a Tim & Greg Hildebrandt oil, etc.) It was a great run, however, since I aged out of the biz, I’ve been doing nothing. In light of the boredom that has set in, I offer my services as an expert in a lot of things, who also has a special interest in comics, and conveniently lives close. Maybe legal? Maybe business? Maybe tradeshows? Whatever? (You probably don’t need any healthcare or engineering or a registered U.S. Patent Agent, but there’s that too; I'm easy to Google.)

Anyway, if nothing else, this is a fun letter, and we had fun seeing you guys. Let me know what you think?

Sincerely,
Dr. Martin D. Hash, Esq.

I know I'll never hear back but naive optimism runs deep in our family; why would Heath & I be doing it otherwise?

Signed Comic Books.JPG

[pineapplemike]

Awesome! Todd gets a lot of negativity from the comic fanbase for what an egomaniac he is, but you can't deny his talent or relevance. I went to a convention several years ago where Todd was signing autographs but his line was huge and it wasn't worth it to me.

Is that an Eric Stephenson signature on the first photo? I really dug that book he did called Nowhere Men, pretty sure that's it on the bottom right. The artist fell off of it and disappeared unfortunately, they tried to get it going again recently with a new artist but it wasn't the same.

Praise Todd for giving artists their due credit