“Hey, I can’t find my Jedi boots.”

“And why would you ask me about them when I’m working? I don’t wear Jedi boots.” She said impatiently.

“I thought you might know what happened to them.”

“Maybe Darth Vader took them.” You gotta love sisterly sarcasm.

“I see you’ve already embraced the dark side.”

“I’m really busy right now. I can’t talk and I don’t know where you’re stinking Jedi boots are.”

I thought this would be a good time to use a Jedi Mind Trick on her, so I waved my hand over the phone and said, “You know where my Jedi boots are and you will tell me their location.”

CLICK!

I guess she’s too strong with the dark side for Jedi Mind Tricks to work on her.

I went to the festival in regular civilian clothing.

When I first heard of the festival I was thrilled to learn that one of the artist there was going to be a Las Vegas artist Deryl Skelton I knew I had to have him draw something in my sketchbook. I’ve been lucky in that all the comic artists I’ve met have been really cool, but I’ve heard that not all of them will take the time to do a sketch, so I sent Mr. Skelton an email asking if he would do a sketch for me in my sketchbook. I didn’t hear from him for a while so I didn’t think he would do one. It was about two days before the festival that I finally got the email saying he would be glad to do a sketch in my book, so the little fan boy in me was doing all sorts of summersaults inside me.

I went to the festival and met Mr. Skelton. The funny thing was that he acted as if he knew me from before. It was as if we had been friends for awhile. I almost felt like telling him that this week was his week to pay for chicken wings. He shook my hand and said he was sorry for the delay in responding to my message, somehow he had overlooked it. He then asked for my sketchbook and said that he was sorry but he didn’t bring any drawing pens with him, so he pulled out a regular ink pen and began to draw in my book. The next thing he asked sort of took me by surprise. He asked me how my vacation went. It made me think, I’m the fan here - shouldn’t I be the stalker and know all about his life. How did he know I was on vacation - was he spying on me? Was he using a Jedi Mind Trick on me? I asked him how he knew I was on vacation and he told me that he read my blog - this very blog that you’re reading right now - that really seemed funny to me. Here was this great artist who has drawn for Marvel and DC comics, he's drawn the x-men for goodness sake, and he even has a bat mobile parked in his driveway and he’s reading my blog. I’m not sure if the sound actually came out of my mouth, but somewhere inside I let out a gasp followed by a little girl squeal.

"Oh my Lord Jeuse in Heaven Mr. Deryl Skelton reads my blog!!!" I almost fell on the floor twitching with fanboy happiness. I was walking on sunshine at that point and the little fanboy inside me was having a major heart attack, but I didn’t want to show it too much.

I didn't want anyone to call security on me "we have a strange guy here with frack'ed up hair whose little fanboy inside of him is having a heart attack. Please bring re-inforcements, he's thrown himself on the ground and is twitching with fanboy happiness." So, I acted as if it was no big deal that he was reading my blog.

I stood and watched amazed as Mr. Skelton took a regular ink pen and started making little lines and circles in my sketchbook. It was amazing to see him draw - it was like one of those computer programs that start with a little line here, a little line there and a little line everywhere - and then KA-POW before you know it you have this great piece of art. I watched as the little lines and circles became the image of Spiderman that you see below.

As he was drawing, I told Mr. Skelton that I was going to scan the drawing and post it in my blog. He said, “You shouldn’t have told me that, now I have to do a good job” He’s a funny guy in real life - more than that he’s a regular guy living a regular life.

I have all sorts of quirks and little things that add to my charm and one of them is that every time I see or meet someone with so much talent I want to just grab them in a head lock and rub their head really hard in hopes that some how, some way some of that talent will rub off on me. I know society frowns on grabbing random people, no matter how talented they are, and rubbing their heads really hard, so I just gave him a head rub with my mind (wait a second, that sounds really strange, but you know what I mean).

I walked around with my friend Charles, whose also a great artist and has also done comic book work. He did this drawing in my book for me a while back.

 

Charles introduced me to a friend of his by the name of Joseph Bergin who I’m sure we’ll hear about more in the future. He has to be one of the coolest comic book guys ever. He drew this amazing Green Goblin drawing for me.

I rubbed his head with my mind too…uh…well, you know what I mean.