I met Christopher Priest.

Talented TF artists Andrew Griffith, Brendan Cahill, and Alex Milne were in attendance and I got some sketchbooks and an original Robots In Disguise page. A lot of my friends had booths. As I mention on Twitter, I was hanging at the booth for the book project from my late friend Ed, and noticed we were sitting next to a comics legend.

I haven’t seen Black Panther (the movie) so I don’t know if the plot is anything like the one in Christopher Priest’s AMAZING run on the book. It was not a typical superhero story and I wasn’t enjoying most of the usual superhero stuff at the time other than Ultimate Spider-Man. It was a political thriller with superhero cameos. It felt a little more dense then most superhero comics at a time when the publishers were starting to figure out the importance of their long term storytelling.

I had a few minutes to talk with Mr. Priest (his table had long lines) and did my best to be respectful while telling him about how much I enjoyed both Black Panther and Quantum & Woody. “Be respectful while complimenting” means not drooling and letting people with kids come up to talk to him about his comics.

Mr. Priest’s career is much more than those two books, and I realized a few years ago I had been reading the comics he was editing or writing under different names during the 80’s. He’s a pretty amazing guy and I hope he is getting his due from the publishers that profit from his works. There were people who had stacks of his comics and gushed to him about how much those books meant to them,  so I am glad he got to meet so many people he had an impact on.

That was the icing on the cake, by the way. Maybe a highlight of the show, but I was glad to promote Ed’s book with his family and friends this weekend. Thanks everyone!

Some drawings this week, but not much else. Comic strips next week, promise.