By Filip Sablik

First memories are a powerful thing. Your first kiss, your first time driving, your first R-rated movie, the first time you saw your future wife/husband, and so many, many more. For those of us that love comics, we have memories tied into our love of the medium. The first comic we read, the first time a story or piece of art moved us, our first comic convention, the first creator we met in person, and so many, many more first memories. The one I want to talk about today is my first signing event.

I spent most of my formative years in a relatively small city in southwest Virginia called Roanoke. That’s where I discovered comics and where my education in comics began. I was lucky because during the early 90s there were four to five decent comic shops all within driving distance. The most prominent was B&D Comics. B&D Comics is located at 802 Elm Avenue SW, Roanoke, VA 24016 and you can reach them at (540) 342-6642 or on the web at http://www.banddcomics.com.

My first signing experience happened at B&D. It was after I’d attended a couple of local hotel conventions in town and was fully invested in comics as a hobby and a passion. I was reading them voraciously and a healthy amount of my meager income was going to support my habit each week. I was drawing constantly and beginning to recognize names of creators in addition to series and characters I liked. One of the creators I recognized by name was Mike Wieringo, from his Flash run with Mark Waid. I liked Mike for a number of reasons not least of which was that he was also from my part of Virginia and I’d met him once or twice at the local con and he was an extremely nice guy. The fact that he was a tremendous artist didn’t hurt either.

On a regular trip to B&D I was handed a flier indicating that Mike would be coming down to the store for a signing to promote his new mini-series from Marvel Rogue. I was incredibly excited! Not only was an artist I liked coming in for a signing, but also he’d be drawing a mini-series starring one of my favorite characters at the time. This was before the days of instant Internet news, so it was possible to still be surprised about an upcoming series or creator lineup change. I was incredibly excited. In preparation, I gathered together my Flash issues and updated my portfolio samples to show to Mike. I decided beforehand I was going to try and purchase my first piece of original art from Mike. When the day of the signing came my younger brother and I hopped in my 1985 Plymouth Reliant and drove down to the store. Mike was his usual charming, kind self and the entire experience was great. I was surprised with how much time I had to just chat with Mike. The thing I remembered the most was buying that first piece of original artwork. It was a page from the Rogue mini-series with Gambit on it. It wasn’t a showy splash page, just a standard story-telling page but it was a treasured piece in my collection. I finally gave it up years later, when Mike had passed away and Hero Initiative was doing an auction in his honor to benefit the ASPCA. It felt right that the same page, which had connected me with Mike, would go to benefit his favorite charity.

I started thinking about signings this week in preparation for a set of back-to-back signings we’ll be doing at the Cow for the release of Berserker #1. The release of this new series is something I’m incredibly excited about, partially because it’s fun to launch a series that you know is going to surprise people with how good it is. Coordinating two back-to-back signings at two different stores in Los Angeles with three creators is not easy, but the thought that it might be someone’s first signing experience is spurring me to make it the best event possible.

When Rick Loverd, the creator and writer of the series, had a previous obligation come up that he couldn’t avoid on the weekend of the signings; we arranged for copies of the books to be shipped to our office early so that he can sign them in advance and fans can still pick up copies of the books signed by the entire creative team. Jeremy Haun, the artist, is flying in from Missouri for the weekend to be part of the signings. Milo Ventimiglia and his partner Russ Cundiff at DiVide, who are co-producing the series with Top Cow, are taking time out of their hectic schedules to meet and sign for the fans. And Ed and Ryan, the owners of the two stores we’re signing at are going all out to promote the event in Los Angeles. Check out the cool video trailer Ed at Collector’s Paradise had made especially for the signing:

So if you are in Los Angeles, come on out to either Golden Apple Comics or Collector’s Paradise on June 27th and 28th respectively and join us. If it’s your first in store signing event, let us know and we’ll make sure it’s an extra-memorable one. Make sure you say hello to me, I’ll be the guy standing behind the fellas that make the magic happen.

Golden Apple Comics is located at: 7018 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90038 and can be reached at (323) 658-6047or on the web at www.goldenapplecomics.com.

Collector’s Paradise is located at: 7131 Winnetka Ave, Winnetka, CA 91306 and can be reached at (818) 999-9455 or on the web at comicsandcards.net.

And if you have a good “first signing” story, share it with me in the comments section.

Take care,

Filip Sablik

Publisher Guy

Filip Sablik is the Publisher of Top Cow Productions, Inc. He’s been in the business for eight years and just officially entered his thirties. Occasionally, he does a bit of writing and drawing. He loves comics.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. was founded by Marc Silvestri, co-founder of Image Comics. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 12:37 pm and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.