My disappointing Larry Hama story....

[RobbieDigital]

I went to the Baltimore Comic-Con this past weekend........I have never met Larry Hama in person and when I saw he was on the guest list he was my first and only real mission for this particular comic-con. I got in the door fairly early.....I thought I was the 1st person to his booth on Sunday morning. I'm pretty sure I was......so I had brought GI Joe #1 and #2 for him to sign (I didn't know what his signing rules were?? so thats what I came with) Talked to him for a bit and saw that he was doing sketches....he signed both of my books right away and we talked Joe for like 5 minutes....I asked him for a sketch and he said he would try to get to it but he was really backed up from the day before and he had to leave the Con an hour early to catch a train........so I put my name down anyway...I was number 38....I asked him if he could do Barbecue.....he laughed and then told me that he named Barbecue after one of his Ex-girlfriends...she was named Gabriel....I thought that was funny and he said he would try to get to it......I told him I would be back in a couple hours.

 

I didn't come back for 5 hours.......I didn't want to "bother" him if you know what I mean.........meanwhile I saw that Herb Trimpe was going to be signing at the Hero Initiative booth from 1-2.....ran over there and was 3rd in line.....he signed both my books and did a Snake-Eyes headshot sketch for me (the other 2 guys got Wolverine, I told him Snake-Eyes......he paused for a second and I said "I know its been awhile??" and he said "I know Snake-eyes!" and hooked me up with a pretty cool headshot. So I got GI Joe #1-2 signed by the writer and artist.....pretty good huh?

 

So I go back to Larry's booth around 3......he's only on #33 on his list...with an hour to go............I was pretty mad at the situation not at Larry....ended up talking to some other Joe fans watching him knock out a pretty awesome Scrap-Iron sketch....the guy asked me what I asked for I told him and he told me he requested a "Breaker" we laughed because we both wanted kinda random Joes......not Snake-Eyes or Shipwreck......but anyway talked to the guy for like 10 minutes about watching Larry draw and Joe in general.......I finally asked Larry if he was even going to get to my #38 named after his Ex......he told me "Probably not, I'm really sorry" so there were still 4-5 or so sketches not picked up yet....he said "If these guys don't show at 4 these are open though" so I was like "I still have a chance at a Hama sketch!" walked away for a little......came back at 4 and the "Breaker" guy was standing there and Larry said "Well I'm off" I was like "Whoa!, is that Snake-Eyes still available!?" and the "Breaker" guy just laughed and was like "I've been waiting here to poach that for a half hour" hahahaha, and I looked at Larry and was like "But he got his sketch, you couldn't even get to mine!" (Respectfully, I wasn't a jerk) and Larry just kinda shrugged and the other guy just laughed at me......I walked away dejected........and mad at the other nerd.......

 

Just kinda put a bad taste in my mouth.......I'm not mad at Larry or anything.....the guy was knocking out awesome sketches for 20 bucks.......just wish he could've gotten to mine......all and all the day was well....picked up a complete Stretcher, Motor-Viper, Snow Serpent, and Dodger complete and in good condition...but the Hama sketch still eludes me.......