Below is the story of this little sketchbook.
My very first San Diego Comic Convention I attended, I purchased a small blank sketchbook and got a few sketches. I went to Linsner, Moore and Turner as some of my favorite artists. CrossGen was new and had a booth with two of their artists Middleton and Sears and I stopped at a booth in artists alley where I met Watkins-Chow.
Everyone except Turner easily gave me a sketch. As I was new to conventions I was unaware that the large companies like Top Cow, only did signings and not sketches most of the time. I waited in a line of hundreds of people to see a group of Top Cow artists and when I reached the table of artists, a person there asked me what I had to sign. I told the person I just wanted a sketch and they asked me to wait.
I stood for nearly 3 hours as the line dwindled. All the artists, except Michael Turner, could see me waiting. When the last person passed their books to the artists to sign, I thought it was my turn. Every artist stood and walked away as soon as the last comic was signed. Sylvestri even looked at me and made a rude comment I don’t think he realized I heard. I was just thinking I had wasted hours of my life when a girl with the artists noticed me and asked what I was waiting for. I told her I was waiting for a sketch and she said “I will ask Michael, he is very nice.”
She asked him and he immediately walked up and gave me a sketch with the only thing he had, the felt pen he had used to sign comics. Then he smiled and walked away.