That's the Way ta Do It

So, I'm not huge on getting signatures and autographs, though I have a few (and a few more than I used to, thanks to Agent Smith). Mostly because I don't know what to do with them. I mean, they're kind of odd things. "Here, look, I was at this place where this other person was, and they wrote their name on something. And look, they wrote my name too."

Still, sometimes, they are pretty cool, and sometimes, the people who actually do the signings are cool. Case in point being Neil Gaiman. I've been at two things where he was signing stuff, and the second wasn't even a signing, just a public appearance where he talked about... stuff. But in both cases, he stuck around longer than he was supposed to, or needed to, to accommodate as many people as he could.

One was at a signing outside of Pittsburgh, in ol' Monroeville town, many years ago. The guy stays a couple hours past the end of the scheduled signing, and then, after I ask what I'm sure must have been an annoying question about the status of Miracleman (still in legal limbo at the time thanks to a certain person), he sees I have the hardcover of his brilliant Mr. Punch:


He tells me the hardcover's rare, since DC printed fewer books than they'd had orders for (something like 11,000 were printed, after orders of 16,000, something like that.) "And so," he concludes, "you get a sketch."



The guy didn't have to do that, and I'm sure his hand was pretty cramped by that point. But he did.

So, I try not to geek out over stuff like that, but Gaiman's cool, and sometimes, signatures are kinda cool too.

Huh.

Lookit.

Some free stuff up online for the moment.

1. Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. You can read the whole thing online here

More cool stuff at Gaiman's site, right here.

2. Episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, over at NBC's site. Be warned, there are annoying commercials, but once the opening credits start, it's all worth it.

If you saw the South Park episode where Cartman gets sent to the future and goes through that time tunnel thing, and didn't know what the hell was going on, watch this.

Added bonus - dialogue like this: "A very amusing term, Rogers. You mean we actually have to put a ball on our foot?"

Added added bonus - Jack Palance dressed in white, telling his followers to "Descend upon Earth like meteors!" Believe it . . . or not.

Oh, and his hands glow red.

And there's a space boomerang.