I remember the first comic book signing I went to. It was 1993 and I was standing in line, in front of a small comic book shop in Corona, California. Image Comics was about a year old at this point, and Extreme Studios founder Rob Liefeld had brought the entire stable of artists (and a couple other non-Extreme artists) as part of the Extreme Studios Tour ’93. There was even a cool tour book.
So, eventually the signing started, the line got moving, and soon enough I was at one end of a long table arrayed with artists on one side , all diligently signing away for the fans filing along the other side. I got to the first artist and handed over a copy of the tour book, and perhaps a copy of some title he had worked on. Truth is, I was happy enough to meet these guys, but I really only came to see the guy who happened to be at the very end of the table. And I was not really meeting anybody.
This was my first signing, and what struck me partway down the line of artists was that no one was really engaging them. Mostly, you would get your signed books back, sidle over to the next artists who might or might not bother to look up, he would (I guess) check to see what you brought for him to sign, then sign away and hand them back…and repeat. It was a bit like an assembly line, and not at all personal.
As I got to the end of the table, I handed over my books and took them back a few moments later, then decided I just had to do something…I could not just walk away, it was all a bit sad. This was the guy who I had came to Corona to meet, and I just had to say hello.
So, I took back the signed books with my left hand, and stuck out my right and said ‘I just wanted to thank you for coming here, it’s really great to get the chance to meet you’ or something like that.
Greg Capullo looked up, a grin growing on his face as he shook my hand said something polite, looking genuinely pleased to have a fan actually speak to him.
He was there signing because he had recently been lured away from Marvel Comics, where he had been drawing X-Force for a short time, to work with Todd McFarlane on Spawn, which was a pretty big title at the time.
Greg asked if I had any questions, and of course I did. I asked about drawing Cable, how much of what’s under all that gear does he bother to draw? I was just getting into penciling, and I was curious if professionals took shortcuts or still took the time to draw parts of the anatomy that would just get covered up.
His answer: It depends.
He did offer a great piece of advice though, he said that if you are applying to draw comics that the publisher will assume you know your anatomy…but how are your trash cans, cars, and such?
The reason I decided to write about this meeting so many years ago was that I recently listened to Kevin Smith’s ‘Fatman on Batman’ podcast interview with Greg Capullo. And in that interview Greg made the same point, talking about discovery and growth. And, how well can you draw a telephone? Or a light-post, or a mailbox? Having got that advice from him myself, it was cool to hear him talk about it in the podcast as well.
It’s a great two-part interview, available for free at Smodcast. Greg’s interviews are numbers 38 and 39.
He may look tough, but I found him to be very kind. Congrats on getting the Bat, Mr. Capullo.
