Guess Who Met Chris Claremont??? This Guy Right Here!!!!

The 2012 edition of the NY Comic Con was a memorable one for many reasons. I got to chill with my boys, got treated like a king due to my press pass, got a ton of free swag, bought a ton of cool shit... yeah, all that shit was great. But getting to meet some of my comic creating heroes... yeah, that tops the list by a long shot. In the next couple of days I will tell you guys about meeting the likes of Mike Mignola, Herb Trimpe, Neal Adams, David Lloyd, and many others... but hands down, the coolest person that I met had to be THE X-MAN himself, Mr. Chris Claremont!!! 

Click after the jump for the rest of the story...



Claremont is responsible for creating the modern day X-Men as you and I know it. Starting in 1975, Claremont wrote the Uncanny X-Men book for a total of 17 STRAIGHT YEARS. That is unheard of in the comic world. Shit, Stan Lee didn't even write the X-Men for that long... and he created the team! Claremont used some of the old characters but brought in a shitload of new ones, and many of those characters were strong females. He put the ladies to the forefront of the team, and the stories that he wrote are some of the best you will ever read. He wrote The Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, and many other popular story arcs that made the X-men the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe. The guy is a god. And there he was, just sitting at a table in Artists Alley....

Claremont's first isuue, #94

I couldn't believe my eyes. Claremont... right in front of me. This was like a dream come true. I was brought into the comic world in the mid 80s by reading large runs of Avengers & X-men books. Claremont was my first fave. I own a huge chunk of that 17 year run, but unfortunately most of those books are in my Dad's attic way out in Long Island. FUCK!!!! I knew I would be back again on Friday and I needed to formulate a plan, so when I got home that night I immediately ripped up my comic collection that I have in my apartment...

I wanted to get Claremont to sign as many things as possible, so I began sifting through my issues. I found a couple, #201 & #204 respectively. #201 is technically the first appearance of Cable  (actually Nathan Summers as a baby), one of my faves when I was a young collector (it was wroth a few bucks back in the day!) . I also had two of the new X-Men books that Claremont did with Jim Lee back in 91.  Finally, I  had a very Cool original Marvel Graphic Novel (the oversized ones) of God Loves, Man Kills that I acquired at Joseph Koch's Comic Warehouse (so much old cool shit there for cheap, you gotta get out to their Warehouse Sales once a month!).

 So I went and got those signed by Claremont the next day. When I handed him issue #204 (Nightcrawler on the cover). He thumbed through it and gave me a serious look, and said 'Wow... thank you. I haven't seen that particular issue in about 15 years!'. I almost dropped... you gotta be kidding me. Props from Claremont on my book choice? Yup. He also cracked a smile when I handed him the Oversized Graphic Novel. "Another oldie but a goodie" he said... yup Chris Claremont just became my new favorite guy in the world.

I decided to hunt down some more back issues to get Claremont to sign, which I did at one of the vendors tables, I got some really cool books from his run, like 10 in all for about a buck a piece. Well worth it since I was about to get the John Hancock of the King X-Man himself on them. Claremont was glad to sign those as well, and again thumbed through a full issue. This time it was # 181, a book called 'Young Dragons In Love' that feature Lockheed the Dragon. That book is special to me because we have our very own Lockheed here at CCD, so I loved that he liked that selection as well. Mr. Claremont, you really are the man! So much so, I asked him to sign my credential as well. A Fitting way to end the weekend!

Either way, it was a great haul and I got to meet & talk to one of my idols from the comic world. Thanks again, Mr. Claremont... and thanks for all the great stories!