I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter.

While I can’t say I enjoy all the discourse on the platform, man is it nice to follow comic book creators from time to time. I’m glad I happened to be browsing last Thursday, because that day Dan Jurgens happened to post that he was coming to San Jose for Galaxy Con August 16-18! I scrambled to see how much tickets were, what the schedule would be for the weekend, and how much flexibility I had in my schedule, and thankfully everything worked out.

I met Dan Jurgens last Friday… I MET DAN JURGENS LAST FRIDAY!!!

My all time favorite Superman writer and top 2-3 favorite Superman artist was coming to my area, and I wouldn’t have missed it!

The con opened at 2 pm and I got there around 4. Getting in was super (see what I did there?) easy as I just showed my receipt to the folks at the front desk, got my badge, and off I went! I headed straight for the celebrity guest area, where more than a few veteran Star Trek actors, animation and video game voices, cosplayers and of course, comic book creators were hanging out.

As I walked through the section of the hall where all the celebrities had their desks, honest to goodness I was getting butterflies in my stomach (a rare occurrence) just seeing all of them standing so close by! I wouldn’t exactly call myself a shy person, but man I just don’t know how I’m supposed to react around famous people. Yes, I know the old adage, “they put their pants on one leg at a time like we do,” but let’s be honest, after that they create legends.

There were several creators I would have loved to meet as well- Fabian Nicieza, Steve Englehart, Cary Nord, and Rick Leonardi, to name a few- but given the last minute nature of my visit and small window of time, I picked one and one only, and for me, it wasn’t even a contest.

I showed up at Dan’s booth, which was filled with signed prints for sale and commission pricing. He was on a break when I arrived but returned as I was speaking with his assistant about his schedule for the day. My first reaction was shock that he is way taller than expected, probably 6′ 3″! We exchanged greetings, I shook his hand, and he was just as polite and friendly as he is in all the videos and podcasts I’ve ever seen of him. Just a super nice guy!

I was hoping to purchase a pencil headsketch of the Man of Steel, but Dan had a big backlog of commissions (makes sense) and wouldn’t be able to do it until Saturday. Since I wasn’t able to come back Saturday, unfortunately I passed.

HOWEVER, I did get something JUST AS AWESOME, a (free!) signature on the black bag of Superman 75!!!! This and the white bagged Adventures 500 have long been a feature of my hobby room, framed together and displayed prominently. It will now be even more amazing!! I’ll just have to meet Jerry Ordway now to sign the other side one day…

I also picked up a Superman print that had already been signed by Dan and Norm Rapmund, which was a mere $20, nothing when you consider the caliber of the creators. I prefer Brett Breeding and a few other inkers on Dan’s work, but hey, his partner in crime on Booster Gold of the 2000s is no slouch! We spoke for a bit about any upcoming Superman stuff, in particular more Lois and Clark minis, to which he responded with probably not, as “they backed themselves into a corner when they aged Jon.” Eh well, you win some, you lose some I guess (but I’m not giving up hope!)

All in all, I am extremely happy I got to meet Dan, and just could not be happier that my Twitter feed had something useful last week! A real pleasure to meet one of my favorites.

Please enjoy the pictures!!