I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mark at a (pseudo) signing
being held at Jim Hanley’s Universe, a comic shop in New York City. His appearence
was part of Dark Horse’s on-again/off-again promotional junket for The Black Pearl but I, of course, attended the event under the auspices of pressing flesh with that cocky farmboy who saved the galaxy (and looked smashing on the front of my grade-school lunchbox).
I went to the event early, and was about fifth in line (out of six people) standing in a specially arranged gauntlet of shelves piled high with SW merchandise (who better to sell old store stock than the actual star of the franchise).
As time went on the line got longer and the anticipation started to build. The staff briefed those present that their $15 admission (nope, this visit wasn’t pro bono) got them one autographed BLACK PEARL comic and one autographed STAR WARS comic and around a minute to make an idiot out of themselves with the celebrity (Polaroids of said goofery were optional).
Finally, the back doors flew open and in marched the apple of Anakin’s eye. Decked out in leather and black denim, Mr. Hamill actually looked quite handsome (I’ve always thought he looked a bit extreme in photographs, but in natural (?) light he looked wonderful. He needs to have a chat with whoever is doing his lighting.) He was extremely aimiable and even snuck in a few quick autographs on paraphenalia that other fans had dared to bring in (even though the comic store staff had said that that was a big no-no). When I finally had my turn I was struck by just how tiny he is (no wonder the landspeeder prop appeared so miniscule in Yerba Buena, it was built to scale!) But he was exceedingly nice and managed to carry on some semblence of a conversation with me even though I’m sure whatever I was babbling was completely incoherent. We posed for a picture, and
Mark stood on his tip-toes and cracked that I should get on my knees so that both our faces would make it into the viewfinder of the camera. And that was
it. I was out the door and Mark was on to the next ardent fan. All-in-all a swell guy (his destroying of the original Death Star non-withstanding.) Now if I could only meet the guy who played the fourth Ugnaut from the left, I could die a happy man...