Condolences to the Colan Family

Our condolences go out to the family of Gene Colan whom passed away this last week.  One of my best memories of Mr. Colan was at a convention about 15 or 16 years ago.  It was when I was a college student and he was at a convention I went to in Dallas.  It was early in the morning and their was hardly anyone on the floor.  Gene was sitting at a table with a gentleman and I had a Tomb of Dracula issue for him to sign.  He was kind of taken aback to a degree, because he didn’t want to destroy my comic.  He was very respectful about not wanting to devalue my book so he signed it in pencil on the inside so I could erase it later if I wanted.  Since there was no one in the area yet I told him that I appreciated his concern, but that I didn’t want this to resale and that I had a paint pen I wished him to sign with on the cover of the issue.  He looked at me like I was crazy, but he didn’t say anything.  He proceeded to pick a fairly small area of the cover and signed it for me.  This is still one of my favorite signatures and memories that I have over the years.  To a great gentleman…..we will miss you greatly.