day 333 – four famous signatures

These are four autographed items I own.

TOP LEFT A Spirit newspaper insert by Will Eisner, date unknown. The provenance of this is also unknown, so it could be a fake. I have another autographed Eisner item, though, whose signature matches. Even if the autograph is forged, the newspaper strip is authentic, which is good enough for me.

TOP RIGHT An autographed copy of Harvey Kurtzman‘s 1991 comics history book From Aargh! to Zap! – Harvey Kurtzman’s Visual History of the Comics. I have warm memories of this book: it was research material for a comics history project I wrote in junior high school, which saw me research everything from Rodolphe Töpffer to the X-Men. Harvey Kurtzman, in case you didn’t know (and didn’t click on the above link), is the founder of MAD Magazine, so it’s always neat to see his take on the world. Plus, his signature is pretty cute.

BOTTOM LEFT The 1996 book Mystery! – A Celebration, signed by artist Edward Gorey. At the time, I was obsessed with all things Gorey and was really excited when a catalog offering this signed book was dropped off at my family home. I’m certain you know the type of catalog I mean. It appears in the mail before the holidays and features unique gifts like miniature telephone booths and VHS tape rewinders that look like cars. Neither of these last two were received as Christmas gifts at the Saunders household in 1996.

BOTTOM RIGHT An autographed copy of Chester Brown‘s 2003 hardcover collection of his Louis Riel comic book mini-series (originally serialized starting in 1999). I bought the individual issues of the series as they were published, and, like any true comic snob, swore up and down I wouldn’t buy the collected edition when it was released. I received this copy as a gift and later had it signed by Brown at a bookshop reading.

Of these four signatories, only Brown is still alive.