Loading tweets...I don’t even have an opening joke for this one. I am still that starstruck about the experience. We met him. One of that potent duo who literally inspired us to do what we’re doing right now. We stood there. We had a chat.
I was standing in line at the Penny Arcade Q&A, Floyd a few people behind me. The line shrunk in size until only one person stood before me. And then an Enforcer informed me the guy ahead of me was the last question. Still I held on, in the hopes that we might go a touch over time. They were midway through calling me up before it was reiterated that the panel was over, and they had to prep for the next one. Crestfallen, I started to turn away.
And then Jerry beckoned me forward.
The panel was over, the hall music came up, but hardly knowing what to do I was guided up, onto, across and behind the stage. He said, “Cool, so what was your question?”
Somehow I held things together. I asked him about getting started writing this comic. As much as I was sweaty-palmed and jittery meeting this wordsmithing web titan, I have to say he is one of the most garrulous and easygoing folks I’ve ever met. He was very supportive while at once being honest and not pandering to us. I asked if I could bring Floyd back too to say hello. He said, “You know what, let’s go out and meet him.” I called Floyd up. “Uhh, Jerry Holkins and I are coming out to meet you.”
Floyd wants you to know that he promised himself he wasn’t going to have a fanboy moment. He did, though. Pretty hard. There was a solid chunk of time where Jerry and I kept talking and Floyd looked on, disbelieving, as if watching some miraculous event from behind a pane of glass. But our boy came through in the clutch: at the end of the conversation, he managed to offer Jerry an SD card with last week’s “What Dreams May Come” locked within. Jerry graciously accepted. And then he signed my 4E Player’s Handbook.
Jerry, I have to hope that you did in fact take a peek at the comic we gave you, and that you know it was the most sincere homage we could cook up. I hope further that you might happen to swing by the site. If you do, thanks so much. You and Mike are, and continue to be, something for us fledgling comic-eers to look up to. Keep up the good work.