This time it was Caroll Spinney, the man who created and puppeteered Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch for close to fifty years. He hadn't really hit the convention circuit (especially not around here), so of course I wouldn't give up a chance to finally meet him at EternalCon this past month.
While he (as well as his wife Debra) was nothing but nice and lovely...the man is getting old and had to retire for a reason. I was afraid to ask what exactly was afflicting him, but he could barely talk (and whatever he said to me I couldn't hear over the crowds), could only write his own name (slowly), and had to be guided by his wife to look at cameras. I got to finally meet the man behind some of my favorite muppets, but I guess I'll have to fulfill my dream of getting a picture of Oscar actually signed by Oscar somewhere else. Trust me when I say that this was an incredibly flattering picture. It was certainly something I wasn't expecting to see.
Frankly, it felt like the time I met Stan Lee in 2016 all over again.
I swear that if I didn't see the man up close myself, I'd swear his handlers were pulling a "Weekend At Bernie's" thing on us, manually controlling the body of an old man with not a lot of energy left in him. Stan Lee (as well as Caroll Spinney) was one of those guys who would never give up on meeting his fans, but you could tell the man was tired. He would sign stuff for half an hour, then take a half hour break. The man was 93, he was more than allowed to do this. Sure, the line took three hours to get through, but it was all worth it in the end to sign this picture I got of him in 2013.
I had a feeling that he had two years left on him, tops, and it turned out I was right when he passed last year. Some times I hate being right.
But let's move on to someone a bit more youthful. This is me with Johnny Yong Bosch. To me, he'll always be Adam, the second black ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
The man looks like a barely aged in 25 years, right?
These days he's probably best known for his extensive voice over career, providing voices for dubs like Bleach (as Ichigo), Code Geass (as Lelouch), Akira (as Kaneda), Durarara!! (as Izaya), Trigun (as Vash The Stampede) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (as Jonathan Joestar), plus video games like Dangonronpa, the Devil May Cry series, and Persona 4. His IMDB page is a mile long, you're better off reading his credits there. Essentially, if you've watched an anime in the past 20 years, he was in there SOMEWHERE if he's not one of the leads.
The one specific role I wanted something signed from him was of Johnny, a one time character from Space Dandy. He was a, intergalactic rock star that decided to start a band with Dandy, and of course it goes nowhere.
As you can see from this picture, that pic was barely the size of an index card (as were the at least 70 similar cards he had of all his other roles). Feeling bad that this was way smaller than what I was expecting, he decided to sign it for free in addition to the Power Rangers pic there, because that's just the kind of awesome guy he is. And he was NOT cheap, being one of the more noteworthy dub actors outside of the DBZ cast will do that.
Also in attendance was another prominent voice actor, James Arnold Taylor. Probably best known for voicing Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Clone Wars cartoon, plus Ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank games, and Tidus from Final Fantasy X. Not to mention he's the voice you hear in bumpers on Fox (especially the Sunday night block), and...yes, Johnny Test himself. This is another guy who's been everywhere, and his IMDB page is also pretty long. Again, if you've watched a cartoon in the past twenty years, good chance you've heard him.
This obviously isn't everyone, but these are the more prominent ones. He asked me who my favorite voice was. Without missing a beat I said Judge Fudge (from Drawn Together. He's in the lower right). I also brought up Johnny Test for whatever reason. So sue me, I've got some kind of morbid curiosity with it.
Oh, and I'd like to bring you an update from something I talked about last month. My friend Mike happened to attend East Coast Comic Con the day after I did and got George Perez to sign this copy of Crisis on Infinite Earths for me.
Pretty sweet.
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