The first time I volunteered at Wizard World Philly was 2005 and I worked the autograph section. The last person of the day was Chris Claremont who had just replaced J. Michael Straczynski who had unfortunately not left anymore autograph pens. As a worshiper of Claremont I ran to the booth next to him and asked if he could spare a few pens. It was Michael Turner and he gladly gave up half of his pens.
Turner laughed when I told him Claremont was out of pens and said to his buddy sitting next to him that Straczynski never leaves pens behind.
Later that day once I was off duty I went to Turner's booth after everyone else had left and told him how I loved his rendition of Supergirl. I think I told him she was one juicy pudding. He laughed so I asked if he could do a quick drawing of her on my Wizard World Volunteer t-shirt, he said drawing on shirts was kind of hard, I said it did not have to be complicated, just maybe a small pic of her face, I wouldn't care if no one else knew who it was; I would know it was Supergirl. He took 5 mins and drew a dead on side profile of the Girl of Steel. It really made my day.
Michael Turner was and still is one of the modern day super stars of comics. Even though his work lately has been limited to covers for Fantastic Four amoungst others he is immediatley recognizable. His female artwork is, IMHO, the best there is today. What added to the greatness of his work is that, when you meet him he comes across as a real person who did not buy into all of the hype. He will be sorely missed.
