2024 National Pickup - Bill Paxton Autograph

There have been two celebrity deaths in my life that deeply affected me.  One was Chris Cornell.  The other was actor, Bill Paxton.

Paxton (b. 1955 - d. 2017) was first introduced to me when I was a kid with his performance as Chet in Weird Science.  He played the role of douchy big brother perfectly.  My favorite role of his, and most other folks, was his role at Pvt. Hudson in Aliens.  Aliens is my favorite movie ever, and Hudson's arc is key in the movie.  He also has probably the second-best well known line of the movie in "Game Over Man".

He also appeared in Terminator, Predator 2, True Lies, Frailty and Tombstone (among many others).  So many great movies.  There's a myth that his characters had each been (spoiler alert) killed by a terminator, predator and alien.  However, his character in Terminator didn't actually die. He was probably knocked unconscious.

Anyway, I had been looking for a Paxton autograph for some time now. Last year at the National, I really got serious about finding one, but pop culture autographs were few and far between there.  It was like looking for needles in haystack.

This year, this card was my second purchase (after a Gunnar Henderson jersey) at the second card table I stopped to look at.  I bought it, and the guy beside me told me that if i hadn't bought it, he would have.

So, this pickup at the National ended up being my favorite purchase, and happened right after the show started.  I wish it was an Aliens autograph, but I'll take what I can get.  At least it's an on-card autograph and not a sticker auto.

2021 National Interruption - Meeting Mark Rolston at the Horror Con

Aliens is my all-time favorite movie, and most everyone who knows me knows this.  A while back, I met Jenette Goldstein, who plays Vasquez, my all-time favorite movie character.  Before meeting her, I commissioned a comic book artist, Chris McJunkin, to make some "baseball cards" of Vasquez, and also of Drake from Aliens.  I thought it would be cool to mash up the character of Drake, played by Mark Rolston with another character he played, Boggs Diamond from Shawshank Redemption.  Hence the quote on the card "I could be a friend to you".  

I had tried Rolston via TTM twice; the first one came back RTS, and the second is still out there somewhere.  I also gave a couple of the cards to Jenette when I met her; I think she may have forgotten where she put them.  She's a pretty busy person, of course.

So, I saw that Jenette was going to be at Flashback Weekend in Chicago, and she also tagged Rolston in the post.  I checked the lineup and the price, which is where I saw that Carol Locatell would be there, also.  It looked as if the con was designed especially for me, so I had to go.  I was down to my last two of these art cards, so I got the original 1/1 proof that McJunkin provided for me signed by Rolston.  I think it turned out great.  I also got my wife's Shawshank Redemption movie poster (that she has had framed since 1994) signed.  It was a pain hauling that thing all over the airport (twice).  The poster made it home, and she is super happy with it now that it is signed.

It was really cool meeting Rolston.  I got a selfie with him, as well.

I would recommend Flashback Weekend to anyone.  The entry was $40.00, and the autograph prices were pretty reasonable, especially for the folks I wanted to see who weren't usually at shows (that I've been to at least).

My First Mad Monster Party

The bucket list took a big hit this past weekend.  I was finally able to meet some of the actors who starred in my favorite movie of all time, Aliens.  I had gotten an autograph TTM from Jenette Goldstein (the actress who played Vasquez) a while back, but thi time, I had the opportunity to meet her.

She signed this custom card for my son, Chris, and remembered that I had sent one to her TTM.  She also is helping me get the other one I had made for the Drake character signed.  She still is in contact with Mark Rolston and took one of the cards I had and is going to try to get him to sign it.

Jenette also commented on my shirt, and we spoke briefly about the loss of Bill Paxton.  She was so friendly and down-to-earth, which made me less nervouse than I was at the outset.  She spoke with me like we had been friends forever, and that really meant a lot to me.  This was such a huge moment for me.

We, then, went to the next table and met Aliens and Terminator actor, Lance Henriksen.  He, too, was super friendly, and spoke with us for a bit.

I had purchased a few cards from the Alien Anthology set to have Henriksen sign.  I settled on this card once I saw his fee ($60).

Luckily, Henriksen was really nice to Chris and told him that there was no way he was going to charge Chris $60 for an autograph, so he let him have this 8x10 and signed it for him.  He also inscribed it "Not bad for a human", which was really awesome.

Then, we met Aliens, and Terminator actor, Michael Biehn.  I got a card signed by him, and clarified the pronunciation of his last name (bean).  He was friendly, but didn't say a whole lot.  When I went back to have him sign a photo that I picked up, I made him laugh.  I told him that my dad was a huge Tombstone fan, and that my dad took us to see it 5 times in theaters.  I said "So, I think I bought your dinner a few times."  This caused him to look up and laugh.  We, then, talked about racing, since I told him how proud I was about my dad being inducted into the Hall of Fame the day prior.  He thought it was really cool.  Biehn was a really cool guy.

After meeting Michael Biehn, I met up with my friend, Nathan, and walked around the show for a bit.  I had planned on meeting WWE legend, Mick Foley, but we couldn't find him.  I was about to leave the event, content to save the rest of my money, but we were able to find him.

I had bought some of his cards as well for Chris and I.  I'm a huge Cactus Jack fan, so I had to make sure the card I had was of Cactus.  He, like Henriksen, told Chris that he didn't want to charge him to sign a card, so he let Chris pick out a photo.

I don't know if I could be any prouder of my son for picking this photo of Foley from his Japanese Death Match.  Yeah, it's gory, but it is a legendary shot, and Chris picked it out.  It turned out great with the gold Sharpie.

I had an amazing time at the Mad Monster Party, and plan to attend if they come back to Charlotte.  The lines were short for all of the actors (and wrestler) that I wanted to meet.  The prices for autos are set by the artists, and they were in line with what I spent at the Walker Stalker last year.

I can't put into words how excited I was to meet these guys, especially Goldstein.  The photos Chris and I got signed are already framed and ready to be put on our walls.

TTM Success - Jeanette Goldstein

Sometimes, when I send out TTM requests, I manipulate them by putting certain kinds of stamps on the return envelopes, so I have a bit of an idea of what could be inside when it comes back.  Today, it worked wonders, as I was able to call my wife into the room when I saw one of the three envelopes that was in the mail.  Actually, the envelope was a surprise, as I had only seen two when I pulled the mail out of the mailbox.  This one was stuck behind another, and I missed it initially.  When I saw the banana split stamp and the post mark from Los Angeles, I had a pretty good idea what was in store for me.  I called Mal into the room and showed her the envelope.  When I opened it, I said a certain four-letter word followed by "YES".  I had a TTM autograph of the actress who played my favorite character in my favorite movie.

Jeanette Goldstein played Private J. Vasquez in the movie Aliens.  I have been a fan of the movie since we got it on Fox Home Video way back a long time ago (probably 1986 or 1987).  Mom was in some movie club, and I remember a bunch of Fox movies coming in all at once.  Or so it seemed.  Anyway, I always enjoyed the Vasquez character, especially her exchange with Bill Paxton's Hudson "Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" "No, have you?"  She has a bunch of great scenes in the movie.  When Paxton passed away earlier this year (#RIPBillPaxton), I thought I should really push to get Goldstein's autograph.  I used the website fanmail.biz for her address, and sent the request via her talent agency.

The card itself was something else I had to get done especially for this TTM request.  I had met a comic book artist a few years ago at Comic Book day at the local comic shop.  His name is Chris McJunkin, and I friended him on Facebook soon after meeting at the shop.  Turns out, he and I have a couple mutual friends, which is nice, but I contacted him to see if he had done any art of Vasquez and if I could purchase a couple that were baseball card sized.  He had not done anything with Vasquez on it, so I had to commission him as an artist to create the card for me.  I had no problem doing so, as I am a firm believer in artists getting paid for their work.  He ended up hooking me up with extras (I commissioned him on a second work along with this one that is not yet able to be discussed... stay tuned), and I sent a copy of the card to Goldstein for her to keep as well (and she did).

I can't describe how excited I am to finally have this from Jeanette Goldstein.  Upper Deck did an Aliens Anthology set last year, but Vasquez was left out, and there were no autos of Goldstein.  Paxton and Sigourney Weaver <3 are="" autograph="" in="" p="" set="" the="" though.="">
I mailed to Goldstein via her talent agency on April 11 and got the card back today, for a 69-day TAT.

You can see Goldstein in action in Aliens, of course, and also in Titanic, Terminator 2 - Judgment Day and Near Dark.

Some Halloween Pickups

On Halloween, my wife and I took our son to the local comic shop since they were having some Halloween festivities.  We didn't have time to get into our costumes, but they were having a costume party, a bouncy house, free comic giveaways and a comic book artist was there to draw stuff for people.  He was also giving away free sketch cards to people, and also had some for sale.  I picked up a couple that I thought were really cool.  The above Alien (Xenomorph) card was pretty cool.  Since Aliens is my all-time favorite movie, I had to pick this up.  I got this one for free.

Since I used my free card on the Xenomorph, I went ahead and pain the guy for this Ghost Rider sketch card.  Ghost Rider was my favorite comic book when I was a kid, so I made sure to take one of these home.  Any cards after the freebie were a dollar, so I was fine with that.  The card just looks cool, so I'm glad I grabbed it.  I'll tell you why Ghost Rider was my favorite comic hero when I was little:

As you can see, the flaming skull really stands out.  When I was very little, we would play a card game in my grandparents' basement on Sunday afternoons.  It was an old Marvel game, kind of like Old Maid, but featured Dr. Doom.  My brothers and I would beg our grandfather to play the game, and would have a lot of fun.  If it was the winter time, Grandpa would build a fire in the fireplace in that basement, and we would all stay down there until Grandma called us up for dinner, or until we would have to go to Youth Group.  We played that Marvel game a lot, until Grandpa taught us how to play Michigan Poker.  Anyway, Ghost Rider always stood out to me, so when I became old enough to read and enjoy comics, he was the hero I went after.  It's funny, he was my favorite hero, and Dr. Doom was my favorite villain.  I'm certain that ties back to the card game as well.

Finally, Chris picked this Jason sketch as his freebie.  Chris loves the Friday the 13th movies, so when he saw this Jason sketch, he had to get it.  I'm holding onto it for him, since he tends to lose things.  I rather enjoy the Friday the 13th films as well, so this would have been something I would have probably picked up for myself as well.

The artist gave me a business card, but I misplaced it.  I believe his name is Chris McJunkin.  I'm sure a google search will bring up his information.  He signed the backs of each sketch card for us, and I also bought a larger print, but that will be put to use later.

I really enjoyed the trip to the comic shop.  I hope they continue to have these promotions.  It seems like Chris really enjoyed it.  He still has a hard time getting interested in reading, but I'm hoping the comics will help.

Christmas from P. A. Part 1 - Greatest Movie Ever

I watched the return of Bret Hart to WWE last night, so that kept me from writing my blog on the stuff P. A. brought me for Christmas. I decided to break it up into two posts, one for today, one for tomorrow.

Since my Alien Quadrilogy is lost in a box somewhere (along with a lot of my other good DVDs), P. A. got me the Alien Triple Pack.

I know this is a baseball card blog, but anyone who knows me, knows that Aliens is my favorite movie ever. EVER. No, really, ever. I think I have watched Aliens more than 50 times in my life (which is a lot if you really think about it). I'm glad the movie takes the time to actually build to a climax and develop some characters that you can get behind and want to see get out alive.

"Let's rock!"

Oh, yeah, Vasquez kicks ass. 'I only need to know one thing. Where. They. Are.'

'None taken...' haha, I like that I can look at the picture and know the exact line that goes with it. That's either really awesome, or really sad, haha.

Of course, my 'lady friend' (Sigourney Weaver) is the star of the movie. Wooo Hoo. Yeah, so, Aliens is AWESOME. Thanks P. A.! Not to mention, Alien is a classic in and of itself. Don't get me started on Alien 3...

What do you guys think? If you haven't seen the movie, check it out. It would definitely be a good idea to check out Alien first, but Aliens stands on its own without Alien, so if you miss it, the story still isn't too hard to follow.