Keith Williams gets a massive shout out for being the inker on the Web Of Spider-Man in the mid to late 80's. It's because of this that the very first Spider-Man issue I ever "read" was done by him. Yes, way back in Web Of Spider-Man 38, Williams helped to set my mind ablaze with comic mania, and start a long journey, which I'm still on today.
As such, I really wanted to do something nice for him. No, not just set that massive stack of books in front of him to sign.
Rather, when I learned that he had gotten his start at Marvel Comics by sending in the infamous Marvel Try-Out Book, I tracked a copy down for him. I then took it a step further, and got his boss, Jim Shooter to sign it. This was made all the more important and impactful because Jim passed away just two weeks later.
The moment of receiving it was so great for Mr. Williams that it actually made him cry. His wife assured me those were happy tears, cause I was like, "Oh no, what have I done?"
His wife was right beside me taking photos of the moment as it unfolded.
Truthfully, these aren't all "must have signed" books for me. Instead, it's because Mr. Williams is so reasonably priced, $5.00 per signature, that it's easy to take volume to him. In fact, I even told him, "Your prices are so great, and I can't choose, so I brought them all." Then I laughed, and said, "The lesson here is to raise your prices so that it forces people like me to be more selective." He laughed as well and said he wouldn't.
As he was signing, Keith made mention that he also worked on Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars as a background artist, but uncredited. He said that wasn't the only thing. Many a night he was in a hotel room with other artists cranking out pages to catch up on deadlines and was uncredited on a lot of books as a result. I told him, "Well, I guess I know what I'll be bringing with me when you're at Big Lick NOVA next year (P.S. he's scheduled to be there in 2026, and that signing hopefully has already taken place by the time this goes live). So, hooray, more Keith Williams autographs are coming soon!
For me, this pretty much wrapped up the main signatures I was at the show for. Like I said, I didn't want to take as much as I had in the past, and while this post may look like it contradicts that, the reality is that it was about 1/3 less than what I usually took. I hope to cut that back even further in future shows.
While I could have been done for the day, and gone on my way, I had my convention book tucked in my bag, with the intensions of grabbing a few more signatures for it before tapping out. It was something I missed out on doing last time, and I wanted to make sure I didn't do so again.
Check back tomorrow for my final post from Baltimore Comic Con 2025.
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Very cool story. He seems like a nice person.
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