The Toy Box: Big Lick NOVA 2026: Part I - Keith Williams, Rick Leonardi, And Mike DeCarlo

This series of posts over the next three weeks is dedicated to the memory of Jim Shooter, legendary Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics from 1978 to 1987. He not only contributed so much to the world of Marvel, but got me bitten by the autograph bug, which has led me to the thrill of meeting other creative talent in the industry over these past few years.

As May 2026 rolled around, it was once again time for Big Lick NOVA. It was iffy for a bit, what with the Dulles Expo Center, where the show has been held annually since 2022. However, Manassas Mall filled the void, providing one of its vacated box stores as the new home for 2026. The location was incredibly convenient, and large enough to host a slew of vendors, and celebrity and comic guests.

This year, there were several voice actors from a variety of anime shows, as well as a couple folks from various Power Rangers iterations, and the original X-Men Animated Series. Perhaps the biggest draw was the Aliens reunion which featured Ricco Ross, Daniel Kash, and Jienette Goldstein. At one point, Michael Biehn was even slated to attend but cancelled a couple weeks prior to the show.

For me, I was watching the comic artist attendees. The list grew slowly, with Keith Williams being the first confirmed guest, but soon grew to include Rick Leonardi, Alex Saviuk, Mike DeCarlo, Patrick Olliffe, Joe Rubinstein, Matt Slay, Brian Kaiser, Tillman, and Larua Martin. As the weeks counted down, I slowly put my selected books together for autographs, as well as a list of items to be on the hunt for.

Arriving at 7:00 AM, early as usually, I took my normal place of first in line. Then the waiting began. With doors opening at 10:00 AM (early entry for weekend pass holders), I sat relatively alone until around 8:30 AM when a few more people showed up.

Things stayed relatively quiet until Russell showed up. I've hung out with him in line at Big Lick before, and he always has a way of bringing people together with his overall charm, personality, and magic tricks. He posts pretty frequently on his Instagram page, as well as his Facebook profile, and I encourage you to check him out.

Prior to the doors opening, staff came out and handed out badges to people with early access tickets. Shortly thereafter, the doors were opened, and off we went in our respective directions. My main focus was to check off all the artists I had come to get books signed by. While the below isn't in the order I went to them, this is the order in which they were seated from left to right along the front wall of the convention hall.

Keith Williams is someone I have frequently gotten books signed by. During my last "visit" with him, I not only wrapped up him signing all of the Web of Spider-Man books he ever worked on at Marvel but had procured him a copy of the Marvel Try Out Book. This was the book he completed back in the day which led him to getting signed with Marvel. I managed to get it signed by Jim Shooter shortly before his passing away.

As usual, Keith was at the show with his lovely wife

Mr. Williams has always been generous in his fees, charging just $5.00 per book. This made it relatively easy to get so many items signed in the past. Today, I finished up the last of what I own that he worked on at Marvel. This included Annuals for The Amazing Spider-Man series, a couple books from Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited, and Spider-Man (AKA McFarlane Spider-Man). This wrapped up with the one-shot of Spider-Man / The Punisher / Sabretooth: Designer Genes, and Annual number one of Marvel Age.

Also signed by Mark Bagley at
Awesome Con 2024

Also signed by Jim Shooter and
Rick Leonardi at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter at
Big Lick NOVA 2023

Next in line was Rick Leonardi. I'm actually a little shocked at how many times he's been at Big Lick NOVA. When he first appeared in 2023, I thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and lined up perfectly for me to get all my black suit Spider-Man preview issues signed by both him and Jim Shooter. His would also be the first commission piece I would buy, followed at the same show by Jim's. While I checked that box off, among many others, it's been great to have multiple opportunities to meet up with him.

While I didn't necessarily have anything for Rick that I needed signed, I did end up buying a couple things specifically to take with me. The first two were a nice set of direct and newsstand editions of Spider-Man 2099 issue number one. Not that I needed these per se but just wanted to take the opportunity to get more copies signed by him. This is technically my first newsstand version that I own.

Next up were a direct edition, newsstand version, and second print of Web of Spider-Man issue number ninety. This is the (disputed) first appearance of Spider-Man 2099, who appears on a poster inserted in the book. My specific plan was to have Rick draw a specific Spider-Man head on each cover, which he did do, albeit, a bit smaller than I initially wanted. However, considering he was charging $100.00 per head sketch, but only charged me $20.00 each, with the signature, I was okay with the end result. For the just his signature, on the books above, it was $5.00 each.

He did learn the hard way that it was taking longer than he expected for the ink to dry on the hologram cover. As you can see in the signatures, his hand accidentally smeared them a bit. Technically, I could have gotten these three books signed by Alex Saviuk as well, but I opted to leave it as Leonardi's signature and doodle only. I already have his signature on a direct edition and second print, with Rick's and Howard Chaykin's.

The last person for this post, but by far not the last person I brought books for, was Mike DeCarlo. He's an artist I've not yet had the opportunity to meet, but one I got pretty excited about. He not only worked on several high-profile Batman books in the 80's, but also was prolific on several cartoon related series, such as The Simpsons, Animaniacs, and The Powerpuff Girls.

I wanted to see if I could get a commission from him for my Peter Parker: Decisions series, my fourth overall. This would be dependent on a few things: 1) If he was doing commissions at the show, 2) How much it costs, 3) How long it would take. The latter would be dictated by how quickly one got to said creator's table to get on the list, which is why he was actually my second stop. Well, more so first and a half. With nobody at either his or Rick Leonardi's tables, and with the two of them sitting side-by-side, I kind of hopped back and forth.

Mike DeCarlo holding up an awesome one-of-a-kind
watercolor painting he did of all four covers of the
A Death In The Family story arc - See the comics below

Several of the books below I actually bought for the purposes of taking them with me. However, all of them were ones I had been eyeing in the past but never pulled the trigger on. Upon finding out that DeCarlo worked on them, and that I could get them signed, pretty much solidified the purchases. These included the Ten Nights Of The Beast story arc, The Many Deaths Of The Batman.

Also signed by Jim Starlin at
Baltimore Comic Con 2023

I suppose I'll want to track down Jim Starlin again to sign the Ten Nights Of The Beast set.

You may notice that parts two and four are missing from the set of books in the A Lonely Place Of Dying arc. That's because those books crossed over to the Teen Titans title, and DeCarlo didn't work on them.

Also signed by Michael Golden at
Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Rick Leonardi at
Big Lick NOVA 2025

All and all, Big Lick NOVA 2026 was off to a banger of a start, and things were only going to get bigger and better. I daresay that this may have been the most fun I've ever had at a convention.

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Big Lick NOVA 2026: Part I - Keith Williams, Rick Leonardi, And Mike DeCarlo

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