I've had that happen to me a few times lately. Everyday situations. But there is one instance in particular that is forever stuck in my head.
As you may or may not know, I fancy myself a bit of the comic book aficionado. Two years ago at our annual Emerald City Comicon I was doing my normal trolling of the booths looking for new art that might catch my eye, maybe some of my favorite writers or artists. But often times you're searching through stuff you've never heard of or seen before.
Crossing a booth that I believe had Dexter Vines and Georges Jeanty at it I instantly was alert. They've inked a couple favorites of mine. Waiting in line to have something signed I walked over to the edge of the booth. Sitting there sketching was a young artist. Older than me, but still young, his name is John Tyler Christopher. I politely said "hello" and went about looking through his various prints. He looked up at me and asked how I was. I replied with a positive but generic response.
His art was primarily from a series titled "Witchblade", a comic that is VERY popular. Dead in the middle of that pile was an all red Daredevil picture that was dope. A sprawling airborn Daredevil amidst a background of sonar's aethstetic expectation. I was sold.
Quickly pulling out the money to buy it, I asked him if he could do it in yellow, simply out of curiosity. Without an iota of hesitation this guy said "No problem, just send me an email and we'll get it figured out." I was shocked. I liken a talented comic book artist working with a big publisher to an established actor. He just gave me his card and told me to email him.
Jumping on the opportunity I emailed him later that week. Still a little skeptical that I'd actually hear from him, I promptly got a response. In the dialogue we had going, I mentioned part of my motive was to have a cool piece of art up in my office as family from across the country was soon coming to town for our wedding. I explained a brief description of my idea for both the red print I bought at Comicon and the yellow one he agreed to send me.
Not only did this man send me a new yellow AND red print, he sent them to us for free and told us to consider it a wedding present. Not to mention both pictures are signed by him AND this guy flipped the yellow print to accommodate the idea I had described to him. I requested a yellow version of the exact same print I already had. I didn't want to create too much extra work for him. I was even willing to pay the man fairly handsomely for his efforts. And he turned around and did EXACTLY what I was envisioning without a single bit of direction. He just did it. Not for money, not for publicity. He just did it. For a total stranger.
It is people like John Tyler Christopher that make this world evolve. Everyday people take advantage of other people which dejects the victims and temporarily empowers the victors. That breeds a cycle of distrust and animosity. People like JTC give the world a reminder that not everyone is as self-serving as some of those in the news so clearly are these days.
It gives people the ability to 'pay it forward' without thinking twice. Kindness is infectious.
It also motivates and inspires. Personally, when this all happened I felt the need to impose that same type of kindness. It's people like him that propel my motivation to do things like volunteer my time to coach little league sports. I don't have any babies (that I know of) running around playing soccer, I just know how good it feels to receive and I want to give back. It's one of those reminders people take for granted on a day to day basis. Actions like that make you feel good and you quickly realize it wasn't an incredible amount of effort, it simply was thoughtful. A place that definitely uses the mantra of "it's the thought that counts."
...Tell that to my 12 year old niece.
The bottom line is pay it forward. If you're at work, buy someone a soda. If you're mowing your lawn and a jogger goes by, acknowledge them or wave. It's stuff like this that honestly fuels the sanity of people everywhere. Negativity can wear on a person. But happiness can quickly reverse the effects of a Debbie Downer.
So with that said, I'm going to buy all the bums behind my work a taquito from Am/Pm tomorrow.... Ok, I'll likely not do that because frankly, those bums are a little intimidating, but I will be sure to pay it forward at least a little tomorrow. But if one of you bums is reading this post by boostin our wifi signal on your ipad, thanks for following my blog ;)
Thanks JTC, even two years later, you're still making an impact.
With that said, go check out his work on his webpage. I have included the link on the right with the rest of the links. He's very talented.
Thanks for listening.
Cole
Later
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