Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Book History
TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3172: Today I came back to my home office after being out all day to find an email from one of my Facebook Friends informing me of the passing of Adrienne Colan. I had not been aware of that this morning before leaving, and had blogged about a different topic. So I am going to post a rememberance blog about Adrienne Colan, who I met several times at the Comic Con International: San Diego, along with her husband Gene Colan. Adrienne and her husband Gene Colan were at a few of the Comic-Cons in San Diego during the mid 1990's and were set up at their own table in the Artist Alley area. The above photo to the right is the one that I took and basically remember Adrienne by. That's because Gene hadn't seen that issue for quite a while, and here I was asking him to sign it. You see, I was basically looking only to get my complete collection of Fantastic Four comics signed by the artists & writers who worked on the series. Unfortunately for me, Gene had not illustrated any Fantastic Four issues in Volume 1. So I had to come up with something that had the Fantastic Four in the comic for Gene to sign for me. This was the issue I came up with. While Gene thumbed through the issue, Adrienne proceeded to tell me some great stories of the 'Old Days'. I was a receptive listener, and she sensed that I was interested in what she had to say. Quite often 'fanboys' are just interested in the comic book artists, and not the wives of the illustrators. I've always been a friendly guy to what so many of the older illustrators have as 'team' going on at their table with their spouse. I would try to get over to their table the times they were there. Adrienne would tell me and others stories each year that they were set up there at the Comic-Con, but only after checking around to see who was in earshot. It truly is amazing what went on during the 'Good Old Day's of Comics'. Most of the time you only hear the stories from the actual comics creators, not their spouses. But not so Adrienne! So Adrienne definitely stood out from the crowd! She would also attend the panels that Gene would be a guest on. There would be the opportunity for Gene to have his say in front of everyone. There would always be dozens of appreciative fans of his hanging on his every word. And I was pleased to be there the year that Gene received a surpise Birthday Cake at the end of one of Mark Evanier's panels! I've shared a few photos of that before. I hadn't seen Adrienne or Gene in the last few years of the Comic Con International in San Diego. Gene was an 'Official Guest of the Comic-Con' last in 2009. But for whatever reason, I didn't make it over to their table... Sadly, Adrienne passed away alone at their house in the last few days. Gene and she were estranged earlier this year. I'm not going to go into that here. Suffice to say that my memories of Adrienne and Gene are good ones from earlier Comic-Cons. Gene sketching away, and Adrienne handling the business side of the transactions, and talking about the comics industry and how it pertained to Gene and she directly. I went through my photos of the last couple of decades before starting this blog. Back then I was shooting with a Canon AE-1 Program Camera, and only took one or two photos. Unfortunately I don't see any of Adrienne in them to share here. Anymore since I take only digital photos, I usually have multiple pics to choose from. So the photo at the top left of this blog post is obtained elsewhere from 2008. I'm sure her passing was a surprise / shock to those that knew her closer. My condolences to Gene, their family and friends.~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
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