2018 Autographs: A Year in Review

Ok folks, I hope your 2019 will be an awesome one and you get all the autographs you want. Here is my, albeit small, 2018 autograph review.

January:

This was my son and I’s first time going to an IWR (Imperial Wrestling Revolution) event. The name has since been changed. But that night was really cool for the most part. The autographs I got that night were from WCCW legend “Iceman” King Parsons and Lisa Marie Varon aka WWE’s Victoria. I also got to see Ross & Marshall Von Erich.

February: zip

March: zip

April: Actor Ed Gale was having a sale on his website. Four 8x10’s for $20+shipping. Could not pass up that one of a kind deal. 

My friend Paul in the UK went to a signing with Russell T. Davies. Out of the kindness of his heart he got Russell to sign the photo of him and I when I visited Cardiff last year. 

May: I purchased a small handful of sports autographs including Byron Hamspard (8x10 card), Bert Emanuel (8x10 card), David Murphy (8x10 photo), Keshawn Martin (signed card), Ian Kinsler (8x10), Michael Choice (signed card), Todd Collins (8x10 card) , Vernand Morency (8x10 card), Yatil Green(8x10 card), & Albert Connell (8x10 card)

June: Tina Packar from the Doctor Who series “The Web of Fear” as Anne Travers. She signed my 8x10, a print out, & two index cards. 

My friend Paul attended Utopia 2018 in Whitney and had Waris Hussein sign a postcard for me. Waris directed 11 of the original series including “The Unearthly Child”

July: Bonnie Langford aka Melanie Bush from Doctor Who. My friend Nigel attended the London Film and Comic Con and picked up this awesome autograph for me. 

Corpus Christi Hooks pitcher Riley Ferrell. I met Riley when we visited watched the Hooks take batting practice off of the USS Lexington. A couple weeks later my friend Greg surprised me with a signed card from Riley since I wasn’t able to get his sig in Corpus. 

August: I had won tickets and meet and greet to the Lost 80’s Live concert. I met and got autographs from the following people. 

Mike Score (A Flock of Seagulls) , Nick Feldman (Wang Chung) , Valerie Day & John Smith (Nu Shooz) , Astrid Plane & Bill Wadhams (Animotion), Clive Farrington & Andrew Mann ( When in Rome) , Dale Bozzio ( Missing Persons ) , Christopher Anton, & Michael Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel) 

I placed an order for a small handful of Doctor Who autographs from Tenth Planet in the UK. I got signed 8x10’s of Frazier Hines (aka Jamie McCrimmon), Louise Jameson (aka Leela), & Daphne Ashbrook (aka Dr. Grace Holloway). To make my order even sweeter they had a private signing with Paul McGann (The Eighth Doctor) and he signed my photo at no charge.

September: David Newell aka Mr. McFeely from Mister Rogers Neighborhood. He sent me and my three kids signed photos, me a personal letter, two books of Fred Rogers, and a children’s book of Mr. McFeely. To say that I was very floored by this would be the understatement of the year.

My friend Craig in England had an extra David Gooderson autograph and he sent me one. Mr. Gooderson played Davros in Destiny of the Daleks on Doctor Who. 

October: This was a total surprise. Actor Jamie Hill. I have spoken of Jamie so much that even those who have never heard of him before know who he is now. For the few that might not, Jamie played some really cool characters in recent years on BBC’s Doctor Who. I met Jamie when my daughter and I visited Cardiff, Wales for the closing of the Doctor Who Experience. That day I had taken a couple photos with Jamie. I had sent my photos of him and I along with a photo of a Mondasian Cyberman (that Jamie portrayed). As a surprise to me Jamie signed all three of photos along with seven additional signed photos of various characters he has portrayed.

November: I purchased a ticket to the Dallas Comic Show: Holiday Special 2018. I personally only got one IP autograph from the show and that was from actor Ray Wise.

The next day I took my son to the show for his first “Comic Con”. I made a custom t-shirt that said “My First Dallas Comic Show” on it. I give him a closed sharpie and we just walked around meeting everyone. Five celebs signed his shirt. Actor Ray Wise (Fresh off the Boat, Robocop, & Swamp Thing), Harry Goaz (Twin Peaks), Jason Douglas (Preacher, The Walking Dead), Cynthia Cranz (Dragon Ball Z & YuYu Hakusho), and local artist Terry Parr. He had an awesome time meeting everyone and seeing everything. And everyone seemed to have loved meeting him.

My friend Mark (Who owns and runs the Dallas Comic Show) also sells autographs that he’s pick up over the years at various conventions. Well I was able to pick up two gems from him. Actor Michael Jayston (The Valeyard in Doctor Who) and actor Nicholas Hammond (The Amazing Spiderman & The Sound of Music).

Most who know me know of my fondness of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Well to round out my November, I received some really awesome autographs from Officer Francois Clemmons himself. Mister Clemmons sent seven really cool autographed photos that I will always treasure.

December: This month started off pretty darn cool. My friend Angel who goes by the name Saqman sent me a Christmas gift. It was a t-shirt with his latest Doctor Who (Jodie Whitaker) designs on it.

To my surprise my friend Dave surprises me with two Doctor Who Christmas cards (I didn’t even know there was such a thing) signed by the great Penelope Wilton yes Harriet Jones herself and by the talented Lee Evans aka Malcom from Planet of the Dead. Then to go even further, he sends me two Doctor Who Target books (Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear & Doctor Who and the Time Warrior).

As I said with my success from November, most know of my love of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Well I had sent “Handyman” Joe Negri a First Day Cover of Mister Rogers’ stamp. To which he graciously signed as well as sent me a signed photo of himself as well. Absolutely love this as well.

And to round December off with a bang. Dave comes through again. He was doing some in person autographing around London and thought of old Riley. He was able to get me three index personalized signed index cards of a few Doctor Who (and other things) actors. He was able to get:

Ron Cook (Sean the Irish bastard in the first series of The Black Adder or George Merchant in Hot Fuzz, or even as Mr. Magpie in the episode “The Idiot’s Lantern” in Doctor Who)

Phyllis Logan (Some would know her from the Doctor Who episode and series finale “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos”, or in Lovejoy as Lady Jane, or even in Downton Abbey as Mrs. Hughes)

 Bill Bailey (Some might know him as Droxil in the Doctor Who episode “The Doctor, The Widow, & The Wardrobe”, or in Hot Fuzz as Sergeant Turner, or even on the hilarious Never Mind the Buzzcocks)

And also an interview I did with Jamie Hill was printed in the latest issue of Cosmic Masque from the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. http://www.dwasonline.uk/CM7_STD_format.pdf 

Well that’s it for 2018. For autographs it was a pretty good year I must say. Got a new son, got some cool autographs, and made some cool friends. 2019 has got to be better and I wish it better for you. Thank you for your time and good luck with you collection.

MERRY NEW YEAR

BEEF JERKY?

Thank you for being my neighbor.

Most who know me, know of my fondness of the public television program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. As a child it was one of my favorite programs. Who am I kidding? It still is. Of course back in the day I liked Sesame Street as well. But it didn’t hold a candle to Mister Rogers. Mister Rogers would take you on a journey that you wouldn’t usually get to travel on. He would take you along to see how a saxophone was made, or crayons, or even to visit the penguins at Sea World (long before there was a Sea World here in Texas). They were all done through the wonderful Picture Picture. Most of the time you knew Picture Picture was going to be viewed when the ever so quick Mr. McFeely would stop by (SPEEDY DELIVERY) and drop off the daily mail. He usually delivered the rolls of film (which would eventually evolve into a vhs tape) that Mr. Rogers would put into Picture Picture and it would instantly start playing. I found out years later it was really a stage hand (often a young Michael Keaton) that was working behind the scenes that would take the film and start the video playing. But as a kid, it was just an amazing magical television screen.

The journeys didn’t just stop there. They also took you to the Neighborhood of Make Believe as well via Trolley (Ding Ding). There you would meet characters like X The Owl, Daniel Striped Tiger, King Friday (Royal Greetings) and his family, and the lovely Lady Aberlin and all the rest of the cast. They would play out scenarios that most kids would go through at some point in their lives and help them figure out how to cope with life’s problems. Most of all, Mister Rogers, Lady Aberlin, Handy Man Negri, Bob Dog and every single person that had anything to do with MRN, tried to instill one belief onto all of their viewers. Just be yourself. We’re all different and those differences makes every one of us special. So just be you.

                So as I have said before, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood will always have a special place in my heart. Which eventually will also have a special place in my children’s hearts as well. Though I believe it will have slightly more of a place in my daughter’s than my son’s. That’s because sadly MRN was cancelled when my son was really young. So he didn’t get as invested in it as she did. But they were both so excited when Mister Rogers sent them both a personalized signed photo that they still have to this day. They are both in their early 20’s now.

                Life is such a roller coaster of a ride sometimes. I think it’s funny how things happen that sometimes tie back to other things un-expectantly. My wife and I have this awesome little guy in our lives now. Well…not just now. When he was just a few months old we were searching for something to watch on television. To maybe see if there is something that he might like on tv that wasn’t violent and had a positive message and in the meantime could be educational to a growing mind. Lo and behold, what did we find? An animated program called “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”. By the title I instantly thought they were ripping off MRN. Open minded I gave it a watch and discovered what it was. Boy was I wrong. I usually don’t like remakes or reboots. But with this I have to make an exception. In my opinion they made a really good homage to a great show.

                As we watched, it seemed like Joseph took an instant like to it. Surprisingly, I have to say, I did too. There are a couple things I don’t particularly care for. One being that the Daniel Tiger character can be a little whiny at times. The other was the lack of the other human characters from MRN. It seems that only one human character transferred over from the original. That was Mr. McFeely. I guess I understand that they can’t have all of them back. But why not one here and there. A visit from Lady Aberlin or even Francois Clemmons would be really cool to see. Maybe that’s just me though.

                I recently wrote to David Newell and sent a long a couple things for him to autograph and send back. For those who don’t know, David Newell is Mr. McFeely. About a month after I sent it to him I come home to a package on my doorstep. The package was just torn up beyond belief. But the “to” and “from” address was still there and it didn’t affect the contents. So after reading the “from” address I knew instantly who it was from. It was from David Newell. I thought what could this be. I had only sent a couple 4x6 sized items to him. So I took it in the house and carefully opened it up. WOW.

                Upon opening it I find three books inside. Two of them were books that Fred Rogers had wrote that pertained to our current situation and the third was a children book about Mr. McFeely that I can read to Joseph. Also inside was a four page letter apologizing for the delay and answering some questions I had and also a 6x8 photo of Mr. McFeely signed to me. He also said that if I send him my kids’ names he will send them an autographed photo too. So I did, and a week or so later they receive their autographed photos in the mail. I didn’t get my items back, but with the great and unexpected response from him, I am totally ok with it. My mind was truly blown away. I am in my forties now and Mister Rogers Neighborhood is still putting a smile on my face as well as my kids’ faces. They loved their photos. Well two of them did. Joseph didn’t know what it was. Lol It’s such a good feeling a very good feeling.

Riley