Bat-Mac vs. Mr. T

A story from Bristol's Comic Expo 2005 (the UK’s smaller, friendlier, not taken-over-by-the-Hollywood-er version of San Diego)

This year, AP Comics released a new Mr. T comic, written by Chris Bunting, drawn by Neil Edwards, and with the man himself as Creative Consultant. If you’re not reading it, do so!

I purchased the limited Expo edition of Issue #1 of this fabulous tome early in the day for fear of it selling out, went off to try and assemble an entire run of Kyle Rayner comics and then returned to get it signed by the creative team (sadly, Mr. T couldn’t be with them that day).

I noticed that Neil Edwards was sketching for the fans. All of them were of Mr. T, but his detailed, meticulous style meant that he was taking a while, and I had to disappear to attend a panel with Brian Bolland, Alan Grant and Mike Smith. I apologised for having to leave the queue but said I would be back later to hassle him.

A slight aside now which may explain how we reached the end result. Spider-Sam and I have a running joke which developed during UKCAC 2003, with Guest-of-Honour Jim Lee in attendance. It actually began when we observed that the autograph queue for Mr. Lee on Saturday morning was not moving. I suspected at first this was due to people taking entire runs of X-Men for him to sign, and indeed there were such people taking the piss. However, the reason at the time was that he was sketching. It may seem strange to anyone reading this, and seems strange to me writing it, but at the time I couldn’t believe that an artist would produce a free sketch for anyone who asked for it. By the end of the convention, and after sketching solidly for two days Jim was knocking out headshots of Batman in under 2 minutes, but at the start he was spending 30 minutes on a sketch and some of the pieces he produced were unbelievable.

We started to wonder how far this could be pushed. What if you asked for a sketch of yourself? Could you ask for a sketch of yourself as Batman. Could you ask for an entire comic with you in every panel? This reductio ad absurdum caught on and has become les mots justs for describing the sometimes ridiculous requests that fans put to these poor guys on their days off!

Anyway, on the way to the talk we were banding ideas around about that sketch we could ask for, purely for Neil’s benefit as he was probably bored of doing head and shoulder shots of Mr. T. Suggestions included asking for a sketch of the A-Team with me as Hannibal, Spider-Sam as Murdoch and Naz as BA, a sketch of me as Mr. T, a full-body shot of Mr. T. as Batman, or an four-part miniseries entitled JLA/Avengers/A-Team. However we soon came up what we thought was the ultimate request – me beating Mr. T in an arm-wrestling competition. We giggled away at the thought of asking for this, but we knew deep down it wasn’t going to happen.

We returned to the main hall after the talk and went straight to the AP Comics arena where Neil Edwards recognised me and asked what I would like drawn.

I said: “Well, I’m sorry to ask as you’ve probably done him to death today, but I’d like a sketch of Mr. T. please…

(slight embarrassed pause for me to pluck up courage)

“…or, as my mate suggested, me beating Mr. T. in an arm-wrestling competition. Chortle, chortle”

From the way he reacted I thought that Neil also appreciated that this was intended in jest, so I stood there trying to chat up the attractive girl next to me while he put pencil to paper.

I then started to notice him looking up periodically. At first I thought that this was to make sure I was paying attention to him, or maybe that he also was eying up this honey, but it soon became apparent that he was actually eyeing ME up! My heart skipped a beat as I realised what was going on, and sure enough he soon delivered to me the greatest work of art in the history of everything. It even showed me looking cool and Mr. T (replete with biceps five times the size of mine) perspiring!

I ran to find Spider-Sam and Naz, who couldn’t believe their eyes, but at the same time weren’t at all surprised that I had managed to blag this!

So that’s the story of why I now have an A3 sketch of me beating Mr. T in an arm-wrestle by Neil Edwards, artist of the Mr. T. comic. I’d like to thank Naz for planting the initial seed for the idea, Spider-Sam for egging me on, and the flower girl by Temple Meads Station for providing me with some brown paper and sellotape to protect this priceless masterpiece.

One day I will prove to all you cynics out there that this actually exists with some photographic evidence, but it is currently in a hermetically sealed vault hundreds of miles away. Excuses, excuses, I know, but at least that gives you all a reason to keep reading!