Issue 25 of Graham Groom’s Autograph News UK is now out, and here’s another snippet from my interview therein:
I’ve got one last thing to say about autographs, and it’s a general point. Only ask if it means something. There are people out there who compulsively harvest signatures from people they neither know nor care about, and it shows in the request.
I’ve a friend who used to draw for Count Duckula. He had a request from a child for an original sketch for her school project, which he’d have been happy to oblige with were it not for the fact that he got the same request from every other kid in the class. The teacher had set the assignment and given them all his address.
Need I say this is not the way it’s done?
4 responses to “Autograph News”
I take your point about some collectors randomly gathering autographs. This nearly(nearly)made me cringe because I’m sort of guilty. I’m not a huge, huge fan of all the people in my collection, but flicking throuhg my album always leaves me feeling grateful and a little privileged. On the other hand, I’ve been shown others’ autographs and they’ve not even known the reason for someone’s celebrity!
Not a huge, huge fan, huh… and I happen to know you’ve got mine in there somewhere…
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That's so true – about some autograph collectors simply collecting for the sake of it. I was a member of several collectors forums for a while, until I got really fed up with people getting autographs and then asking "Who's this?"
And, Steve, your comments in that article about people who use secretaries to sign autos and then send them out as genuine are spot on!
Also, of course, I AM a huge, huge fan of yours, and very much value the signed books I have of yours in my collection! :>)