I'd met Mike Mignola before, but this time was a bit different. A few weeks ago, there was a massive online sale of various graphic novel, and among them was a thin Dark Horse anthology called "Happy Endings". I had never heard of it, but then, it had come out before I really got into comics. It was a few dollars, and had a Frank Miller cover, and I do so love a good anthology (then again, even a bad anthology can have a good story or two hidden away). This one happened to have a Mignola story called "The Magician and the Snake", a short story about a wizard fated to die and his snake companion. It was good for what it was, but I didn't pay it much thought beyond that. Flash forward to the launch of Mike's new website,and on one of the pages it mentions that this story happens to be Mignola's favorite comic of all the ones he's done, due to the fact that he wrote it with his daughter. Flash forward even further to this weekend, C2E2 in Chicago. I'm waiting in line for Mike to sign my comics (as a newly deputized member of the B.P.R.D. no less) and a notice a teen girl playing on her DS inside the DH booth. I knew it had to be one of the writer or artist's kids, and sure enough, her badge read Katie Mignola. A plan quickly forming in my head, I dug through my pile of Hellboy and BPRD comics and fished out the anthology. When I got up to Mike, he said hello and began signing, an act which had clearly become rather mechanical for him, he had signed so many comics. Then, when he came to "Happy Endings", somehting clicked, he exclaimed "Oh!", and proceeded to drag his daughter over to the counter, grinning, so she could sign next to his name and be recognized for helping craft her first comic. It was a brief moment, a minute at most, but when the process of getting writers and artists (especially famous ones) to sign your books  begins to feel a bit formulaic and impersonal, a little moment of realization, or a glint in their eye, can mean the world to a fan trying to connect with them.