Mark Hamill's joker Impression
Dedicated to Mark Hamill's fantastic voice work, here is my re enactment of various scenes from Mask of the Phantasm...please excuse the rough ...
For the Love of Comics #11: How Meeting Mark Hamill in a Comic Book Store Changed My Life
Just to put these events in perspective as to where I was in my life at the time; I was lonely and depressed. I had been corresponding with a girl I had met on a trip to Boston a few months earlier, and although I liked her, I felt 200 miles was just too far a distance to pursue a relationship. The holidays were looming and I felt down-in-the-dumps, but a meeting with my childhood idol had helped to perk me up. It turns out, I discovered, that Mark Hamill is a huge comics fan. I was very excited, to say the least. Although I was familiar with Midtown Comics, as I am with every comics store in NYC, I got there early to scope out the place for possible locations for the shoot. After a while, I was by the racks checking out the week’s new releases, when in walked Luke Skywalker himself, asking the guy at the register for ME! I overheard and excitedly walked over and introduced myself to my childhood hero. It was great. He looked...old, and I couldn't believe that he was much shorter than me. The Princess was right; he was a little short for a Stormtrooper. Also, clearly evident were the scars on his face, which he received in an auto accident right before the filming of Empire. It was why the Whompa attack was written, as means of explanation. It turned out to be an enjoyable experience, but not a particularly productive shoot. Mark Hamill was so full of energy and so unabashedly excited by every product in the store that I was barely able to get him to stand still long enough to be photographed. He had an energy that had him bounding around at seemingly lightspeeds. Every couple of minutes he would say something like – A couple of months later, I was back in contact with that girl from Boston, who I mentioned earlier. I felt a deeper connection growing between us, but I still thought the distance between us was a deal-breaker. I thought about it, searched my soul, and came up empty. Unable to decide, I looked up on my living room wall, and there...