The definition of coolness

OK, if 'ya don't know by now, 'ol Hube is one big Iron Man fan. He has been since his youngest days as a lad. In the 1990s, I made use of my immense Iron Man knowledge by contributing to Advanced Iron, the Iron Man fan magazine or "fanzine" as they're known. When volume 3 Iron Man began (1998, known as "Heroes Return"), I and other fanzine contributors got to know many of the title's creators pretty well. The inaugural artist of volume 3 IM was one Sean Chen. Sean was just then making his big foray into big-time comics, and was quite thankful for the exposure and encouragement our fanzine gave him.

In December of 2001 when my family and another were vacationing in New York City, Sean was gracious enough to invite me to his Manhattan apartment/studio for a visit. Wow -- what a life! And I mean that most enviously. Sean had a terrific view of the Empire State Building, and his domicile was also his studio where he churned out all his work. He is one awesome guy.

And unbeknownst to me when I first bought Iron Man volume 3 #17, Sean included a tiny "hat-tip" to yours truly:

Yep, that's the name "Hube" on top of that taxi! The [main] panel is 'ol Tony Stark introducing one his many squeezes to secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts (who was played by Gwyneth Paltrow in the movie). I said "unbeknownst to me" because I never noticed it when I first read the issue. It wasn't until I received an e-mail from Sean asking me "what I thought of that taxi" that I realized what Chen had did!

In a word or two, how cool is that?

(A slightly modified version of this post appeared at The Colossus of Rhodey about a year ago.)