OK - this one is so SAD....
So - I run a fanpage for my favourite comic book artist and author - Bryan Talbot at www.bryan-talbot.com (which is two conclusive proofs of arch-geekdom in one sentence....)

And I run it as Bryan's been my hero for MANY years: ever read a book or seen a film that has literally changed your worldview overnight? - THAT'S what this man's comics did for me....

So - I volunteered to run his website for him (in 1995 no less - 10 years ago: egad!) and then as a result finally got to meet him - and surprisingly enough where your heroes are concerned he is a genuinely bice bloke... in fact we became mates and I even went round to his house a few times and got legless and merry.

At one of these sessions, we got to talking about his latest comic - Heart of Empire... and being drunk I adopted a wheedling tone and said: "Bryan - you know how you like to use real people now and then in your comics as models? - well is there any chance I could be in Heart of Empire as a background character...?"

Indeed there was - and he not only made me a background character but I also became an anti-royalist, anti-fascist freedom fighter!!! - check the pic of me in the comic on the site at http://www.bryan-talbot.com/picture_of_me - I am the one in the panel on the right in the middle with the goatee beard....

No apolgies for length; occasional apologies for girth...
(chairman_of_the_peoples_democratic_republic_of_birmingham, Fri 25 Feb 2005, 16:18, Reply)