I met Mike and Laura Allred a few years ago at Wizard Chicago, and as awesome as it was, it was also fucking horrible —but it was my fault.

They say sometimes it’s better to not meet your idols, and this was totally the case.

I shut down. I got super nervous. I said weird and awkward stuff. And I know at one point Mike caught me staring at them. Just staring.

For the record, they were both totally cool and they handled themselves just fine as the fan-dork gushed from across the table. Laura was very understanding and even invited me to hang out on the side to talk more.

Anyways, I’m a huge Madman fan, but more importantly I’m a fan of Mike’s retro-pop-comic art, and Laura’s best-palette-in-comics-colors. This panel from iZombie, for example. Super cool.

-Matt