My life changed at a comic convention in 2013 as I waited to meet comic legend George Perez and have him autograph two of his Wonder Woman comics.

I might as well fess up—I’ve been in love with Wonder Woman for years. Strong, confident,smart and beautiful, she’s someone young girls can look up to and someone who can teach men about respecting women. She’s best known for being able to deflect bullets with her bracelets and squeeze the truth out of anyone with her Golden Lasso, but if you ask me, her greatest power is her capacity for love.

Not love in the romantic sense, but in the true sense of the word—the ability to put the needs of others before herself. Her story has been one of honor and sacrifice for others for more than 50 years.

I say all that because in the real person of George Perez, I have a kindred spirit in loving the fictional character of Wonder Woman. He took over the character and rebooted the title in 1987 with Wonder Woman Volume Two, eventually going on to write and draw Wonder Woman for 62 issues. He abruptly left DC Comics in 1991, partly because he felt DC wasn’t doing enough to celebrate Wonder Woman’s 50th anniversary. In his last issue, Wonder Woman #62, he used the final page to write a personal letter to the character he had come to cherish. For him to do that put him in a very special category—he’s the only human being alive who appreciates Wonder Woman more than I do.[1]

I was sharing that story with a woman ahead of me in line, a loving mother holding her son’s place so he could wander the convention. When I finished, she asked if I was going have George draw me a sketch.

“Come again?”

"A sketch,” she said. “He’ll draw you a sketch for $40. You should have him draw you a Wonder Woman.”

She showed me a thick pad of 9 x 12 drawing paper, but I barely noticed it as my mind made the connections. For $40, I could have an original piece of George Perez art. Of Wonder Woman.

I’d brought $100 to the convention just in case I saw something special that I couldn’t live without. If ever anything met that criteria…

I was 16th in line, and George was drawing sketches for everyone, so it was almost an hour before it was my turn. I must have had that “kid on Christmas Eve” look as I shook hands and told him what a pleasure it was to met him. He was very gracious… all smiles thanks for the compliment and a truly welcoming feel about him.I was too busy being star struck to get pictures of him autographing my comics, but I had my wits back when I “commissioned” a sketch and handed him $40.

“Wonder Woman, yes, of course!” he said with a huge smile and a sparkle in his eyes that told me he still loves what he does. I spent the next 10 minutes watching him work—that was a treasure in and of itself. Anyone who admires art in any form should have the pleasure of watching their favorite artists work. From a blank page he drew a rough pencil outline that took shape before my eyes. There was a face, long flowing hair, her famous headband. With the rough sketch done he went right to the pen and inked the entire drawing without a single mistake. To put that in perspective, try drawing a human face where the eyes match and both look in the same direction—all on the first attempt, in pen.

As I thanked him again and moved on with sketch in hand, I knew I wasn't holding an original Rembrandt, but I couldn't imagine anything I prized more. Only slightly more exciting was the epiphany that I could buy original art from every single name on my “artist bucket list.” I could even have them all draw Wonder Woman and create my own private gallery, showing her in all the forms and styles of my favorite artists.

Unfortunately, like a crack dealer who gives you the first hit free, George Perez’s $40 fee got me hooked on something that would never cost as little as $40 again. There’s a difference between “convention quickies,” which are drawn right in front of you in a few minutes and true “commissioned drawings,” which can take days or weeks and cost from $100 to a few thousand dollars. Simple headshots or torso drawings are around $150, whereas full figures or inked and colored drawings usually start at $300 and go up.

That’d be one thing if my bucket list of artists was enough, but by the end of my first large comic convention I realized that list was only a start. I’ve “discovered” additional artists doing amazing work at every convention I’ve attended, all of whom are very happy to commission art.In seven months I commissioned 11 drawings, at a cost slightly higher than my mortgage payment.

I also collected business cards from dozens of other artists. By the time I'm done buying art from all of them, I'll likely spend something in the low five figures. I don’t know where the money’s going to come from. I've met other original comic art collectors at conventions and when I tell them I just started on this, they bow their heads, rest a hand on my shoulder, and offer me all the sympathy they can muster. Together we mourn the money that has left us, and is going to leave us in the future. They try to warn me, but they can’t talk me out of this any more than they can get away from it themselves.

[1] Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, passed away in 1947.