Clinton Mills-THE PROFILE

Note:  This is a transcription of a phone interview conducted with Clinton Mills.  Content is edited for clarity.

Greetings, Star Wars Autograph Universe!  Our first member profile is in the books, and Clinton Mills was the subject.  Clinton is a great collector with a lot of great experience and insight. The interview was awesome, and it was two fellow collectors talking about our hobby.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed conducting the interview.

-Tom

Tom:  Hey Clinton, What’s going on, man?

Clinton: Hey Tom, How’s it going, buddy.

T: I’m doing good, man.  Thanks a lot for doing this and being the guinea pig, as Andy recommended that you be the first, so I appreciate it, man.

C: No problem, man.  So where are you at?

T: I’m in Houston.

C: Oh ok, cool

T: I live in Houston, and I remember you from the Rebelscum forums over the years.  I never participated much, but I’ve known of you for quite a while.  And you’ve actually helped me get some Walking Dead stuff done at one of the Walker Stalkers a few years ago.

C: Oh cool, man.

T: You took a poster for me, so it’s kind of neat.  So I’m really excited about this.  So what we’re really trying to do here is give our members some different insights into our profiles got into collecting.  So, doing a little Facebook snooping, you’re in Kentucky?

C: Uh, yes.  Correct.

T: Are you from Kentucky?

C: Not originally, I’m originally from Indiana, but I moved to Kentucky when I was twelve.  Lived here through college, then spent some time in Tennessee and then moved back.  So if you’re wondering from where the accent comes from…

T: It’s not too bad.  I’m a big fan of the show Justified with Timothy Oliphant and Walton Goggins, so every time I think of Kentucky I think of Justified. Have you seen it?

C: Yeah, I’ve seen a bit.  I’ve seen enough of it to know about it.  So if that’s your impression of Kentucky, that’s what we do, we drive around dodging explosions.

(Laughs)

T: That’s too funny.  I’m from Texas, so I’m used to the stereotypes.  Tell me a little bit about how you got into autographs, what’s your first experience that got you into the hobby?

C: It came about around 2002. I went to Gen Con in Indianapolis.  I was collecting action figures at the time, and hadn’t started collecting autographs.  By chance, Kenny Baker and Jeremy Bulloch happened to be here.  So I went and met them, got their autographs.  Honestly, that’s what started it..it was a downhill spiral from there as you probably know yourself.  It doesn’t take much.  Then over the years it just kept going.  Then I started getting posters done, and you know, those are money pits.

(laughs)

T: I think I read on the forums one time that posters are as costly and involved as a marriage and divorce.  You’ve got these posters your working on for fifteen years, you know…

C: Except in the divorce the spouse eventually goes away but you have to keep paying for the posters.

(laughs)

T: So you’ve been collecting a while?

C: I’m 32 now, so it’s been quite a while now.  I didn’t do it when I was a kid.  I wish I’d known about it.  If I’d have known about writing through the mail I would’ve started as a kid, we didn’t really have the internet and know you could do that.

T: So other than Star Wars, I know you have a beautiful Walking Dead poster you’ve been working on.  And Indiana Jones, a big time collection, so tell me about your Indy stuff.

C: Indy has always probably been my number 1 favorite movie series.  Except the Crystal Skull obviously.  I started out since it was mainly conventions, Indiana Jones people didn’t pop up that often.  As I expanded out to forums and was able to network, I was able to get into it as they do a lot of shows in the UK.  Then I started getting into Through the Mail collecting, I started sending stuff to the Indy actors.  I have a Last Crusade poster that’s signed by most everyone aside from Connery, I doubt I will ever get him.  That was my big Indy purchase.

T: You have the Grail Knight, right?

C: I have several.  I pick him up online, I just hoard them all.  I figure there’s only three of us who want him that much.

(Laughs)

C: Indy is my favorite, man.  I got some real kind of off-the-wall pieces.  Now of course I’m not at Steve Grad’s level or anything like that…

T: Nobody is.

C: I definitely try to collect everything.  I don’t really do that with Star Wars.  I used to do that but I’m not that way anymore.  But with Indy I collect everything I can find.

T: So have you omitted everything from KOTCS?  Do you have anything?

C: I do have some. Um…

T: You sound so disappointed in yourself…

(Laughs)

C: Well when it first started I sent a KOTCS poster out to LA to get and IP grapher work on it, but when I saw the movie I told him just to send it back.  No need to work on that one anymore….

(Laughs)

C: I mean, I added Karen Allen to it and sent her some TTM stuff, but that’s about it.  I wanted to add John Hurt, but he recently passed, so I guess I missed out on that.  I’ve met some guys that like Indy around the world. I mean, there’s not as many as there are for Star Wars, as it trumps everything when it comes to collecting.

T: So you got hooked in 2002, at the convention with Baker and Bulloch.  Jeremy is always great.  So how did you come to the decision to go from nabbing Kenny Baker at probably 20 bucks, and Jeremy Bulloch is kind of similar…so where colleting was at the time in 2002, how did it snowball into dropping at the time big bucks on a Mark Hamill and trying to put your collecting together?

C: It was really a snowball effect.  When you start, you kind of have these ideas that well, “I’m going to meet all these people eventually.   I’d love to meet Christopher Lee and Harrison Ford.”  But for most of us, that’s just not going to happen.  So it leads you into buying stuff.  When you start buying stuff, it opens another door.  So you can just go online and find it and buy it from someone, or from Official Pix, your possibilities are endless then.  When that gets into your head, and when you get where your comfortable knowing that it’s real or who you’re buying from, it opens another door.  I have a couple of really good friends in this hobby, and that’s Graham Miles and Pete Chuka from Rebelscum…those guys have been good and bad influences I guess.

(Laughs)

T: It does really go downhill with all of the access we are able to get, which is something we’ll touch on here in a bit, it’s expensive and there a lot of different possibilities.  So touching on that, you’ve been around for awhile.  You’ve been around for Wattographs, you’ve been around for the origins of Official Pix and C2 Ventures and the send-in stuff they’ve offered.  So looking where we are now, you were around, you remember.  The first Harrison Ford signing they offered for $400-$450 for an 8x10…they had two shots…

C: And we all freaked out about that price…

(Laughs)

T: Yeah I know, we were all, “Well, it’s $400, but if you gotta do it, you gotta do it….”  So now we’ve got ops for people like Daisy Ridley and he’s $350-$400, Topps has now taken over, $300 for Felicity Jones and Harrison Ford at $700 for a sit down…give me your thoughts about current pricing in the hobby.

C: I’m not a big fan of it, obviously, I don’t know anyone who would say they are.  It’s become so commercialized now.  Back in the early 2000s and before that, it wasn’t popular.  You got made fun of when you went to conventions.

T: Absolutely.

C: It was a question of, “Are you dressing up, or what do you do there.”  I honestly think it started with the Walking Dead. That to me is where it came from, and when these conventions started to spike.  It became a popular thing to do.  It clicked for people that they could go meeting actors from their favorite show or movie or what-have-you.  The more people conventions can bring through the doors so they can start offering more and charging more. That’s just the way it is right now.  There are a lot of things I would like collect but don’t simply because of that.

T: Yeah.

C: I used to go to conventions in the early 2000s and drop a couple hundred bucks and walk away with a dozen autographs or more.  Now it’s Felicity Jones for $200.  I mean I would love to add her…I loved Rogue One and would love to get her.  But do I want to go down that path?  I don’t know.  It’s something I’m still…I haven’t gotten Daisy Ridley, yet.  I know Andy has done a lot of signings with her, but I just haven’t pulled the trigger because I don’t know if I want to open that door.

T: So do you have any TFA stuff?

C: I have a poster I got at Celebration, the TFA teaser poster.  I got that signed by John Williams and JJ (Abrams)…I have some JJ Abrams I got from Andy, and I did get a Harrison Ford from the Official Pix signing, an 11x14.

T: You’re already down the road, Clinton.  Your toes are in the water, brother.

(laughs)

C: That’s the thing, I act like I’m really resisting it, then I list all these things I already have.  But it’s…I had a goal of getting 11x14 of all the original cast members, but with Carrie passing, I don’t know about opening that door now.

T: That brings up another thing, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.  We have the passing of a major core character.  For a lot of people, having Kenny Baker on a piece might now matter, but for us collectors, you can’t have a cast piece without Kenny.  Now you can kind of get away with maybe not having Kenny, but with Carrie passing, it kind of changes the way we collect.  And her price spike has been something to see. 

C: Yeah, it’s Star Wars in general across the board.  She was already going up since the movie, but with her passing it just spiked.  And it’s kind of been amazing to see, kind of depressing to see in a way.  Because you’ll watch things  and it’s ending for triple for what it was.  It’s a lot of new people are in it, and a lot of new interest.  Once again it’s good, but financially, it’s interesting.

T: No, you’re right.  Well, what were some of your original goals?

C: Well at $20 a pop, I’d go and get anything I had an interest in…I’d get everyone.  Anybody that you liked.  But now you go to it, it’s not that way.  It’s like, “All right, what do I quote, ‘need?’  As if I need anything.

(Laughs)

C: I got into posters, bigger multi projects.  I don’t do as many 8x10s now…maybe on occasion.  It’s mainly posters and things that are more awkward to carry, of course.  Things that are harder to get signed…

T: Yeah, and then you roll up to the table, helping people out with four posters, and you’re sweating, “I don’t want to dent so-and-so’s poster…”

(Laughs)

C: I know, it makes it more awkward and harder to do.  But I love a finished product of a signed poster.  I think they’re cool.  I’m looking in my basement right now, and I’ve got 11 or 12 posters on the wall.

T: What has been the longest amount of time you’ve spend working on an item before you called it, ‘done’?

(Laughs)

T: Or is it ever finished?

C: Yeah, that’s the thing.  I’ve got my ESB poster that I started at Celebration.  That one is still going.  I can add Dave Barclay at Celebration.  There’s another name, and I eventually need to add Harrison Ford.  Whether or not that’ll happen, I don’t know.  But if it does, then that one will be done.

T: But you’ve been working on that for 12-13 years you’re talking about.

C: I bought the blank poster at Celebration.  That was a blank slate.

T: At Celebration 2?

C: No, I just missed Celebration 2.  So this was Celebration 3.

T: But even then, some of the prices, you got a lot of that poster for about 1/6^th of what it would cost today.

C: It’s honestly the same with a lot of this stuff.  With my TWD poster, I got the main cast at the first convention they did.  For $25 I got all of them, with no lines, really.  I knocked them out. Now I’m paying more for these core people who’ve only been around for 2-3 episodes.

T: Or Zombie #2 charging $50 in the corner.

C: I guess you can’t blame them, but, I don’t know…I think if I were in their position I’d find it difficult to do that to people because you’re meeting your fans.  I don’t know, it’s a double-bladed sword where I can see both sides…

T: Sure.  No, it’s capitalism…the good and the bad.  You touched a little bit on the influx…I guess for me before the group kicked off, I felt like we were a really isolated little niche…I guess in large part we still are, a little isolated community of graphers on Rebelscum or a few other places where you could connect and pick some stuff up.  But to me it feels like there’s a ton of people gravitating to the hobby.  That’s a good thing and a bad thing (pricing wise).  Give me some of your insight.  You’re on the Facebook page, seeing a lot of these people come it, give me a general feel on that.

C: First of all, I think it’s a great thing.  I mean Andy and all those guys involved…I know there were several of them…Steve and all those guys…it’s a good thing because there’s so much garbage out there.  As we see everyday, “Hey is this real?”.  It’s good to see that there’s some forum or venue where they can come and actually meet people who aren’t actually going to try and screw them over.  There are good people trying to help them.  It used to be Rebelscum back in it’s heyday, I would say…

T: Pre-Moser

(Laughs)

C: Yeah, that was the place to go.  That’s what I like in this group now.  It reaches more people because it’s on Facebook.  I’m glad to see that there’s a place for it to happen.

T: Yeah.

C: But I don’t know if this influx is a temporary thing because of the movies coming out now.  It seems like it comes up and down.  But I’m like you, there’s a lot more than I would’ve thought.

T: And we’re not the cretins of the universe anymore.  Now we can where our dork flags high.

C: Yeah, we don’t have to hid in our mother’s basements.

(Laughs)

T: Exactly.  We don’t have to echo in hushed whispers.

T: Ok, so I want to touch on this, because I saw the picture the other day with Anthony Daniels.  Do you have any interesting interactions from over the years either at cons or in person?

C: Most of my stuff in accident free.  Anthony Daniels, he was a jackass at that particular moment.

(laughs)

C: We know what to expect from the guy…

T: Sure.

C: That was with a friend of mine that’d never been to a con before.  He was just being nice and taking my photo as I was walking up to the table.  So Anthony was getting pissed at my friend…

(laughs)

C: I actually knew not to do that but I forgot to tell him not to.  But I remember that was the second time he kind of acted like that.  The first time was the year before that, I came up there and I was leaning on the table or I touched it (Table)…he flipped out.  I got so mad.  I was going to get my money and walk away.

(laughs)

C: I was like, “All right.  Chill out.  Let’s get it done.”

T: You gotta get it done!

C: Once I got up there, he was nice.  Anthony Daniels can just turn it on and off.  He just such as…it may be some pretention.

T: Maybe.

C: I just can’t figure that guy out.  On the thread, people were all, “I loved him.  He was so awesome.”  I never felt that way, (Laughs), but he’s also been nice to me.  I don’t know if I’d call him awesome.

T: I took my wife and son to meet him last summer in Dallas and he was absolutely great. Probably because I had my son there.  But the first time I met him back in 2009 back when Fan Days was just Star Wars Fan Days when Ben Stevens owned it and ran it.  And Anthony was there.  And I happened to run into Corey Perry and Bill Horn at the show and we’re all standing in line, sweating, because we have these multi-signed pieces and we’re like,” God, I hope he signs this in silver.  Everyone else is in silver.”

(Laughs)

T: It’s like you have to have your pitch lined up walking up, “Mr. Daniels, I think this would look good in silver, as you can see.  Everyone else has signed it in silver.”  Like you’re pitching him.  But once you know what to expect, it’s a neat little part of what we do.

C: I kind of go up to him now, my thing is, I’ve never seen him sign anything in a bad color or in a dark spot or anything like that.  So normally what I’ll say is, “I know you’ve seen this shot 100s of times, Mr. Daniels, and I trust you sign it…” You kind of suck up to him a bit.  He’ll get a big smile on his face and say, “Well you know I have been doing this for a long time”.  And you kind of butter him up and he does pretty much what you want to do.  You just kind of treat him with kiddy gloves.

T: Yeah, you can have some interesting interactions with him.  I think in a lot of ways after meeting him a few times, you’re there just to get stuff done.  Just let me get in and get out.

(Laughs)

C: Yeah, it’s like you’re going to a store to buy something.  The newness of meeting this actor is long gone.  And as bad as that is, you’re more like, “I just want to get this signed the best way possible so it displays nice.”

T: Or you’re lamenting that Wyman isn’t doing a send-in, like, “God I wish Wyman was doing this.”

(Laughs)

C: Yeah, in a lot of ways, Chris can get my stuff signed better than I can.

(Laughs)

T: No doubt.

C: I’d rather send my stuff to him.

T: We are very fortunate now to have folks like Official Pix and to a different extent, Coolwaters, and…um..Celebrity Authentics.  I’ll just leave that one right there in case…

C: We love ALL autograph companies…

T: Yes, some more than others…

(laughs)

T: So a lot of new folks to the hobby, what is a piece of advice for someone who is just kind of getting started?

C: I would say number one, is don’t just buy everything.  Most everything will pop up at one point.  Just be patient.  You see a lot of people buy, buy, buy…I mean if you have the money, that’s fine, but those things will be there.  Most things you’ll see again.  There’re very few things I’ve only seen once, and if I’ve only seen them once I couldn’t afford it anyway.

T: Good point.

C: Most stuff is going to pop-up.  I kind of got myself in trouble when I first started to collect, just buying everything.  Get what you want, but be careful and be patient.  I would also say, do you really want to get Stormtrooper #5?  I know it’s something cool, but a few years down the road, are you gonna be like, “Man, I’m glad I got that,” instead of saving for something else.

T: Yep.

C: Save up and buy Alec Guinness autographs because I guarantee you’ll never regret that.  Granted they’re at an all-time high right now.

T: Tell me about it.

C: I would say get a Hamill if you need one.  Hold off on Paul Blake…you can always get Paul Blake.  You can get him any other time.  Get these main guys now.  As you can see we’re running out of time.

T: It’s going up.

C: Yeah, they’re going up and they’re not going to be around forever as we well know.  I made the mistake with Carrie, I wish I’d gotten more.  My goal was to concentrate on her at this Celebration.  I think I thought the way most people do, that we could wait because she’s the youngest.

T: Yeah.

C: I mean it’s an awful way to think…

T: It’s kind of macabre.

C: I hate to look at guest line-up and ask, “Who’s most likely to die?”

T: Well, you have people wholesale abandoning projects…’Carrie’s gone, so here you go, it’s got Kenny and Mark and I’m done with it.” People abandoning Nebula Shots, and I understand it…I’d probably do the same thing.  But you find yourself in these situations where you asking what you didn’t get done?  I mean of course we all grieved, but you ask yourself what you missed out on.

C: But like I said, I advise people against getting rid of their stuff.  Star Wars is such a classic film, where people for generations are going to know about it…I mean for instance, let’s say I have poster for Wizard of Oz, that’s only signed by Jack Haley the Tinman, Ray Bolger the Scarecrow.  Well today, we’re not look at it and say well, “That’s not finished, you don’t have the Cowardly Lion and Judy Garland"…That’s what I try to tell people.  I know right now it sucks because it just happened, but hold onto that.  Don’t sell it at a loss.

T: That’s a really good point.  And a lot of the high end stuff, while I agree with you by and large, that this stuff will come back around, but as more and more people come into the hobby, some with money to spend, they’re going to buy up some of this rare stuff and it’s going to disappear into families for a while.   If you’ve got something nice, hold onto it and it will appreciate over time.

C: If you can get it, get it.  I’m just saying patience as in most stuff does pop up again.  Most of it does.  Obviously, not all the time, and it’s going to get less and less, but we’ve been in this.  You’ve been on Rebelscum, you’ve seen people buy stuff they think is awesome, but in a few months say, “Well, I need to pay the mortgage, so I guess I need to sell this.”

T: Yeah, it’s unfortunate.  We’ve all bought something stupid.  Well, maybe it wasn’t stupid, but it was something we couldn’t afford at the moment.

C: We needed to wait a little while.

T: A couple of quick questions here. Number 1, your most favorite autograph piece that you own.

C: That’s a hard one.  Well, my Empire Poster, even though it doesn’t have Ford it’s special because I’ve worked on it for so long.  I know there are better pieces out there, but it’s special to me.  Number 2, I have an Alec Guinness signed comic I have.

T: Oooh, I haven’t seen one.  So yeah, absolutely.

C: Those two are probably my ties.  I could easily list more the more I think about it.

(Laughs)

T: The number one thing you’re itching to finish that you can finish.

C: I need Harrison Ford on about 4-5 multis, but mainly my Empire poster.  If I could add him, I would be happy.   Even if those other ones don’t get done.  If anyone wants to help out, let me know.

T: I know of a few guys.  On a side note, participating in the forum, not that this is a bad thing, but you’ll post a piece and folks are like, “Hey you want to sell it, you want to sell it.’  And you’re happy for the interest and you try to redirect them to help them, but…You too, right?

C: The Hamill signing.  I got some stuff back from Opix, I had people messaging, “How much do you want for that?”  “Well I don’t really want to sell it?”  “Well everything has a price?”  “Well make me an offer.”

(Laughs)

C: I don’t want to sell it, but if you’re going to offer a whole bunch, I’ll sell it to you.

T: And I understand, there’s nothing wrong with asking folks if they’d be interested in selling stuff.  I just find it really interesting.

(Laughs)

C: I mean it is funny.

T: Or, the new thing is, “Hey, do you think your friend will tell me how and when they get Harrison Ford?”  And I’ll say, “No, because I don’t know, and they’re not going to tell me either.”

(Laughs)

T: Figure it out, bro.

C: Yeah, I just give them some money and am happy that it gets done.  It saves be from having to wait and do all the work.

T: Tell me about your guilty pleasure autographs?

C: I really like that movie, “Return to Oz,” as a kid.  I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not.

T: I have.

C: It’s a weird 80s movie.  I have a multi signed photo from that.  That’s kind of an oddball one.  I don’t have any weird ones.  It’s not like I have a Young and the Restless collection or anything.

(Laughs)

T: Fantastic.  Well done.

C: Yeah, I’m not trying to get my Young and Restless multi done.

T: Just wait, I’m sure there’ll be making a convention somewhere, for the low price of $800 you can cast out a piece.

T: Well Clinton, that’s all I had, bud.  It was a blast.

C: Thanks for doing it.  I was happy to do it.