That's a great story.  And a cute sketch!  ^_^  
Somebody else recently told me about a famous 
artist who, when asked to draw a slightly famous 
ship of his (Yamato), needed an assistant to run 
and get a toy version so that he could use it as a 
reference model!   LOL.

Well, I just obtained my very first signed sketch. 
 I met Mr. Shioyama at Sakura Con last week.  They 
strongly advertised his Samurai Troopers 
characters, but I was more interested in his early 
works (Daitarn 3, Votoms, Dougram).  I asked him 
about these during a question and answer session, 
and he was shocked to hear me mention these old 
shows.  He made me repeat myself a few times 
because he didn't expect anyone there to know 
about those.  When he asked the crowd of 300 or so 
if there were any other fans out there, you could 
have heard crickets chirping.  Yikes!  :-)  It was 
as if Mr. Shioyama and myself were privately 
reminiscing.  Heh.

Anyway, this is the BEAUTIFUL sketch I obtained.  
I love it!

JP