Adam was flustered to be in the swarm of superheroes and zombies, waiting forever in line. By the time he reached Mr Blanco's table, Adam had to wipe the sweat off before he could accept a handshake.
Blanco picked up his sketchpad. "Well, Dr Adam Hartnett, hat would you like me to draw?"
"um, Mr. Fantastic, please."
The artist chuckled. "I haven't drawn him in a while."
"Well, I'm a chemistry professor. He's a big deal to me."
Blanco nodded, tapping at his notepad as he pondered his first line. Adam brought out his briefcase, and produced an issue of Tales to Astonish #105. On the cover, the Hulk growled skyward, as the rubbery arms of Reed Richards coiled around him in an atomic shape. Blanco tilted his head, studying Reed's face, and started to draw.
Adam flipped through the pages, until he found a panel featuring the very human Dr Bruce Banner consulting Dr Richards in front of a chalkboard, cluttered by calculations. Adam pointed to the chalkboard. "Where did this equation come from?"
Dr Blanco looked up from his drawing. "I don't quite remember. I had a sister-in-law who studied chemistry; whenever I needed reference materials, I'd borrow one of her textbooks and pick something that looked important and interesting."
"Really?"
"Pretty much. I might add a couple of letters and characters, to balance out the appearance of it, make it look like it was something. It just ended up on the page."
An abrupt laugh escaped Adam's mouth. It stopped Blanco's pencil, and alarmed his companion.
"I'm sorry," Adam said. "I mean no offense. This really did look like something to me. I studied chemistry in college, so I could figure out what this equation was."
"Oh! I'm sorry! I can't even bring myself to charge you for this drawing now. When did you find out it was all mish-mash?"
Adam spoke between guffaws. "Actually, it's not. It's a formula for stabilizing isotopes of certain higher atomic elements. Well, that's what it became. It's the reason I got tenure."
He pulled out a plain metal ring. "This metal just got added on the periodic table. Two years ago, you couldn't find enough of it on the planet Earth to make this ring. Now, I can give this to you as a gift - a thank you. Oh, and I will pay the $30 for the sketch."
"Thank you, Adam," Blanco said, tearing the picture from his sketchpad. "Did you want to get a picture?"
Adam kept his eyes on the ground as he left, while Blanco greeted his next fan. After he found a quiet piece of hallway, Adam looked at the drawing of Mr Fantastic stretching out from the page. Behind the superhero, Blanco had drawn a chalkboard that held the first half of the same formula out of Tales to Astonish; a comic-book version of Adam had been drawn with chalk in hand, starting the second. Underneath, Blanco had written above his signature: "...just ended up on the page."
inspired by Discover Magazine article, "Meet the New Element: Ununpentium"
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