If Mark Hamill being Luke Skywalker didn’t make the guy awesome enough by itself, he’s also an incredibly cool guy who loves his fans. It’s so important to him that his fans have a good experience that he’s now using his Twitter account to help weed out fake autographs from the real thing by posting real autographs fans can compare others to make sure they match. If you’re still not sure, just tweet it at him and he can tell you for sure.
The good news is that the vast majority of autographed pictures and trading cards that Mark Hamill has responded to appear to be real. There are a few unfortunate fakes however, meaning more than likely some poor fan spent hard-earned money on the fake. After responding to one fan’s question regarding a signed poster, where his own signature at the very least turned out to be fake, his Twitter has since been inundated with other fans sending him pictures of their autographs for verification. It’s good to see that most of these are valid autographs. Many of them look to have been signed back when Hamill’s autograph was first in demand, and often on collectable trading cards, which in 2015 would probably be worth something by themselves, as long as they weren’t sullied by a fake signature.
Hamill is obviously upset with the autograph dealers, many, if not all, of whom know they’re peddling fakes. What’s most entertaining about the stroll down autograph lane is that if you’re Mark Hamill autograph includes a really bad joke, it’s probably real. Hamill apparently has a fairly twisted sense of humor, which we have to admit we’re really enjoying. He confirmed this one is real.
It’s great to see Mark Hamill using Twitter as a force for good. All too often, social media degenerates into something much more akin to the Dark Side. While Hamill is interacting with his fans and trying to help them out, his Star Wars co-star Carrie Fisher is currently dealing with trolls who feel obligated to tell her she hasn’t aged well for some reason.
People who sell fake autographs should be force choked. We hope Mark Hamill bringing this light helps to at least slow this trend. In the meantime we’re just glad that Mark Hamill is as noble a person as Luke Skywalker. It’s great when your childhood heroes turn out to be actual heroes.
