Damon Lindelof (Getty Images)

Hollywood, California – Go see him when he’s signing. You would like him while he’s signing. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, along with J.J. Abrams, are the founders of ABC’s Lost, which I would unabashedly call one of the all-time great entertainments. More recently, Lindelof has also had his hands in the new Star Trek films, the impending Cowboys and Aliens and more. We have Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, the new collection of a six-part series Damon wrote and Leinil Francis Yu drew.  The man surely doesn’t mind risking his life at the frothing passions of the geek masses dabbling in comic and sci-fi show mythology, but he doesn’t have much to worry about, seeing as everything he does seems to be awesome.

Case in point: The opening pages of his Wolverine vs. Hulk have Wolverine getting ripped in half and then scaling a mountain with his claws, dragging his torso along to gather his legs which Hulk is threatening to eat. Whoa. We also get segments with titles like “Where Logan Pisses Off a Panda” and cameos from She-Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and Nick Fury, who’s a driving force in the story. It seems Hulk just killed 800 people in New York and was sentenced to death by nuke, but when a guy gets his powers off of radiation anyway, perhaps that isn’t the best way to kill him. Hulk survives, and Wolverine is sent after him for a fight to the death that spans continents, super-hero prisons, Tibetan slums inhabited by harems, daydreams and even Casablanca. The question “How does Wolverine get through airport metal detectors?” is even posed. The answer: very entertainingly so.

This is why Damon gets infinite street cred. I trust him more than my best friends, than my government, than most of the food I eat everyday. What I mean is that what he creates, that I ingest, has never harmed me, hurt me, or disappointed me. I have no idea how Lost will end, but I’m pretty darned sure I’ll be satisfied. I’m just as clueless as to how to sufficiently describe how great Lost really is, what it’s meant to me and my friends at times, the bonds it’s helped build and just how great it really is. Dammit. I already said that. See? I told you. But I’m darned sure it’s been nothing but satisfying if not a bit genius in its telling. It’s always been compelling, surprising, and funny but big-thinking. It’s a good-versus-evil morality tale with a Hurley on top.

Reading Damon’s W v. H shows his sensibilities play just as well, if not better, outside the Lost sandbox where he can really go nuts in the comic universe with a whole lot of cursing, violence, decapitation and barely dressed women. It’s easy to see why Damon’s work resonates with the geek crowd.

Wednesday night at the Earth-2 Comics store in Sherman Oaks (a cool, not-too-geeky place to check out), Damon showed up to face that crowd and all its fury and sign books, but there was no fury to be had. Just pictures, jittery nervousness at meeting somebody whose brain has produced these ideas, and a lot of Lost DVDs and comics and permanent markers. Oh, and Damon’s Mom.

She cut me in line (totally allowed, by the way) and got all proud of her son, kissing him on the head as he kind of rolled his eyes, talking about how he made it, getting pictures until he kind of embarrassingly wished her goodbye and said he’d see her the next morning. See, the guy’s a real guy.

He cracked jokes, answered questions and had something fresh to write on everyone’s book. He’s still like a cool guy you’d meet at a party or a bar. I can happily say, having met Carlton as well, that the same is true of him. He stood around with me and my friends for a good ten minutes or so at an event last spring, just to talk shop and joke around about the “mythology” of Nash Bridges, the show he previously worked on.

I thanked Damon for the stuff he’s created and congratulated him for making it. Not the stuff, I mean, but “making it” in the sense that people say they do in show business — to fame, fortune, glory, and he took it all like a guy that hadn’t. He said he’s just glad he was able to make something that people get together and watch just like the things him and his buddies used to sit around and argue about. That’s what makes him happiest, he said. Though I’m sure money, accolades and geek-respect don’t hurt.

He asked what I wanted signed on my copy of Wolverine. I said it didn’t matter. He drew a voice bubble around Hulk and made him say, “Hulk smash Josh!” OMG! Damon Lindelof and Hulk know my name!