Hey Bartender / san diego bound

san diego bound

July 19, 2006

Off in the morning to the greatest freak-fest on planet earth, and like every year, i'm giddy with excitement. What's not to love about fleets of fat Klingons, leather-skinned & way past their due-date, aging "models," hordes of pony-tailed sweathogs in their full-length black leather jackets, and 40 year-old men dressed up like Sailor Moon?

I've been doing this show on and off now since i first went down with my pal Steve Ryan in 1991, and we were pitching projects to the Kevin Eastman pipe-dream, the money black-hole known as Tundra. We went again in 1994, and i haven't missed a show since 1996.

Chris, Rob (Venditti) and Andy (Runton) are already there and set up. Many thanks, guys. I don't envy those cats; for some reason the organizers refuse to turn on the air-conditioning during set-up, despite the bazillion dollar per-square-foot rental space vendors pay for the luxury.

This year, however, we'll be displaying fewer of our backlist books in general, and more of the frontlist and brand new books. (Hope to freaking god that Jeffrey Brown's new book shows.) So set-up should be a little easier.

I'll be honest... i just don't know what to expect about the debut of Lost Girls. The artist, Melinda Gebbie will be there signing, all the way from Northampton, England, and the press so far has been great. But this book … at the risk of sounding like i'm talking out of my ass … is absolutely unique in comics history. Highly intellectual, deeply spiritual, hard-core porn? At $75 a pop? Keeping fingers crossed.

I hope i sleep tonight.