Saturday
Cabbin' With The Crow
Ain't no way I'm waiting in that line for the shuttle, especially when the cab fare is under five bucks, and especially when there's some other guy getting in the cab going to the same place. So I jump in to split the ride, and find myself sitting with James O'Barr.
"Hey, I know you."
"You know me."
From a cloud of cigarette smoke he asks what I do, and I show him a copy of Interman. He says he likes my brushwork, and this manages to lead into us talking about Will Eisner for most of the ride. O'Barr tells me that he's taken a couple of years off from comics to paint, and that he's been working on some stuff in the manner of Wyeth and Rockwell. This I gotta see. Maybe I will, because he says there'll be a book with all this work in it. Suddenly the cab stops at the bottom of J Street, across the trolley tracks from the convention center. "This is as far as I can go" says our driver, and we complain about it. Cabs weren't diverted, because I could see three in front of the building from where we were. We finally just pay the guy, and only later it occurs to me to hand him one less dollar and say "that's as far as I go." Why can't I think of these things at the time? Anyway, the Man Who Spawned a Thousand Goths and I chat more as we walk the rest of the way, and part company inside.Meanwhile, as our top talent made ready to meet the public...

I only have a few minutes to look around before the hall opens. I see David Hahn, who is suddenly all over the place. He had out a new issue recently of Private Beach, now has Killer Stunts, and is working on the upcoming Bite Club with Howard Chaykin. But more impressive is what he's learned to put on his table: an open tin of Altoids, free to all visitors. Not to disparage talkative comics fans, but this is just good thinking. Another popular practice now is for con guests to carry hand sanitizer for all the introductions and sweaty money being exchanged.
Writer Peter Siegel appears, bearing early copies of his highly professional (and morbid!) horror comic, Killing Demons. He also brings the book's editor, Kelly Sue DeConnick. She tells me about life in Kansas City, MO, in a positive light considering hardcore New Yorkers generally hate places that aren't New York.
I switch to the Illuminati table again for a little while, and see bigtime Joe Harris, who recently had a nice success with his movie Darkness Falls. He gives me a VCD of Tooth Fairy, the short film he made that grew into the movie. Now I can finally watch this thing, thanks.
Ninth Art's Andrew Wheeler is in town all the way from London, and thinks he's going to catch me off guard again with another gay request for his Buff Gents sketchbook. Looking at some of the drawings, I get the impression that a few of the artists were thrown by the theme, which is funny: if you asked many superhero artists to just draw their characters, what you would get would be extremely gay, gayer than what they do once made self-aware. Marc suggests the perfect subject: Dr. Strange. So Andrew gets the Ditko hero clad only in cape and the Eye of Agamotto, summoning his manservant Wong. Very proud. Andrew seems happy, but he's nice so it's hard to tell.
Yay Readers. People are coming up to me talking about my book, commenting on the storyline and characters and motivations. Boo Creators. Pros just want to talk about lawyers and agents and back end and blahblahblah. Not so Mark Wheatley. though. I see him and he wants to talk about the mechanics of storytelling, my favorite topic. I get a preview of his Frankenstein Mobster, and get to see an advance copy of the AMAZING book featuring Al Williamson's work that he's produced. Order that as soon as humanly possible. Elsewhere, as comics' movers and shakers determined the fate of the industry...

The Most Dangerous Fare
Greg Kirkpatrick joins Jim and me for a cab ride back to the hotel, and boy did we pick the wrong one. Everybody tells tales of nightmare taxis, but I swear, this is the real horror. We knew something was up when we got in and the cabbie cranked up some godawful music, and then tried to ask us questions we couldn't hear. As it was blaring right in my face, I asked if we could turn it down. He did, a little, and then roared off, going about fifty yards in the wrong lane so he could pass the other cabs. And then we logjammed when some driver foolishly tried to turn onto this lane that he had every right to expect empty of oncoming traffic. Our driver eventually wormed his way from that into another situation where he could block cars that had the right of way. The boys and I just threw our hands up to the surrounding cars to signify that we had no control over this. Finally the light turns green, or maybe not, who knows, and our stuntdriver tears out of there, weaving in and out of traffic WAYY over the speed limit. Then we find out he has a theme song-- he puts in a tape --I wouldn't lie about this, you can ask the guys-- of Peter Tosh's cued to Stepping Razor, with the chorus "I'm Dangerous!" We quickly reach the Holiday Inn, and he manages to find a one way strip to drive down in opposition. When we stop, he proclaims "You have reached your destination." We all exit with a newfound lust for life, to then find out a HazMat team just finished dealing with some methane problem in our tower. I have to shut down for a while.

Negatory, Devil Dinosaur...

I highly recommend these "naps". Later in the night I'm back at the Hyatt, and I'm wide awake, remembering people I've met and everything. Writer Doselle Young has resurfaced after some deep space mission, and now somehow owns an apartment building in Hollywood. Even stranger, he's wearing a porkpie hat. Kelly Sue is there, and introduces me to her clever husband Matt Fraction-- and he's wearing a cowboy hat. I just feel lame and hatless. Fraction and I bond as most comics folk do, by making fun of others who aren't around to defend themselves. I float in and out of several little groups, bouncing around a concept for an unbeatable Epic book: Bring back US-1, but with Superheroes driving the big rigs. HYDRA will function as Smokey, thwarted only when the Avengers form a Convoy and charge their roadblock. For some reason I want to focus on the Inhumans' trucks, especially the one with Blackbolt driving and trusty Lockjaw at his side. Will he finally speak on the Citizen's Band? And the image of The Watcher with a nice big foam core cap should sell it alone.

Everyone's having fun. Mike Oeming, like everyone else, tells Brian Posehn (Just Shoot Me, Mr. Show) how funny he is. Heidi MacDonald is running around in a Dracula cape. Actually it's Vampirella's cape, which went unused otherwise. The Vampi model didn't show-- she's just done Playboy, and called Thursday to tell Maureen McTeague at Harris that she doesn't feel comfortable wearing the costume. Fill in punchline here. Tonight cabs refused to show so Greg and I hoofed it back.