Here's my Comic-Con report. Organized loosely by subject. I don't care much for chronology; you get a better impression from a continuous narrative on each subject than from a list of what happened each day. It's in no particular order, which is why I haven't mentioned my boothmates or neighbors yet.Stan Sakai
An older Asian man came by our booth, late Sunday. He pointed at the Grootlore books and said "I used to have these back when they came out."
Then we all looked at his badge. Leonard, Thomas and I said - in unison - "Stan Sakai!". I was taken aback. Part of my brain was saying "Get him to draw something. Or give him a comic. He's Stan Sakai". and another part was going "What can you hope to give Stan Sakai? He's been doing this since before you were born. Why do you think you have anything he'd need?". But while those two were fighting it out, I was marvelling at the fact that Leonard, Thomas and I said his name at the same moment, with the same intonation, same pitch. I mean, if we had actually practiced it we couldn't have got it better. It genuinely surprised me. I looked at Leonard for a moment. By that time, Stan had taken a look at a few of our comics and walked away.
Modern Tales
I remember the Modern Tales booth....They were about three booths away from us in the same row.
I remember trying to talk to Glych at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise.
I remember trying to talk to Charlie Trotman at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise - but I didn't have much to say other than I really liked her work six years ago and hadn't any idea that she kept it up until I saw her at the Modern Tales booth.
I remember trying to talk to Shaenon Garrity at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise - but I didn't have much to say to other webcartoonists while I was there. I mean, I should've been able to talk comics or something but it just wasn't the weekend for it. But nobody really came up to talk comics with me so I guess it's even.
I remember trying to talk to Scott McCloud at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise - which wasn't so bad. Leonard told me I should go introduce myself. I waited politely for the conversation to pause and tried to come up with something better than "I'm Terrence Marks. I'm with The Nice. Leonard sent me. I'm going back to my booth now".
Individually, the Modern Tales artists, I'm sure, were great people. I was on booth duty for most of the con and didn't get to go over there. And they didn't come by to hang out; their booth seemed like a more happening place anyhow. There was one guy who kept singing and hollering about his comics for the whole weekend; that got tiresome after a few hours. If they were right next to us, I think that the con would've gone better for us. Because if somebody only had fifteen minutes to spend in our row, they'd probably spend five minutes looking at the Bolt Gallery (more on them later) and ten minutes crowded around the Modern Tales table, trying to talk to somebody but not being able to.
Greg Dean
I've been reading Real Life since before it was cool to read Real Life and it's one of my favorite comics. I never saw Greg Dean, even though I'd've liked to. He's always struck me as the kind of person I'd get along with. And he probably knows who I am, or at least he used to. But anyhow, his booth was on the opposite side of the floor. I never had enough time to walk there and back, so Isabel went over there to get a Greg Dean sketch for my book and got one. So thanks, Greg.
