APE etc
New comic up on my website. Sorry for not updating in a while. I'm still recovering from my trip to Berkeley/APE.

What a long trip. Long drive down. Long drive back. I rented a mini-van and drove 5 of us down from Portland. I seemed to grow an enormous beard/goatee overnight. It has streaks of gray. I think it's from the stress of my opera, or maybe because I'm now old. A lot of people didn't recognize me (which was sort of cool).



APE. The usual selling of crap; T-shirts, mugs, comics. People seemed to like my mini-comics.

Cool tattoo:


I caught Mary Van Note Sat night. She made a valiant effort to put on a good show for a very distracted crowd. She read from a book on feminism. She was on her hands and knees while an audience member held a leash connected to a dog collar around her neck. While she read he spanked her repeatedly. She's a clever girl.

Sunday, Gary Groth (Fantagraphics publisher) came by my table. He handed me photocopied one-sheet asking me to buy more Fantagraphics Books. They need money because Harlan Ellison is suing them. I don't know what bug crawled up my ass since I wasn't even drunk yet. I looked at Gary and said "Why should I support you when you've never done anything for me?" He looked a little surprised but the flood gates had opened. I went on to tell him that they'd never reviewed any of my books or reported on anything I'd done. Ever. He asked if I'd sent him stuff. "Yep, for every single thing I've done. I've gotten nothing." Flustered, he said that it was just coincidence. I said "Give me a break. I just wrote and produced an opera. The first opera based on a comic book and you did zilch reporting." He replied; "oh... we should have covered that." I almost yelled; "Yes, you should have." He walked away. Somewhere in the middle of the exchange I realized two things. One; this wasn't the practiced fantasy-conversation I've been having for the last 8 years, this was taking place in reality. Second; I'd pay dearly for every word I said. The funny thing is, I do like Gary. I've always enjoyed chatting with him at parties. I like the books he publishes. I like that he's tried to lend credibility to comics. Monday, I went to the Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley and bought a Harlan Ellison book.

To be fair to the comics journal, they once interviewed me (it was the worst interview I've ever gotten - all about my life, nothing about my comics). and they once gave a 3-year out-of-date bad review of one of the magazines I worked on.