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I will be at SPX again this year, on the weekend of September 26-27. This is my fifth SPX, and it remains my absolute favorite show of the year, bar none. Hell, it was my favorite show of the year even before Karon brought in the Annual Ignatz Chocolate Fountain.

This year, I won’t have a new book or minicomic to sell, so instead I made a huge new batch of clockwork/steampunk jewelry to bring along. I’ll have photos soon, but if you’re interested in any of the pieces, I’d suggest you either email me to hold one for you, or get to me right away. This stuff tends to sell out rather quickly, and every piece is one of a kind. I’m also almost entirely out of good-looking watch parts, so this may well be the last batch I make for a very long time.

Hope to see you there!

Man, I’ve been really lax about mentioning my summer engagements this year.

The most exciting one, by a long shot, is coming up this very weekend! It’s called Kids Read Comics! and it’s brought to you by Dan Mishkin and Dan and Katie Merritt of Green Brain Comics, and it’s being held in my home-town of Chelsea.

Paul and I will be there all day this Saturday, and we’ll be joined by such awesome comics all-stars as Jim Ottaviani, Michelangelo Ciccerone, Tara Tallan, Mark Crilley, Fred Gallagher and Katie Cook and many many more!

There’s programming all day Friday and Saturday, and the event is free to the public, so if you’re anywhere in the Chelsea, Michigan this weekend, come on by!

Hey!

I will be at Cryptic ConFusion this year, for Saturday only. Anne Murphy tells me I’m on some panels — some art panels, and some non-art ones, it seems — but I don’t know when or on what topics yet. Still, it should be a lot of fun. And Cory Doctorow‘s gonna be there, which reminds me that I’ve totally gotta get a copy of Little Brother now.

See you there!

I haven’t made a good Hallowe’en costume in years and years, mostly because I’m usually spending all my time working on comic books. This year, however, Paul and I got invited to a party over at Katja and Steven’s house — and since they’re both costumers, the bar was set pretty high. I knew I’d have to come up with something decent, so I decided to be an air pirate.

Then the jacket I ordered made me look all goofy and not cool and menacing at all. Then I couldn’t find a cheap aviator helmet (or anything that looked close enough to an aviator helmet to count). And then after going through my basement and visiting both toy and craft stores, I couldn’t find enough junk to cobble together a convincing Rocketeer-style jet-pack.

So I had to come up with a new plan: The Backyard Aviatrix.

Inspired by this awesome Instructable, I decided to make a set of daVinci-glider-looking wings. I’m enough of a klutz, however, that I knew I couldn’t rig them to open and close as my arms moved, or people ten feet away would lose their drinks. Talk about widening my spill field. After a few adjustments, I settled on a pair of handles that I could use to spread and retract the wings, and they worked pretty well until the foamcore gave out. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the angle on the wings quite right, so at full extension they were at waist-height instead of shoulder height.

Still, they were so much fun and such a neat challenge that I’m thinking of making a better set for next year’s Hallowe’en out of more sturdy, permanent materials. Lightweight wood like basswood probably wouldn’t weigh much more than the foamcore, and a stretch fabric between the wingbones instead of a solid sheet would allow the wings to collapse up much closer to the body.

Yay for costuming! I forget how much fun this stuff is. Anybody else got Hallowe’en pictures to share?

This year’s SPX was a total blast. I was really overwhelmed by the quality of the comics I bought during the show — it seemed like everybody had brought out their absolute best. Many of the faces I saw were entirely new to me, which was wonderful. It was great to se so many new entries into the field, and I blew more money this year on new comics (mostly minis) than I have the last two years put together.

We were also blessed to run into old friends aplenty, including Jay Hosler, whose new book, Optical Allusions, a gradeschool-level explanation of how eyes work, is gorgeous, and I can’t wait to sit down with it. We also ran into Whiteout and Road to Perdition artist Steve Leiber and his crazy-talented wife Sara Ryan, who just got BoingBoinged! Go, Sara!

Paul and I were lucky enough to stay with Carla Speed McNeil and fellow traveller Jim Ottaviani (who has an awesome new webcomic with Sean Bieri at Tor.com as well as three beautiful new books coming out soon, so you should totally keep an eye on his site). We arrived late to the Ignatz awards, and couldn’t even wedge ourselves into the aisles, so instead we sat in the lobby and hung out for a while with Jen Hachigian, Denise Sudell, Pam Bliss, Dan and Katie Merritt, Rich Watson, and some of the folks from Portland’s Periscope Studios: Jonathan Case, his wife Sarah and Susan Tardif. I was bummed about missing the awards, which rewarded my spontaneous decision to purchase Swallow Me Whole. Congrats, Nate!

The reception was great, complete with a return of Karon’s chocolate fountain. I didn’t photograph too many fellow creators, unlike last year, but here are a few:

The real surprise of the show came from a prop I brought to help attract attention to my clockwork jewelry: a pair of steampunked goggles. I won them on ebay and then almost ruined them trying to mod them up; I finally cannibalized some light fixtures I found in the basement and got them done just in time for the show. They were a huge success, and helped me sell out my entire stock of Clockwork Game minis, and all but four pieces of jewelry. Everybody wanted to try them on, so after about the third person, I started taking pictures.

Overall, this is the best show I’ve had in a long time. I ran into a whole bunch of other folks, too numerous to mention, but here’s a stab at it:

• Kate Beaton, who was mobbed the entire time. She seemed kind of overwhelmed at all the attention she was getting, but we tried our best to convince her that it was really well-deserved.
• Spike and Dirk, both attending their first SPX ever. Spike sold out of her graphic novels, so here’s hoping she makes it back next year. Dirk did pretty well, too, from what I hear.
• Leah Riley from Willrad.com, who sold me a really killer squid-with-its-tentacles-in-the-shape-of-a-heart tee-shirt. Paul was insanely jealous. Leah also took a picture of me blinking as usual Man, I hope I didn’t look like that much of a goober during the show.
• Three of my favorite webcomickers, all in a row:

  Meredith Gran, David Malki (the new Dark Horse Wondermark collection is really quite lovely), and Aaron Diaz. I was really happy to see such a strong webcomic turnout.

• Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, selling their many, many series — and announcing some more good news!
• We were right around the corner from Bryan Lee O’Malley and Hope Larson, but hardly got a chance to talk to them the entire show. We did pick up a copy of Scott Pilgrim and one of Chiggers, complete with a lovely ink-brush cover sketch by Hope. People whose tastes I trust say it’s a fantastic book, so I can’t wait to dig in.
• All the folks at the Dada Detective booth were really sweet and stopped by several times to chat and swap books. Really nice folks, and I’m looking forward to reading their series, which just released its second volume.

There were so many more people I ran into — if you’re reading this and I forgot to post a link to you, let me know — it’s hard to remember everyone. Such a busy, exciting show!

I had a great time meeting old and new fans, passing out Clockwork Game cards, trading minis, and discovering new artists and comics. I’ve got a ton of new minis and graphic novels, and I’m really looking forward to a pair of long lazy mornings this weekend. Yay for SPX!

Johanna Draper Carlson wrote this really great article about how to break into writing comics. If that’s something you’re interested in doing, go have a read.

Who wants to see me and Carla in a steampunk photoshoot? You know you do.

Huge thanks to Jennie Breeden for remembering her camera after I totally forgot mine. You rock, Jennie.

Rory Root, consummate comics retailer, has passed away at the age of 50. I knew him from theWEF, met him twice in person at APE, and though I didn’t know him well enough to eulogize him the way many others have, I was very taken by his shy, gentle, self-effacing nature, and how he countered that with his pleasant conversation and willingness to share his boundless knowledge with anyone, be it on line or at a convention. He was also one of the very first to give Vögelein a chance.

We’ll miss you, Rory. For your kind self, your beautiful store, and your positive comics evangelism.