News

Hey, everybody. Things have been mega busy around Casa Del Irwin. Lately, I feel as though
I have about a dozen very angry Yorkshire Terriers clamped on to my pantleg.
They’re none of them big enough to take me down, but all together, they’re a menace.
And it seems as soon as I shake one of them off, it comes back with all its littermates.

For some idea of what August was like for me, it all started at the beginning of the month when
the books arrived. I punched through about 75 press orders (to places like local newspapers,
Entertainment Weekly, Booklist and the like) and then a dozen or so preorders before I had to
jet off to Wizard World Chicago. Immediately after that I had to stay with an out of town
relative for a week… so I effectively lived out of a suitcase for 2 straight weeks. No
sooner did I get back from that than I had the release party, and at the end of that week,
I moved apartments. This is normally not that big of a deal, but the new apartment was at
least 15% smaller than the other one, which means that I had to sort through everything I
owned and get rid of at least that much of it. Then none of my furniture fit, so I had to
go out and buy new furniture on top of everything else. Then SPX happened, and I had a
blast, (more info on that below), but I spent
18 hours in a car in just over three days, and spent most of the rest of it on my feet selling
and talking, so my voice is totally shot right now. And, just for good measure, around about
the time I went to Wizard World, I suddenly started having stress-related health problems that
have had me seeing doctors hither and yon. (Stress? ya think?) But the good news is that
I’ve finally given, thrown or moved away enough stuff to find my floor and desktop again.

And, I’ve also managed to get all the Preorders done. IMPORTANT: If you preordered, and you DO NOT
receive your trade paperback before the end of this week, email me IMMEDIATELY. (Except for Paul
who lives in the Netherlands… it might take just a little longer for yours to get to you,
but it’s going out in today’s Post!) There’s always the possibility that an order got
overlooked in the chaos of last month and I don’t want anyone to go without. I am very thankful that
everyone who preordered has been patient with me, and allowed me to do everyone a good-quality sketch
instead of just slapping things together. It may have taken a couple extra days, but I want everyone
to be happy with what they receive.

So, now that you’ve all heard me whinge about how busy I’ve been, it’s now time to celebrate all the wonders
that I’ve seen in the last month! For the business was almost entirely good stuff. Parties,
Conventions, new and old friends… I’ll start from the most recent and work my way backwards.

Kerrytown BookFest
This was fun — until it rained! Paul Sizer, Jim Ottaviani and I shared two tables and did a surprising
amount of business for a Sunday afternoon. No pictures, unfortunately. The odd thing was that as soon
as I left to go on an errand for an hour or two, Paul and Jim started selling books hand over fist.
They made me promise to go away more often. Less work for me, I guess.

The Small Press Expo, Bethesda, MD, Sept 5-8
Lordy, lordy, lordy. For all the disappointing shows I’ve done, and all the times we small pressers
have been stuck in the armpit of a big show, this wondrous weekend made up for all of them.

Friday, September 5th
I drove down to Bethesda with Matthew Messana, henceforth known as Jane’s Boothmonkey, MonkeyBoy, Virus or Fezboy — seen
here with Wizard employee and former Sequential Tart, Trisha Lynn Sebastian. He’s a versitile one,
that Matthew, and answers to just about any name you wanna yell at him. He’s also the owner of a
Damn Fast Car,
a car with bunwarmers, leather seats and zoomy zoomy engine that made the nine hour drive (each
freakin’ way) far more bearable.

So we come rolling into Bethesda at about 4:30 am on Friday morning. We left at 7pm the night before, and drove a harrowing
trip via the Pennsylvania Turnpike through twisting mountain roads reduced to single lanes by construction
and crowded in by huge semis migrating east like bison. Virus navigated like a pro, and even loaded down
with about 800 pounds of con supplies and baggage, the TT handled like a dream. Car Go Fast Now!

Now, arriving that early might sound like hell, but lemme tell you, we missed Beltway traffic entirely.
When we arrived at the hotel, you could have fired a cannon down the beltway and only hit us and two other cars.
I’m told that during daylight hours, the drive from Pennsylvania to downtown alone can take six hours, so
I’m quite glad we made the run in the middle of the night.

In we go and collapse into bed. Slept like clubbed seals. Good grief, was I glad that I listened to Virus
and got a room in the con hotel. Trying to navigate between two hotels on five hours’ sleep would
have been a nightmare.

I was up a few hours later and let Matthew continue sleeping — he’d driven the entire way and deserved the rest.
Headed down to the lobby and immediately ran into Tom Beland and Lily Garcia, two of my favoritest
people in the business. Said hellos, and went questing
for coffee. Armed well with caffeine, I headed down to the Montgomery Room, where I would quickly find myself
in extremely good company. Greg McElhatton, the show director and a
Tartsville
denizen himself, had seen fit to lump a big portion of the Sequential Tart community together, all in one place.

This picture shows perhaps one-third of the Sequential Tarts that attended the show — talk about a useful online community! Other SPX-attending Tartsville residents not represented in this picture include Harris O’Malley, Jim Ottaviani, Raina Telgemeier, Jeff Parker, JE Smith, Tom Beland, CatBoy, Lee, Denise Sudell, Laura, Pam Bliss, Rich Watson… the list goes on and on. So many creators, writers and fans all brought together by an online messageboard! (And most of us are sane, too.) Let’s hear it for Tartsville!

A couple days before the show, Greg made me spit coffee all over my monitor by informing me that I was going to be sitting next to none other than Terry Moore, the creator of Strangers in Paradise.

I was thrilled to get the chance to talk to Terry and Robyn throughout the weekend — but wasn’t too thrilled at having to restrain myself from going all fangirl all over him. (Turns out that Tom Beland had the same problem when driving Terry to a signing in California one time, so I didn’t feel so bad.)

Terry and Robyn were two of the nicest people you can hope to meet, and were extremely polite in putting up with my incessant Faerie Shill. (Buy my book! Buy my book!) Greg told me that since this was Terry’s first SPX, he wanted to put someone next to him that wouldn’t frighten him away. (Fat chance, Greg. He’s never comin’ back now!) It also turns out that this is gonna be Terry’s last show til SDCC next year, so I feel doubly lucky.

Friday was a fantastic day, and the spillover from Terry’s table had a wonderfully beneficial effect on my sales — while people waited patiently in line to buy SiP, they got subjected to all sorts of Faerie Marketing Schpeil. Turns out that SiP fans are Vögelein fans, too! Robyn and Terry both dished me some useful dirt on our mutual printers – and thanks to their recommendation, I got some most excellent customer service at Quebecor. Thanks, guys!

For some reason, I got it into my head that I should make Mooncakes to share with the Sequential Tart crowd. They were a hit, and nearly three dozen cakes vanished, poof! Now I am distributing recipes and eBay links to mooncake molds.

Friday night we got a crew of Tartsville people together for dinner at a mexican restaurant next door to the hotel. Mixing fifteen knackered artists and pitchers of sangria is seldom a good idea, and sure enough, it ended with paper towels on the floor and cursing. And guess what? It was on the
opposite side of the table so I had nothing to do with the spilling! Nothing, I tell you! (For those who don’t know, I have a -25 point GURPS disadvantage — I spill things. Lots of things. Even people, sometimes. Ask Jef.) But we had a darn good time in between, and I even learned some new mohel jokes. This particular gathering was to celebrate the release of Smut Peddler — a girl-friendly porno minicomic that got its start in Tartsville, and saw brisk sales during SPX. Yay, Smut!

We got back to the hotel to find a huge industry schmoozefest going on in the lobby — people from all walks
of small press publishing life were rubbing elbows, talking shop, and drinking. Loud, wonderful, invigorating…
and I was so wiped out that pretty much went straight to bed…
but not before drawing a cartoon about Man-Eating Brie
in Suzanne Baumann’s sketchbook. (yes, I was tired and loopy.) Seriously, though — they collected a bunch of old turn-of-last-century punchlines from old New Yorker cartoons, and had them arranged, with no pictures, one to a page. Each artist picked a quote and did a drawing to match. Mine was something about Brie being out of control, so I drew it bursting out of a shipping crate and devouring a shipful of pirates. I love pirates. They’re the new monkeys, you know.

Saturday, September 6th
I hate to say “More of the Same”, but… more of the same. Same great show, same literate, articulate fans, same outrageously good sales. Oh, and same free drink tickets so that we could get boozy during the show. Have I mentioned in the last ten words how much I love SPX?

Seriously though. I was selling and sketching so much that I didn’t get away from the table all that day. The morning was beautiful, though, and I took a ten-block walk to a coffee shop to get my head together for the show.
MmmmMMm. Coffee.

Some things I learned during the show (Taken from a very similar post on the Sequential Tart boards:

• Madison Clell needs to hang out with us more often. She is too cool to live so far away.
• Pam Bliss’ sweet little comics, averaging 50 cents apiece, can still make people stop and pause in a show chock to the gills with astonishing art.
  

• Rich Watson is an incredibly nice guy. He not only interviews well, he also gets your quotations exactly right. And I still owe him a drink — for both the awesome coverage he’s given to V — and the comics commisseration story we shared.
• When they make you a gin and tonic in a 3-oz cup with 2.5 oz of ice, it’s gonna be strooooong. You have been warned.
• Neil Kleid is a hell of a good writer — and a much better salesman than me. My daddy was a salesman, so I know from hucksters. It is also no hardship to be his shabbas-goy.
• Now more than ever, Red Bull is my friend.
• I can sell more books to 2,000 people in 2 days (SPX) than I can to 48,000 people in 3 days
  (WWC) provided that they are the right kind of people.

• Long Tail Kitty. LONG Tail Kitty. LONG TAIL Kitty. LONG TAIL KITTY!!!
• No matter what she tells you, Denise is not The Sane One.
• You know how nice everyone tells you Craig Thompson is? He’s nicer than that.
• Jay Hosler is the Awesomest Daddy In Comics. And his wife’s a trooper to haul around two small children all weekend long.
• Nat Gertler can paralyze a toddler with laughter from fifty paces.
  He had both the Hosler kids shreiking with hysterics.

• Layla’s new style (Watch for it! Demand the new style, people!) evokes a “Holy sh*t!” reaction in everyone she shows it to. So says Boothmonkey Virus.
  
• “Tiny Mezuzah” *so* needs to be the name of a minicomic.

• Themed sketchbooks are awesome. I did a sketch of a guy’s golden retreiver, one of Hank McCoy, and even one of Krypto (Superboy’s dog). But Sean Bieri is always the funniest guy in the book, so don’t even try to outwit him.

After another great day, we posseed up about 35 people and headed out to Mongolian Barbecue. We had to split
up into several tables to fit everyone in. I was lucky to wind up sitting with Carla, Layla, CatBoy, Virus,
Dan and Katie Merrit from Green Brain Comics, Sean Bieri,
Neil Kleid, amongst others.

I wish I had some better pictures of the assembled, but they really came out poorly
with the bad lighting and the red neon and the hey. I could show you one of Neil Kleid with glowing eyes
that’d stop your heart. His face lit with red neon, pounding down single malt from his hip flask… but it’d onlyfrighten the children.

Much food was consumed, and I found out that Bethesda’s Mongolian BBQ is better than Michigan’s. By far.

I gifted CatBoy with a tinwhistle, and blew my cover as an Irish Session Musician showing him how to play it.

Then we headed back to the hotel, where ANOTHER amazing night of small-press schmoozing was underway. Despite
an evening-long Coca-cola binge, I crashed early, again. Soooo tiiiired. Not that I was complaining — it
was definitely a good kinda tired.

Sunday, September 7th

Sunday at SPX used to be a picnic and pig roast — but this year they forsook the social event in favor
of another day of sales. This made me sad. My pocketbook was happy, but I would have far rather

had the opportunity to just sit and shoot the breeze with authors and publishers — especially those
I only get to see once a year, and even more especially since I was too tired to talk on Friday or Saturday night.

You know that old saying about people being separated at birth? Well, come to find out it’s true.
Jen Hachigian Jerrard and
Layla Lawlor got sat right next to each other —
and look at ’em, wouldja? View this handy infographic on Layla’s site for further info on the conspiracy — it shows
Layla, Jen, and Layla’s real-life sister, Harmony. Considering the evidence, I’d say we’re looking
at a definite adoption, one way or the other.

One thing that did make me sad was the absence of Paul Sizer, which denied us the chance to
have another real-life couples version of Separated At Birth… with me and Paul — and Tom and Lily. I suppose this is the exact point in the story where Tom starts giving me crap for havng a thing for bald comic book writers… and perhaps justifiably so. But regardless of the comparison, I’m not cutting my hair as short as Lily’s. Some of us look cute with short hair (Lily) and some of us look like dejected fifth-graders (me). Still, you couldn’t ask for a nicer couple to be compared to.

Sunday’s sales continued strong, and one SiP fan who had bought my book sight unseen on Saturday
(hiya, Dermot!) liked V so much that he came back and bought five more copies for his nieces and
nephews. Now, that’s dedication!

I also got a visit from my SuperFans, Jeff and Tracy, who flew in from Texas to say hello. It’s one thing to have people write you emails and tell you that they like your book, and it’s entirely another to have people fly a thousand miles just to say hello. Add to that the fact that Jeff and Tracy are incredibly nice people (Tracy: hope the chiropractor sets your back aright, BTW) and their visit made one of the best parts of the entire weekend. After a mad dash for their plane (Just one more sketch! We can take a taxi! Really!) they headed back out for home. I am well blessed to have fans like these. They make it all worthwhile, even dealing with the weenies.

Sunday morning, Virus left his fez unguarded and I took full advantage. By Sunday afternoon, things slowed down to a crawl, and I was able to make a dash away from the booth and get books from Raina Telgemeier, A. Dave Lewis, Rafer Roberts, Batton Lash and Jackie Estrada, Harris O’Malley, Sean Bieri, who I swear is one of the funniest guys making comics today; several books from Ad House Books (Southpaw, Pulpatoon Pilgrimage,
and some of Pitzer’s minicomic stuff), the irrepressable Neil Kleid, and many others, whose stuff I haven’t even had a chance to wade through yet, thanks to the apartment move. I also got to trade books with the likes of Ted Rall. It amazed me that people of Rall’s calibre are just wandering around the show, talking shop. This tall, unassuming guy walks past, looks at the book, and I mechanically offer him a free comic. Then I look at his name tag. “Gimme that comic back!” “Why?” “Dude, you’re Ted Rall! Have a comp of the graphic novel!” Yeah. Like that.

My pick of show, however, was Lark Pien‘s Long Tail Kitty series. BoothMonkey Matthew had purchased a copy of LTK for his girlfriend back at APE in February, and she’d literally read it to pieces, and carried it with her in her purse because it always made her smile. Matthew dutifully got her another copy — and showed it to me. An obsession was instantly born. I am officially, completely, and totally in love with Long Tail Kitty, Mister Boombha, Bee and Flower, and all the other characters in her books. My one hope is that I didn’t frighten Lark and her sister too much with my fervor — I was practically jumping up and down when I got to her table.

Lark doesn’t currently have a website, but you can occasionally find interviews with her,
and can purchase her minis online at various places. Her books have hand-pulled silkscreened covers and are some of the most wonderful and adorable minicomics that I’ve ever seen. They make me smile every time I read them. I had to buy two full sets, one for me and one for Paul — because I didn’t want to let go of mine. Quotes from “XOXO Long Tail Kitty” have already worked their way into my daily vocabulary (“I love you, fishie dispenser!”) and I look forward to getting my hands on one of Lark’s sister Jane’s Long Tail Kitty Finger Puppets the next time I see them. Sooo cuuute… sooo out of money! Buy this book! Long Tail Kitty!

As the show drew to a close, Matthew and I both felt a profound sadness. SPX was, hands-down, the most fun show I’ve ever done. APE ranked a close second, but there was something about the atmosphere, the people, the genuine friendliness of the show that made me feel intensely at home the entire time.

So we loaded up the car and headed out. Another long winding drive, this time through the spectacular hillsof West Virginia, thanks to the cunning directions of CatBoy and Denise. Thanks, guys! The drive was
*much* more pleasant than the Penna Pike.

We stopped for food at a truck stop in Uniontown, PA, where I had my first introduction to Scrapple.I like to consider myself a worldly woman. I eat everything from sushi to tripe. I have eaten my grandmother’s Tonguewiches, growing up on the farm. Very little will I not eat, provided it can’t outrun me. Scrapple, I am here to tell you, is vile, vile stuff. Granted, this was Truck Stop Scrapple. I’m sure I’ll get several emails from PA natives who will send me their MeeMaw’s Scrapple recipe that is sure to make me change my mind. But still. This stuff tasted like the suet-and-seed mixture that we used to put out for the woodpeckers in a mesh bag. Bleah.

We arrived back home at 3:30am. I had thankfully taken the day off of work. Poor Virus, on the other hand, had to go into work that day. Ah, the perils of Unix.

At this point, I need to take a minute to stop and thank Matthew for all that he did during the show. How many people have a friend who’s willing to drive nine hours (each way! Did I mention it was nine hours each way?!)
shell out for half a hotel room, then help me pimp comic books all weekend? All this, and everyone who met him, loved him. Whenever I do a show without him, I get “Where’s MonkeyBoy?” Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Matthew Messana, the hardest working BoothMonkey in comics! Thanks, Matthew. I couldn’t have done the show without you.

I would also be quite remiss if I neglected to send a shoutout to Layn Just, the hardest working CatBoy in comics!

So yeah. SPX Rocked. Hard. A lot, and stuff.