The Official K Chronicles and (Th)ink Website

Ahh..San Diego. It again has come and gone. But a great time was had by all. I’ll try to break down the highlights day by day..

WEDNESDAY is designated as “Preview Night”. A special 6-9pm event that allows folks who pay extra to get a sneak preview of the floor before everyone else.

Well, it’s just become another day, really..Just as crowded as the other days. And that’s a good thing for the folks who are selling stuff. We rolled into San Diego at about 5pm after dealing with some heinous traffic just outside of San Diego County on the 5. We’re seriously considering taking the train down next year.

Checked in with all the usual suspects. Vezun from Las Vegas. Shannon Wheeler (“Too Much Coffee Man”), in from Portland. Tom Beland (“True Story, Swear To God”), all the way from Puerto Rico. And the one and only Stephen Notley (“Bob the Angry Flower”).

THURSDAY was the first full day and a fairly busy one. I sold out of most of my older collections and a lot of the latest (th)ink collection. The highlight of the day was when Morrie Turner came by to say hello. He came to apologize cuz I said I’d love to moderate his panel (which was happening on Friday), but I didn’t get picked for the job. But heck, I cannot argue with who they picked to moderate it.

After the show, we made the annual pilgrimage to Ole Madrid, a restaurant in San Diego’s Gaslamp District that offers a Maine Lobster dinner every for only $11.95!! Insane!! I got two.

Then we went back to the Convention Center to see the world premiere of the new animated straight to DVD “Superman: Doomsday”. Eh.

FRIDAY, we decided to have some good fun but having the first annual “Win a Date with Bob the Angry Flower” contest. It consisted of a piece of paper where people would fill out their name and number, and Steve Notley would call up the winner the next day and take em out on the town. After a couple of underage boys signed up (including one that wrote “Eat my balls”), curious ladies started to sign up. Hmmm. Very interesting.

Oh..And for some reason..I was inexplicably drawn to Erin Moran’s autograph table. Erin Moran played “Joanie” on Happy Days.

After the show, we hit the oldest bar in the Gaslamp, the Tivoli, for the annual “Nappy Hour”, where Black cartoonists and the people who love them sit, chill, eat and drink.

We had a strong, feminine presence this year at Nappy Hour. I hope it is a trend that continues.

I also took control of the Tivoli Jukebox for fifteen songs. Some of the KEEF fm playlist consisted of:
Jackson Five- “The Love you Save”
INXS-“New Sensation”
David Bowie- “Golden Years”
Atlantic Starr- “Freak-a-ristic(!)
Prince- “Alphabet Street”
Sinead O’Connor- “Mandinka”
Jimi Hendricks- “Fire”
Beastie Boys- “So Whatcha Want”

After that, we hit this nice and quiet tiki bar where the mojito’s were quite tasty. And ended it at the Hyatt with some hippie named Jeff.

SATURDAY is generally the busiest day, but it wasn’t. Sure it was crowded, but the folks who were there were scoping things out..and not necessarily buying. Checked out the Alison Bechdel panel. Aaron McGruder came by the table after his panel, along with Reno 911 and Boondocks voice actor Cedric Yarbrough. A pleasure to meet him.

Towards the end of the day, it was time for Steve Notley to pick the winner of the Bob the Angry Flower date contest. It wasn’t tough. Katie B. wore a shirt that said “Feelings are boring. Kissing is awesome.” and she said something like “I wanna make sure you don’t chicken out.” She won hands down.

For dinner, we hit the crappy assed Kansas City BBQ. Why so crappy? We waited an hour for our food. It was mediocre. And there was almost a fight at the table next to us. (I was disappointed there were no fisticuffs). Anyway..Stay away from this joint at all costs. Their claim to fame is that some part of the movie”Top Gun” shot there.

After dinner, we went to see pal Shannon Wheeler’s “Too Much Coffee Man” the Opera. You heard me right: Opera. And it ain’t no joke. It was hilarious to see a peer’s work come to life on the stage in this capacity. It was funny, extremely well-performed and just plain cool. I’m proud of the bastard for putting it together.

SUNDAY was the busy day everyone was waiting for. Peoples wuz buying like crazy. I sold out of the new book and all K Chronicles books. Steve sold out. Smiles all around. And our feets were killing us.

In the end, one of the strongest Cons ever. I made some good connections. Met some really nice folks. Picked up some nice books. And had a very enjoyable time.

Shout outs to Ted, Baby-Ted, Stu, Angel, Georgene and Rob, Mike and Miriam, Chris one, Chris two, Christina, and oh so many more who cannot be named at the moment.

Kerstin got me a digital camera.

Hey!! All you industry folks can still vote for me in the Harvey Award ballot. Check it out below.

And keep those donations coming in for my MinI-Golf team.