#c2e2 2023

As 2023 is coming to an end, here's my this year's highlights.

Special thanks to

@greydelislegriffin

@jessicadicicco

@universalpictures

@nintendo

@theloudhouse

@veggietales

@nickelodeon

”How do you feel that there are billions of people on the earth that love your work and love who you are?” Tenoch Huerta at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo 2023 Bonus:

Hi there. I'm fifty years old today, and the last couple of weeks I've felt every bit of it. I'm mostly writing this on Wednesday night. Mostly. I'm sure I'll have other things I wanna say come up before I hit the Post button.

C2E2 came and went. It was alright. I sold some copies of WAR BIRDS and TAKEDOWN, wish I'd sold more, but I've heard others had a really slow show as well. I didn't even really do BarCon like I was wont to do pre-pandemic (and OK, even a little post-pandemic); Friday night died early, and Saturday I just didn't feel like it, even as it hit me halfway to walking to the bars. Don Cardenas pointed out to me that this was the third C2E2 in 18 months, which once he said that kinda put things in perspective. The next one is not until late April 2024, so maybe there will be a bit more enthusiasm for the event on all sides by that time. Maybe by then, I'll have something else out to sell to people too.

(Which reminds me, something I prophesized last post thankfully did NOT come to pass, when Brandon Johnson won the Chicago mayoral race ahead of White Rage MAGA Chud in Dems Clothing, Paul Vallas. Thank gawd. Now Johnson just needs to be a better mayor than the last few. It's a low bar to clear, but somehow Rahm Emmanuel and Lori Lightfoot couldn't clear it…)

If you are in suburban Chicago, I'll be tabling at the mini comic con the Schaumburg Public Library is hosting on Saturday 4/15/2023 from 1pm - 4pm CDT. It's my local library, and if I wanted to I could walk there. It's the library system I grew up in. My daughter works there, as a matter of fact. Very pleased to be doing so. Gene Ha and many other local artists will be a part of it. Please say hi if you are coming by.

Speaking of WAR BIRDS, next Tuesday, 4/18/2023, will be a second launch of sorts for the book, as it will finally be available in bookstores, as well as Amazon and Kindle. So hopefully everyone who was not able to get a copy at their local comic shops because they didn't order and/or get any can get a copy. (MY local, who I've been shopping at for DECADES [well, OK, there was a break from when I was living in Indy] didn't get any in on release day. But that may have been Diamond fuckery.) In any event, Tuesday is the bookstore release date, and I hope you can get one then if you didn't get one previously. (And if you did, THANK YOU!)

I mentioned a Project I Couldn't Name last post. Pleased to say I've turned it in, way ahead of when I was told to, so hopefully there'll be some news on that front I can actually share soon.

I saw Depeche Mode! It was amazing. That's it, that's the review. (The opener, Kelly Lee Owens, also really good!) I can't wait to see them again in November.

(I was in the middle of writing this when I found out Dan Gaines, the owner of my Other Local, Comic Carnival in Indianapolis, has passed. Hadn't talked to him since I left Indy. So sorry to hear of his passing. My condolences to his family, loved ones, friends and everyone at Comic Carnival.)

I keep putting off something I've been wanting to write about here, and I'm going to be doing it once more, as it is now my birthday, and I have a meeting in about forty minutes for something I've been wanting to do for a very very long time, and thought the door was closed for decades, but it has reopened recently. So I am going to do that.

My Lady Loki cosplay 🐍