SPX 2005

When I picked up my pal Craig "The Tot" Lane from Richmond Int'l Arirport late Thursday afternoon, he told me he'd been working extra shifts all week, and as a result, hadn't yet had a chance to ink the cover to his new comic, Tales from the Mug. We headed straight home, and he sat down and got to work...a few hours later, he'd finished the job, and it looked pretty freaking spectacular. We assembled his "master pages" to photocopy from and hit the sack, because we'd have to get up extra early to hit the copy shop on the way out of town.

Ink-stained fingers late into the night? The smell of toner first thing in the morning?

Oh yeah. it was on.

SPX 2005...at this point, it pretty much goes without saying that I love this show, and I always have a good time. As a result, it gets more and more difficult every year to write a con report, since it's usually comes down to gushing about the same stuff over and over. But I'll give it a go, and at least try to pick out the things that made 2005 different and or special.

The best thing, of course, is that my wife Brooke finally broke down and came to a comic book show! We've been together for close to five years, so I have no idea how she's managed to go this long without getting yoked into attending one with all the cons I do every year. But thankfully, I think she was pleasantly surprised...true, SPX is a lot less geeky (outwardly, anyway) than your average comic show, but he genuinely seemed to have a good time, and will no doubt show up next year as well. Now, talking her into going to San Diego is another story...

More good stuff:

I don't wanna be gauche and go on and on about making money, but I just have to point out that every year I try to estimate how much cash I'll earn at SPX, and every year I shatter that estimate. It' s not all about the dollaz, but that certainly helps.

I skipped the Ignatz Awards this year, mainly because we got back from dinner (at that awesome burrito joint a few blocks from the hotel) late, and I knew we'd end up having to stand up for the whole thing. Instead, I holed up in the room with J. Chris, Bill Burg and the Tot, worked on our epic jam comic that'd been circulating all weekend and watched two episodes of Justice League Unlimited. Congrats to the winners.

That built-in DC audience. So many folks know my stuff from the DC City Paper, whether they know it or not. Gives me a lot to talk about, and the people seem to really dig my stuff. Very gratifying.

Hanging with Dustin Harbin, who's in charge of the excellent Indie Island at Heroes Con in Charlotte, was as usual, a fun experience. I must've been drunk, cause I have foggy memories of discussing which wine or liquor goes with certain Sam Prekop and The Sea and Cake records with he and the Tot. Does that sound like the kind of conversation a sober person would have.

Not so cool? My performance in the softball game. I played like shit all game, rushing an easy throw to second that resulted in three runs being scored, and going 0-4 with an (unintentional, I assure you) sac fly at the plate. Oh well, better luck next time.

Rumor has it that the Holiday Inn Select, where SPX has been held since 1998, was recently sold, and that the show will have to move to a new location for 2006. If that turns out to be the case, I'll really miss kicking off the fall in Bethesda in future years. Hey, maybe they can move it to Richmond...