Highway 62

EMERALD CITY: DAY II, ONE MILLION BILLIONTH OF A MILLISECOND ON A SUNDAY MORNING

Sunday was Mother’s day, a fact that I was reminded of only after I’d tried to get breakfast. I strolled casually into the Daily Grill, but a street away from the convention center, and expected to be seated promptly, as had happened the day before. The restaurant was two-thirds filled at best, both easy and peasy to get a seat.

Until I actually asked for one. Which got the response “Have you a reservation?” And then it hit me. In about ten minutes, that room was going to be hip deep in doting families and doted-upon mothers. There would be no sitting there for me that morning. I headed to the convention center and grabbed an apple, then called a friend who was coming in and hoped I was in time for him to grab a doughnut or three for me, since I wasn’t going to get real food. And me without real food (we can argue the realness of a doughnut later) is not a pretty sight, as I was shown in Portland a couple weeks back.

Continue reading "ECC - Day 2" »

Posted by Matt M. at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

EMERALD CITY COMIC-CON 2008: CUCKOO

A little perspective: The last time I went to the Emerald City comic show, it was a couple months after I’d murdered my baby rather than throw it to the wolves, metaphorically speaking. Yeah, that was not too long after I’d pulled STRANGEWAYS from what would have been a truncated publication at Speakeasy. I’d been >< that close to having a book out after talking my damn fool head off about it for the previous three years.

So walking those aisles was mostly a soul-sucking sort of affair, though talking to folks like Tony Moore and the Penny Arcade guys and being called over by Ed Brubaker to talk took some out of the sting out of it. But still, overall, it was kinda frustrating. I had a manuscript, but nothing really concrete. Okay, it was concrete enough to pitch to Scott Allie at Dark Horse, but nothing came out of that, other than a “like the material, not the artist, but I like this guy you got for the second book” sort of response. Which led to another six-month dalliance, which was just another link in the chain of Bad Timing that ruled 2006 it seemed.

Continue reading "Emerald City Comic Con - Day 1" »

Posted by Matt M. at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Travels With The Troll - Emerald City Comicon 2008

Laura with the Norweigan name that I don't dare try to spell from memory trolled me. You're gonna have to go way down the page to find my picture, though. After J. Michael Straczynski, but before Brian Churilla.

Not a bad picture, really...

Posted by Matt M. at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Done with the Emerald City Comic Con. Better that I'm done with it on a Sunday evening than done with it on a Saturday, midmorning (which is how it might very well have played out.) Sold some books, made some new friends, managed not to alienate any old ones (I think), and generally kept the ball in play.

Working past a righteous headache, probably brought on by not enough water and drinking with cartoonists the night before. Will likely report more later.

Posted by Matt M. at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now it can be told!

All Stumptown 2008 triviata will be found under a single blog entry right here. Right at this very entry that you're reading right now. For your linkblogging convenience!

Ye olde author of ye olde blogge. (Photo not by myself but by Aenigma of Flickr).
Day 0 - Friday. And you can find an ancillary entry right about here. Now with extra lamb-menacing action!
Day 1 - Saturday. Featuring my epic struggle against unknown physiognomic forces.
Additionally, some photo entries here and here and some liveblogging here and here.
And here's the final entry. A coda of sorts may yet follow.

Posted by Matt M. at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stumptown 2008 – KEEP MY PANTS SAFE, JIMMY WOO.

Tom asked me when I’d be posting this. I originally told him not to hold his breath, but seeing as Southwest has seen fit to delay my flight, I have not much else better to do than to blog. Such a sad life have I.

FRIDAY – ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT SCHNITZELWICH

I don’t think I really talk about comics on Friday. So if you’re hoping for four-color-follies, maybe you better skip to Saturday.

I’d planned on arriving early, because, really, what better to I have to do on a travel day than sit around waiting for a flight? Everything. Everything is better than killing time waiting for the big blue plane. Kissed and dropped off the kids, raced out the airport, ate something that proceeded to burn an abnormally large hole in my stomach and started giving CITY OF QUARTZ the re-reading that I give it every five or so years, it seems. This in preparation to actually start my big love letter to LA project (by which I mean, project where I take LA apart brick by brick by way of science fiction-horror) entitled EATERS. Yeah, I know, I’ve said that before.

Continue reading "Stumptown 2008 - Friday" »

Posted by Matt M. at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SATURDAY – ADDICTION OR PTOMAINE? A MYSTERY IN THREE PARTS

Shower. Hot. Peppermint soap. That’ll tend to wake you up.

Tried to settle myself beforehand. See, this was really my first show where I had to be on and selling stuff. Last year at Stumptown was kind of a dry run, even though I was peddling ashcans to anyone who’d stand in front of my table for any length of time. Wizard World a couple weeks ago? I wasn’t selling at all, only handing out review copies and trying to get the word out. But this? This was the real deal. We don’t need no salesmen here; we need closers, dammit.

Continue reading "Stumptown 2008 - Saturday" »

Posted by Matt M. at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SUNDAY – LESS BILL SIENKIEWICZ AND MORE SEAN PHILLIPS

Awoke tenuously. Was today a good day to die? Toe on the hardwood floor. Weight supported. Deep breath.

Hey. I feel okay. And my mere feeling okay compared to yesterday leaves me feeling like a Greek God. Okay, I can do this. Breakfast at the kind of local coffee shop I wish I could walk to whenever I wanted and attempts to tame the savage toddler heart (I’m rusty, since my toddlers are toddling no longer) lead off the morning. Oh yes, and grabbing that last stack of books I left at the house. The numbers were against me going home with all of my stock gone, but I was gonna give it a shot. That stuff gets heavy when you’re wheeling it through the airport. Best to leave what I can in Portland.

As the show opened, spoke with Matt Silady, Kirsten Baldock (both of Isotope infamy, and that of their own projects, THE HOMELESS CHANNEL and SMOKE AND GUNS, respectively) and Jason McNamara, who I can’t believe loves his comics so much that he moved twenty-five longboxes of them up and down to his new apartment while double-parked. That’s dedication.

Continue reading "Stumptown 2008 - Sunday" »

Posted by Matt M. at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1) I am completely restocked in terms of copies of STRANGEWAYS: MURDER MOON. Feel free to buy more with confidence. Eternal thanks to my minions and those who drove them from place to place.

2) Reports of my demise are greatly exaggeragted, but as of 6pm yesterday, I did indeed have one foot in the grave. I blame the ptomaine-laced sandwiches at the Doubletree. However, I'm back to radiant and glowing health thanks to a night of mostly-uninterrupted sleep and breakfast.

3) I think I'm supposed to be on my way there right now. Perhaps I should stop blogging until I get to the show. That seems a capital idea.

Posted by Matt M. at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)