I heard through the cartoonist grapevine that Shel Dorf passed away at 1:15 PM Tuesday, after a very long illness. Shel was, of course, one of the founders of the San Diego Comic-con, aka Comic-con International: San Diego. I first met Shel in 1979, at my first Comic-con. He was a fixture at the con until 2001, when it became physically too difficult for him to get around.

What a legacy he leaves.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Albedo-2-CGC-9-8-WHITE-Pages-1st-App-USAGI-YOJIMBO_W0QQitemZ230389856119QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a44e3777#ht_1044wt_1165

Who has that kind of money to spend on a comic book?

And how do I meet him?

The Baltimore Comic-con was almost a week ago, but I haven't posted about it because I'm still behind on deadlines. I brought 5 pages to ink in Baltimore, but was only able to finish one. I did write and thumbnail the story for UY 127 on the flight over, and thumbnailed 128 on the way back to LAX. It was a good flight both ways. Len Wein, Rob Leifeld, Marc Silvestri, Mark Waid, and Steve Niles were on the plane with me.

I had a great time at the convention. The entire con is all about comic books and comic art. It was well organized, and guests were treated very well. I was in a corner booth next to Evan Dorkin. I have been a fan of his for years, but we had never met. I wish we had more time to talk, though, but we were both really busy throughout the con. Other creators attending included George Perez (with whom I sat at the Harvey Awards), Michael Golden, Erik Larson, Walt Simonson, Matt Wagner, Don Rosa, David Petersen, Steve Leiber, Frank Cho, and Neil Adams. I also got to meet Bernard Chang, with whom I am going to Japan next month.

One Usagi fan brought his entire collection of Usagi comics--from Fantagraphics, Mirage, and Dark Horse--about 180 comics. I asked him to leave them and I would sign them all at my leisure, if he would make a donation to either the Heroes Initiative or the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.


Like most people, I like getting stuff. I know there is an entire community of Lego customizers who make new characters out of Lego. I have an Usagi Lego myself. I had never heard of Mr Potato Head customizers, though. Until now. An Usagi reader gave me one of my tokage lizards made from a Mr Potato Head. He is also working on an Usagi Potato Head.


I usually don't do color pieces at shows, but this time I did two. I did a live art drawing for their charity auction on Saturday, using a sharpie and acrylic washes. I did a large crayon drawing for the daughter of one of the volunteers on Sunday.

If you are looking for a comic-centric convention, Baltimore is for you. It is a fun, well-run show, with an impressive guest list. The Baltimore Marathon was held on Saturday, but never interfered with the convention, except when I had to cross the street between runners. The con attendees are great. And generous. There may be one or two people at each convention I attend that insists, "Keep the change." There were at least 10 at Baltimore telling me to keep anywhere from a dollar to five dollars. Wow!

I also did a presentation on Sunday:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23317

I'll be a guest at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend. It will be my first time there, but not my first time in Baltimore. I was a speaker at Johns-Hopkins many years ago. The neatest thing about that was that I found a nifty Indian 50's diner just across the street from the campus. It had a juke box, posters of Marilyn and James Dean, and served a killer curry. The owner even gave me a free slice of coconut cake.

Here's the convention website:

http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/

If you are going there on Saturday, leave home early. The Baltimore Marathon runs the same day, and there may be some street closures. If you are a marathoner (as so many comic-book readers are), come to the con after the run.

Helsinki 09/11-15/09

I love The Amazing Race. It's the TV show where contestants race around the world, stopping at various destinations along the way. Oftentimes, they determine their own routes, and incur a lot of mishaps and roadblocks. My opponent was Sergio Aragones, and our destination was Helsinki. I was traveling by way of Prague and Budapest, and Sergio was going through New Jersey. I barely made my connection in Hungary, but Sergio missed his completely. Don't feel bad for him, though. He went over to New York, had dinner with friends at Mad Magazine, had a good night's sleep, and still got to Finland before I did.

Actually we were guests of the Helsingin 24 Sarjakuvafestivaalit, the Helsinki Comics Festival. I left for Europe a day early to do a presentation and signing in Prague at the invitation of my Czech publisher.

( click here for the rest of the report, with photos )

We went to a special CAPS (Comic Art Professional Society) night at the Ojai Valley Museum last night. The Mad About Sergio exhibit is on, a one-man show featuring our dear friend Sergio Aragones. The museum closed at 4, but that is when it opened for us. Click on the photos to see an enlargement.


A lot of cartoonists and cartoon-types were in attendance: Bobby London (above), Scott Shaw!, Matt Groening, Bill Morrison, David Silverman, Mell Lazarus, Mark Evanier and Carolyn Kelly, Cathy Guisewite, Floyd and Adrienne Norman, Dean Yeagle, Bob Foster, David Folkman, Steve Greenberg, Bill Riling, Mike and Tracy Kazaleh, Nat Gertler, and so many others. Best of all, Sergio's wife Charlene and daughter Kristen were there. We had not seen those two in years.

( click here for more of my report with pictures )

09/09/09--September 9,2009--That has got to be an auspicious date. Maybe not as good as 08/08/08, but how often does three nines come along? Maybe it's not really lucky, but I was just hoping for a good flight. Sergio Aragones and I had been invited to The Helsingin 24 Sarjakuvafestivaalit--The Helsinki Comics Festival in Finland. I was leaving a day early to travel to Prague. I had been wanting to visit that city, and my Czech publisher has invited me a few times, but I was never able to take him up on his offer. This time everything worked out.

( click here to read the rest of the travel report, with pictures! )

Dark Horse is running a campaign with comic creators reading comic books and the tag, "I love comics!" Mine have already started appearing.

Rather than the usual photo of me reading comics in the studio, I dug through old pictures of me that my Dad took. He was an amateur photographer, even developing his own pictures. This is one he took when I was about 18 months old, circa 1954, and still living in Japan. He even got photo credit for it.

Okay, I'm really reading a Little Golden Book adaptation of Hiawatha. Do you think my parents wanted to warp my mind with comic books?

I've been trying to catch up on my deadlines, so have not had the chance to write up a Comic-con report. However, pal Mark Evanier posted a part of the Quick Draw panel with Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw!, and Floyd Norman. Bobby London, Dougie McCoy, and I were guest artists. It was the first time I had seen QD. It was a fun panel, and the fastest hour at Comic-con.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCCTEsHkGr0

I'll post my SDCC report next week.

Wife Sharon, son Matthew, and I drove down to San Diego. Daughter Hannah has class and will be down in a couple of days. Our house sitter couldn't come over until tomorrow anyway.

Traffic was pretty smooth all the way, and we arrived in Pacific Beach two hours later. LA would hit 100 degress, but he weather in SD is beautiful, though a bit more humid than usual. We had lunch at Ichiban Japanese restaurant in PB. It's a little hole-in-the-wall with pretty good food. We used to go to their main restaurant near Balboa Park, but it's a bit out of the way.

An hour later, we were at the Convention Center. Registration took less than 5 minutes, and we went into the Dealers Room to check out our booth. Handcarts, fork lifts and cranes were all over.

( more behind the cut )