Back from Massachusetts

Well, I recently returned from Springfield, Massachusetts were I was lucky enough to be a guest at the Library Conference there, a joint venture between the public and school librarians. I got into Boston late, rented a car, and drove the nearly two hours to Springfield, where Stan Sakai and I had great dinner and recorded our interview. The Comics Journal, for their 300th issue (coming in September), wanted to do a pairing between a dew-eyed upstart (me) and a legitimate, highly-respected visionary (Stan), where we talked about differences in starting out, process, changes that have been made in the industry over the last thirty years, etc. The interview went well, and it was great fun getting to hang out with Stan until the wee hours of the morning. Keep your eyes peeled for that Journal! The next day I had breakfast with old friends Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier, along with Callista from First Second Books and Alli from Del Ray Manga. At the conference, Stan and I did our presentations (read about 'em here), and then joined the other creators for a larger Q&A proctored by noted comics library guru (and the author of Understanding Manga and Anime) Robin Brenner. It went really well, and I had a great time all around. I also got to meet Peter Gutierrez, who shares many of my views on using comics for education but articulates them far better than I, and John Shableski of Diamond, who is a walking marketing computer in addition to being a heckuva fun guy. I'm up late tonight in order to finish and turn in my submission to the new Star Wars mini that's a sequel to last year's Harvest is When I Need You The Most, if you saw that one. This one's either called Only What You Take With You or Don't Forget the Droids, I think - there are two books, and I'm not sure which mine is in, but it'll be available at MOCCA. My story is called "Mos Eisley" and it's basically a trailer for Casablana but in the cantina. C'mon, you know in your heart that the cantina scene is basically just the opening to Casablanca. Admit it. A couple of panels: