Oh whoopee!!!!! APE 2003!

I wore my Sparky's red 50's dress that looks very Enid, and also a red checkered headband and my red shoes. i brought my canvas bag.

Oh it was fun! We went and it was freezing cold and we went inside and the first thing I did was go around and oh........... all the comics! All the comics! There was this woman in line and she asked us, "i'm sorry, but...what is this?" and we explained to her that it was all about comics, and she thought we meant comics as in comedians. She said, "Oh, so you go and speak to them or what?" And I said, "Yeah.. they have booths, and you can talk to them, and they're selling their books and stuff and you can get things signed..." and she said, "Oh, so it's all about comedy," and I said, "No...COMICS." And she finally got it and laughed, and said, "Well, have a great time!" and promptly left. I went to every single booth and it was amazing. I only wish I could've bought more comis! OK here's the highlights...

Well I went to Too Much Coffe Man's booth, and I talked to the guy there twice. First, I asked him, "which issue has Jhonen in it?" And he pointed it out to me--the issue isn't bad and jhonen's comic is really funny. I liked it a lot better than Johnny stuff. He seems to have matured a lot. Yes. I like. He also said that Jhonen was probably going to be on their panel and it would be oodles of fun.

Then, the second time, I had a longer conversation with him. I said, "I really liked your panel."

"Oh yeah?" he said. "Thanks a lot. Did you come to see Jhonen?"

"Actually, no. I came to see everybody, and then I stayed for Jhonen afterwards."

"Oh wow! Really? Most people just come for Jhonen. That's pretty neat."

"Yeah. Hey.. do you know if Daniel Clowes has shown up yet?"

"Oh, actually, no, I don't, sorry...I think he's coming today though, I'm pretty sure."

"Oh, he is. I just talked to him yesterday, actually, because I went to this Spice signing that he was at."

"Oh, really? Wow."

"Yeah, and he said he was going to be here at 4 or 4:30, and.. well.. it's 4:30 now."

"Oh, I see...yeah, well he lives in Oakland now so.."

"Oakland, really? Yeah, I thought so but then.. I read... didn't he live in Berkley?"

"Yeah, North or South Berkley. I think he moved to Oakland though. I haven't talked to him in a while, 1 or 2 years. I think he's too big for me, too famous now. But I did used to talk to him."

"Yeah, I'm sure you guys are like best buds, right?" I asked, smiling at him.

He laughed. "Right, we're really close."

"Yes, well, thanks a lot. See you!"

"thank you!"

He was really nice, of course he was obligated to, I bought an issue dammit, but he was still a really friendly guy.

I turned around and started to gripe, but then what did I see? Daniel Clowes striding in, beige turtleneck and slacks, and gaping, I followed him to the Fantagraphics booth.

Oh the Fantagraphics booth was fab! I stayed in line, with the same people who had been behind me in line yesterday behind me (actually a lot of Spice people showed up) while staring at Dan and being all oogley, I somehow managed to notice the two men next to him. At first, I assumed, OK, two comics artists, right. But then as boredum sunk in, I looked more carefully at them, and hot damn! It was Mario Hernandez! AKA Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez Love and Rockets, that type of Hernandez! And I was quite flabbergasted. The man next to him was really sexy. I thought he was hot. And he was Steven Weissman! The guy who does all the trendy comics that they jabber about in trendy zines and sell in the front displays in the Booksmith in Haight and Ashbury, with "don't call me stupid." It was then I realized Fantagraphics is one of my top favorite publishers. Anyway, I went to Dan and said, "Hello again," and he said,"Hi!" and smiled, and I handed him my sktechbook. "Um...can you make it out to my friend? Her name's Kathy. With a K.""Kathy with a K. Sure." and he drew an Enid for her (ok, maybe i'm not so special after all. it was identical enid.) And I asked him, "are you going to be on any panels today?" he said, "No, I'm not... I only agreed to come if I didn't have to talk." and then I laughed and said "oh" which is indeed a very stupid comment, and asked if I could have my picture taken with him. And since I kind of knew the guy who was behind me and my stupid, idiot dad always runs off I tried to get him to take a picture with the digital camera and he tried 3 times and didn't fucking get it, so got my Dad to take it finally he showed up. Dan said to the other guy, "Yes! Go away! We don't need you!" in a luaghing way and the guy said, "Well, at least it got you to smile!" Dan doesn't smile in pictures. He has a nice brilliant one but he just grimaces in this pained way. In mine he even passed on the grimace.

The panels were great. I taped the whole thing with my little tape recorder, and first it was that one black cartoonist, this other ddude, some unknowns, Jhonen and the Too Much Coffee Man guy. It was very, very interesting and especially seeing Jhonen speak. Because if you're fans of some musician or actres, you know what they look like at least, you know how they sound, they're always speaking, but hearing Jhonen talk just made him more like a real person to me than just some behind the scenes godman who draws comics. It personified him. I liked that experience a lot. What I didn't like was when they kept asking him questions, and ignoring the others on the panel, and that they asked him stupid stupid stupid questions too. When there is tyhis guy who creates crazy comics like Johnny and characters like GIR I guess they assume that he's just as crazy as them, so they don't assume that he might like some human, normal interview like everyone else gets. They instead ask him things like,..ok, this was an actual question asked yesterday: "I gave fingerless gloves to all the hobos in San Francisco, and now they're my followers, what do I do next?" It visually pained him to answer those sorts of inane questions but he did, anyway, and well. He's still hot but I realize he was wearing eyelineer which kind of freaked me out. later, I wanted to get in line but they wouldn't let me. Dan Wouldn't let me. And I said hi to him but he doesn't recognize me at all. So I left and got my book signed by the guy who does Sparkz and Rikki and Tavi, and then while he was talking to someone in the back, I went up to him and asked, "I'm sorry to intrude if you're done, but may I please take a picture with you?" and he said, "sure" and took it and I said thank you and left, whihc is a lot better than what i did last year. Thank GOD he didn't recongnize me.

he looks a lot hotter in this year's pic too.

God I can't hear shit on my tape recorder of the panel. oh i can hear some. Yeah, you can make it out. It's pretty good. All right. Quizno's. I had a really good spot, pretty close up.

Also i got the Little Scorwlie comics for Kathy and I. Also Also Also. Also, I got a zine and lots of free stuff. ANd i got TONS of comments on my dress. A lot of random people, and a lot of cartoonists. I got two comments on my cbgb's button. One guy said, "hey, rock on girlfriend, you ever been to CBGB's?" and I said, "No, I'm a poser." they all laughed and said, "that's ok, i've only wanted to go too." One black cartoonist lady who was real nice (i talked about LA and stuff woith her) said that her best friend would really like the dress. One hippie lady came up to me hyperventilating and saying, "Oh my god! I lvoe your dress! Your fashion sense is so great!" and the two guys from the Geek Monthly booth took a picture of it. The El Gato guys and stuff made good conversation with me, too.

Lee's comics was there, an most of the time I can tell when a guy has something going for me, and boy, this guy did. I mentioned him! He was the guy taking pictures of me yesterday? yeah! I showed up today and he recognized me and said, "Hey, you were in a lot of the pictures yesterday." "Yeah... it was a lot of fun" "Yes, it was!" "So, do you guys have like a website or anything? THat you'd put the pictures up on?" "Um, yeah we do, it's lcomics.com, but actually I don't think we'd put the pictures uup on it, ew'd just like... scatter them around the store and stuff, so. Come on by or something. So are you looking for anything in particular?" "Yeah...no...do you guys have any sandman stuff on sale?" "No, we don't actually,well I didn't see any anyway, but anything we'd have would be in the general vicinity of.. here.." he said, gesturing to an entire wall of comics. We both laughed. "just kididng.." yeah, more small talk, I bought Ariel Schrag's book Definition for a mere 1$$$$$$$!!!!!! Can you imagine!!! I've really admired her for putting something out at such a young age, but god! a buck. It was great. And another employee there also recognized me and thanked me for coming to their store. Then I left.

Well, i ewnt to millions of other booths and doidn't buy millions of other things, and was in a constant state of guilt-tripping (which is why, next year, I'll bring my zine and there will be tons of trading!) and it was so much fun, it was really great. I was re-inspired with the love of comics and art. And I have a new sketchbook. Hilarity will ensue. Anyway, bye for now