BEST. WEEKEND. EVAR!!11ONE

CAPE! OWNS YOU ALL

Last year's CAPE was the best comic event I've ever been to.

Until THIS years' event! It was the super fantastic! At no other event can I imagine ATTENDEES working like ants with crumbs to rescue quarter boxes from a sudden storm!
I met bunches of YABsers, and LJers, and other guests of the show. I promise to name names after I've had sleep. I was so busy I only got a few pictures, but I'll post them.
The drawing event at the Metro after was so awesome. I felt like a total rockstar!

Richard, Stefan, Chris, bazzer, icklefirsties, lesgirly--YOU ALL FUCKING ROCK. YOU are what comics are all about, and remind me of why I love them and what I love about them.

I also got to hang with sclerotic_rings and czarina69 and shoot the shit and hear hilarious stories from both about customer service escapades. I made Paul laugh so hard his hair glowed in contrast. I also met Paul's partner in crime, Paul the Red.

WOOT! I have made my one and only comics convention appearance this year, and that's good, because NO OTHER could exceed it.

CAPE! Report in Free Verse

Or something like, since I am too whacked by a one-two cold-allergies punch to write a narrative.

Friday was Clusterfuck Day, because of a huge storm here in S.A. the night before. Abandoned truck, fucked oil change on my car, and so on.
Awesomely nice drive, though. I listened to All About Eve over my FM transmitter, and used my mobile to walkie-talkie home and call Lisa.
Turns out being 2.5 hours late for the Mixer Friday was okay. 30 minutes is exactly enough mixing time for a beer and pictures. I get to explain to Bryan Hitch that my drive, which is middling in Texas terms (six hours), is about like him driving from home in GB to Scotland. He's awesome.
Cute waiter dressed as Superman brings me Shiner on tap. Bliss.
I reunion with Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa and immediately get him in trouble with Richard. Hah!
I take pictures that look like I have leapt to the front of each one. Ooops.
Outside the restaurant, I talk to Tony Bedard, who knows me by reputation. He isn't comforted by my describing how I left comics as like Angela Basset setting her ex's house afire in "Waiting to Exhale", so we talk about kids, instead.
Dinner after the Mixer is amazing. I sit next to James Kolchaka, and Ronee G-B, and across from Roger Klorese of Prism Comics, and (mumble, help me here) next to Roger. I order Salvadoran the whole way, since that's what James is doing, and find out he's ordering a tostada or something. We talk about kids and cats. He draws me his baby and Spandy and Spandy's barf. I draw him Girl, Boy, King and seven cats.
My dinner is delicious. I have no idea what the various things I ate are called, except for the shrimp nachos. There was a kind of pancake with cheese in and a polenta-like taste, a melt-in-mouth tamale-like thing in a banana leaf that tastes like it was cooked in chicken broth, some wonderfully puffy-soft rice, black beans and plantains. I share bites of the pancake and tamale around to see my tablemate's eyes light up.

I talk to Richard and Chris (Richard's partner), and there are big hugs all around. I am all ready for the morning, stoked by mixin' and dinner. I go to Paul and Caroline's and we talk until not too late and we laugh our asses off. We put our asses back on and go to bed, so we can wake up at early-ish to go to CAPE! and Caroline to work.

More tomorrow.

CAPE!: Sketch by Kit White

This is bluecanarykit's sketch-from-memory of Paul and I at CAPE! Note that she captured my two buttons and Queen Bee pin, my book stand, and Paul is holding Seymour.
Kit asked Paul what he did since he'd told sci-fi to fuck itself, and he said, "I raise carnivorous plants!" with such pride there should be no doubt that Paul Riddell made the right choice.