Hope felt a bit sick today (for which there a multitude of reasons - travel, germy convention-goers, etc), so we took it relatively easy. I got a good night's rest and avoided "Con Sunday Syndrome", feeling bright and rested as I got to the show. But Hope felt ill, came for a few minutes and couldn't hack it. I only stayed a few hours and packed in early to nurse her back to health.

I only bought one thing at this con: a GETTER 1 REVOLTECH robot toy. I am very stoked about it.

I also had a chance to stop by Urban Outfitters and pick up a totally awesome Japanese Tony the Tiger Frosted Flakes t-shirt.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and sorry to anyone who missed me late in the day after I'd left. Fortunately, it was a much slower crowd than yesterday, so I'm not too ashamed. Most of you got to me on Saturday.

Con exhaustion has caught up to me, too. I feel half-dead, and we're waking up at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow to sit in airports and on planes all day long.

Here's the only photo I took today, of my favourite con sketch from today.

I am pretty tired.

Hope and I hung out and had Indian with Jacob, Brandon G., Marion C. and Erik (Lars) Brown. One of those cartoonist evenings. Good times.

The Seattle Hyatt is nicer than the Century City (Los Angeles) Hyatt. There, I said it.

Hope and I will be in Seattle tomorrow.

We're coming up from Portland and we'll probably be a little late, in case you're planning to be first in line at the show. Wait patiently and we should be there around noon!

Hope has: Gray Horseses, Salamander Dream(s), t-shirts, and one beautiful preview copy of Chiggers for you to ogle

I have: books (at Oni), original art, posters, and new t-shirts! (first run, black only)

We're sharing a table, somewhere.

We're heading to Portland tomorrow. Portlanders(?), don't forget to come to the Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley signing extravaganza!

Thursday, May 8th
6-8 PM
COSMIC MONKEY COMICS
5335 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland OR
www.cosmicmonkeycomics.com

Was anyone at the New York Comic Con? Apparently Oni printed up a real Scott Pilgrim poster (this one), and I would like to see photographic evidence.

(The picture accompanying this post has nothing to do with anything - I just found it on my hard drive and threw it online. It's from last year.)

In a few weeks we're going to Portland! Then Seattle! We have a signing in Portland, May 8th - details soon.

Currently spinning:
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: DIG LAZARUS DIG!!!
M.I.A. - KALA

Edit: Here's a photo of the poster! Thanks, Jeff.



EDIT TO ADD: You can procure the poster at any of a number of comic conventions over the next few months. Think of them as "convention exclusive". Sorry to everyone who can't make it to a convention or signing, but low-profit plus high-headache means internet shipping is unlikely.

We ended up having a good time (oops?).

Day 1: travel. When we got in (dinnertime), we found out that the casting of Michael Cera had been announced and people were abuzz. Pure coincidence. We had dinner with some of the boys from Oni, who were in town for other stuff, and also with some Hollywood Producer Guys and Mr Edgar Wright. It was loud, but fun, and the food and wine were excellent (Tasca, Eric Gitter's favourite place, I guess - he's our Oni Press Hollywood Producer Guy).

Day 2: we hung out with some friends (Nick and Emily, who are on livejournal but I don't know how to do the name-link thing), and ate at the 101 Coffee Shop. I had the thursday fried chicken special. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of all my food the entire trip. We also visited Michael Bacall (screenwriter to watch) at his awesome house.

Day 3: went to Little Tokyo, ate some cheap/good sushi at Zencu, browsed Kinokuniya and bought a couple things, picked up some Japanese snacks at the market (pancake cookies, green tea meltyblends, mochi, american coffee), shopped at American Apparel, took a meeting, and then went out to a dinner that I can't even begin to explain, so I won't.

Day 4: exhausted already! Went for a swim in the morning. Dropped my phone in the pool (it showed signs of life for a while, but I don't think it's going to make it). Went to Meltdown, made a huge stack of books to buy after the signing. Ate sandwiches at Abbot's Habit (down the street from the comic store and very good). Signed nonstop from roughly 1:30 to 3:30. Sold some art. Bought the pile of books. Went out to dinner with Bacall at a cheapy Mexican place that I won't mention because we got made fun of for going there for the rest of the weekend. Almost went to a movie, then didn't.

Day 5: Had breakfast (poolside! at the Standard!) with Adam and his wife. I dunno about the rest of you, but our experiences with Hollywood Producer Guys have been strangely awesome. All our producers are awesome Ivy League geniuses, not the caricatured dum-dums you might expect. We really like them and would hang out with them any time, even if they weren't Hollywood Producer Guys.

We mostly took it easy the rest of the day - ended up going to the beach with Nick, toodling around the closed mall (easter sunday) and then we finally did go to a movie that night, Drillbit Taylor, which was awful (but we still love Owen Wilson).

Day 6: had lunch with Edgar (the Standard again, but inside this time), went to Universal (exciting! but didn't see any famous people), chatted about movie stuff. Jared (a Yale man, see?) took us around the studio on a golf cart. We got in trouble with security when we tried to drive by the Back to the Future clock tower. Then we dragged him out to dinner at Chosun Galbee, which I'd been waiting for all week, and we had a ridiculous quantity of bulgogi and stuff.

Then we came back!!! The trip back was horrible and Logan Int'l (Boston) is my new pick for "worst major airport ever".

I took down my last two posts - I don't want to sound like I'm being a negative creep about this movie thing. I get easily ticked-off by lazy, ill-informed Internet Opinions (tm), but I'll try to chill.

It's exciting, sometimes fun, generally weird, often confusing. We get to hang out with people like Edgar Wright, which is many a nerd's dream, I'm sure. And we got treated like Important People for a few days, about which I cannot complain.

That's right. We're going to LA for a little vacation before the convention shit hits the convention fan, and I finagled a signing at Meltdown.

Hope will probably be around if you have a burning need for her to sign something, but she didn't feel like getting on my shameless-self-promo bandwagon.

I am looking forward to maxin' and relaxin' poolside, and being stuck in traffic for hours and hours.

So, we can't make it to the Calgary Expo. Sorry! We have promised to come in 2009 to make up for it.

Good news: the Calgary Expo is friendly with Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle, and we're going there instead! That's May 10-11, and it'll be my first time in Seattle. Hoping to also visit Portland while we're at it.

I don't like talking about my "personal life" on here, but I will try to explain in as few sentences as possible. (1) We moved away from Nova Scotia. (2) We moved to Asheville, North Carolina, USA, Hope's hometown. (3) I am immigrating to the U.S. (you know, so I can live here legally), and am not supposed to leave the country until that's done. (4) It was supposed to be done before Calgary, but these things can drag.

We are off to Vermont to experience the Center for Cartoon Studies. It's a college for cartoonists! What I fear this means is that all the students will know more than me and be better-equipped for the real world. Oh well, at least I'm rich and powerful. Anyway, we will speak to the students and hopefully see what it's all about.

I found out one of our forthcoming convention trips has to be canceled, sadly, but I can't say which just yet. I'll have to leave you in suspense until next week. :(

We're going to Heroes Con this year! Been meaning to go for ages, and Dustin finally buttered us up enough. It's June 20-22, just a few short weeks after MoCCA (NYC). Greatly looking forward to it.

Hope's new book, Chiggers, will probably even be out by then. Oooooo!

Will I have anything new by then? Possibly something small. We'll see.

News: My cat spilled tea on my keyboard. It started bugging out AFTER it dried, so I left it for dead and got a new/different one. Now life is weird because the keys are in weird places.

This drawing will be part of a charity auction at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, April 26-27 2008, Calgary! Hope and I have been invited as guests. Shamefully I have never been to the Canadian Prairies, so I'm looking forward to it.

It's a drawing of Scott Pilgrim and his female coworker (Raleigh?) from the Gilded Palace of Flying Burritos, as sort-of-seen in Volume 2. The auction has a "western" theme, see? They are also printing an art book featuring all the various contributions to their charity auction, which ought to be very nice.

I forgot to mention HEROES in Charlotte, NC, in my last post. They are a great shop and I did a signing there recently. (I heard they were sold out of their first week's order, though, so pbbbtt!)

I should also mention that I am signing at CHAPEL HILL COMICS in Chapel Hill, NC, along with the lovely Hope Larson, on December 1st - that's One Week From This Saturday! At 2 PM. Come down and do your christmas shopping or whatever. I am going to try to make more copies of the Annotated Pilgrim and Hope will have some minis too.

People: if Amazon says your copy of Scott Pilgrim Vol 4 is coming in January, they're just kidding. A bunch of people have told me that Amazon said their book was coming January and then it showed up the next day. Just be patient. They are already shipping hundreds of books.

I'm appearing / signing at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, a comic store in Charlotte, North Carolina, the evening of October 5th. It starts at 7 PM. That's exactly two weeks from PRACTICALLY RIGHT THIS MINUTE! I'm going to be in the area and I wanted to check out the store, so... two birds, one stone?

This is the store that puts on the annual HEROES CONVENTION in Charlotte, which I will hopefully also be able to attend for the first time in 2008.

Pre-emptive FAQ:

Q: Isn't that book of yers, Scott Pilgrim Vol 4, coming out that week?
A: No... sorry. It's not. I know it's listed as such on the Oni website and possibly at Diamond, but it's not actually going to be out that week. So no, I won't be able to sign it at this event. This is a PRE-VOLUME-4 event.

Q: Will Hope Larson be there?
A: Unfortunately, she can't make it. Maybe next time!

Q: Have you ever been to Charlotte? Are you going to eat the delicious (BLANK) at that great restaurant, (BLANK)?
A: I've never been. Any tips are welcome.

Q: Hey, is the book done, anyway?
A: It's very close to being done. And I mean that. It will hopefully still make it out by the end of October, but every day is a crazy catastrophe so it might dribble out in November. Or, you know, five years from now. don't push me

TCAF is this weekend, August 18-19, in Toronto.

It's at Victoria College, right beside Museum Station (across from the Royal Ontario Museum).

It's FREE! to get in!

About a million fabulous cartoonists will be there exhibiting and signing and sketching and selling their fabulous stuff!

It's in scenic downtown Toronto, on the beautiful University of Toronto Campus, as seen in Scott Pilgrim Vol 3, which is nominated for a Doug Wright Award, to be given out Friday Night!

It's right down the street from Yonge where you can get good cheap Thai food and whatnot. (The Amazing Toronto Reference library, as seen in Scott Pilgrim Vol 2, is also just a few short blocks away.)

I'm on the second floor, beside Wright-nominated HOPE LARSON and Wright-nominated REBECCA KRAATZ. I will have:

• All my books for sale! $12 each! 60 copies each! How long will they last?
  
• THE ANNOTATED PILGRIM! $3 each, or free with a purchase of any two $12 books (or a piece of expensive artwork)! I printed 200 of them! First-come, first-serve, if it comes to that!
  
• Expensive artwork! Some of which will be cheap! I am reducing prices soon/now!
  
• Free, beautiful, full-colour, double-sided postcards, featuring Secret Pixel Art on the back, which has (somehow) not yet made its Internet Debut! I am good at keeping this secret!

I will do signatures and sketches in your books for free! If you have all three Scott Pilgrims for me to sign, I usually do a sketch in one of them and just sign the other two. If you also have Lost at Sea, I usually do a little sketch in there too. Two book-sketches per person if they have all four books, dig?

I usually do small sketches for free, if you provide paper or a sketchbook. My wrist is troubling me lately. Please don't ask too much of me. I will beg you with my sad, sad eyes.

On Saturday night I'm playing some songs on my guitar, at Sneaky Dee's, followed by some real bands. Exciting! This event costs $5. Explore the fascinatingly weird coincidence of me playing a show at a bar that is a prominent location in Scott Pilgrim Vol 4, and is depicted in the secret pixel art on the back of my free postcard.

Very long post! That is all for now!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I am involved in two panels - something about MANGA at 1 PM on Saturday, and something about GAYS IN COMICS at 4 or 5 pm also on Saturday. Note: I am not gay, but have been roped in as the Token Straight Guy (who writes a well-known gay character) for this panel. Other note: I would have more information, but the TCAF website is down right now, and so is my website, but hopefully everything will be back soon.

TCAF is next weekend, August 18-19, in scenic Toronto. Tons of great cartoonists will be there! I'll be there too.

I finally put together a nice little hand-made photocopied version of THE ANNOTATED PILGRIM, Vol 1 and 2, which I will have available for sale. My thinking is it will be $3, or free with a purchase of Vol 1 and 2 (buy them for a friend, get THE ANNOTATED for yourself?). The booklet is upgraded, edited, completed, and beautifully typeset by amateur InDesign user yours truly.

I will have a new version of the Vol 4 Postcard. Free!

I will have lots of original art for sale.

I will have copies of my existing books (Lost at Sea, Scott Pilgrim v1-3), for once. Lots of copies of COMICS FESTIVAL, I'm sure. Possibly some FREE SCOTT PILGRIMs, if the Beguiling has any left.

The table I am sitting at will also have Hope Larson (her website is down, sorry) and Rebecca Kraatz. Watch out.

I will be playing some music at a TCAF-related show at Sneaky Dee's on August 18th along with some other cartoonist-rockers, which should be interesting. Send requests now if you plan to be there. Sneaky Dee's is actually a location in Scott Pilgrim Vol 4, and is pictured on the back of the Vol 4 Postcard, which is an interesting coincidence, so I'll have a stack of postcards at the show too.

I'll remind folks about this more later, maybe.

Here are some photos.

Here is a transcript of my "spotlight" panel (thanks Doug and Kiel and everyone who came). Note: it was not really depressing - it was supposed to be funny.

Food diary:

Day 1, Thursday, Lunch: After 12 hours of travel it was only 11 AM, so we went to Sears Fine Food on Powell street in San Francisco. I ate 18 tiny pancakes with bacon and coffee. I feel okay about that.

Day 1, Thursday, Dinner: a veggie burrito at a Del Taco on Market St. I, uh, yeah. I don't know. I was wandering around by myself (Hope was visiting with a friend) and I was tired and not that hungry, and it's hard to get "good" Mexican food where we live. This was remedied the next day, thankfully.

Day 2, Friday, Lunch: a very nice savoury crepe with potatoes and salad. Crepevine, in the Castro, on Church street I think. Jen Wang lives nearby and we ate with her, Vera Brosgol and Dylan Meconis.


Day 2, Friday, After Lunch: I got some home-made ice cream from a nearby place. Cookies and cream. It was good.

Day 2, Friday, Late Afternoon: A dessert crepe this time, from Sophie's Crepes in Japantown Center. I used to always want one, but was poor. This time I could afford it! I got a crepe with Nutella and kiwi, and a ton of whipped cream. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Day 2, Friday, Dinner: After our signing, Graeme McMillan's lovely wife (Kate?) recommended an area with lots of taquerias, and we went there and had a wonderfully bloated time. My dinner plate took twenty minutes longer than anyone else's food and was about four times the size. I was very pleased.

Day 3, Saturday, Lunch: Graeme McMillan and his lovely wife offered to get us burgers, onion rings and garlic fries from a certain heavenly place they knew nearby. I had a seared tuna sandwich that was one of the greatest things I've ever eaten. I'm sure I reeked of garlic the rest of the day and I'm sure I didn't care.

Day 3, Saturday, Dinner: Hope and I went back to Japantown with James and Randy from Oni Press and ate the most amazing sushi I've ever had. As I said in my panel the next day, I truly realize that I've never had "good" sushi until this dinner. What I had in particular was a salmon skin roll, a toro & green onion roll (toromachi?), and an eel/avocado roll - this one was kind of fancy and had a special name (edit: caterpillar roll). For round two I got some toro nigiri (this was to die for) and also split some spicy tuna roll with James, which was also to die for.


Day 4, Sunday, Daytime: There wasn't really a meal. I bought snacks in the morning because I was worried about that, so I spent the day eating Combos and Pepperidge Farms cookies. Thankfully our friend Jenne also brought some excellent pastries from the bakery where she works, in the north bay.

Day 4, Sunday, Dinner: We capped off the trip in style with a trip up to the aforementioned north bay with the aforementioned Jenne and her mate George, and we had a totally sweet Italian meal where we were all trying each other's stuff, downing a carafe of local wine, and sharing three desserts. Hope had gnocchi that were like little puffs of air. I had this rolled chicken-mozzarella-prosciutto thing that was ridiculously great.

Who's going to APE next week, in San Francisco?

I am!

I've never been.

(To APE. I've been to San Francisco, although not since... 2001?)

I am involved with two panels on Sunday (the 22nd of April): "Graphic Novels Now" at 12:30, and a "spotlight" on "me" at 3:45. (that seems like it's pretty late.) Hope has a spotlight panel at 2:45 the same day.

For my spotlight thing, I'll have Douglas Sherwood on stage to help me chat about stuff (he's that hot young editor at Oni Press), and I'm going to try to put together a short preview / reading from the new book. Probably the same stuff I did in North York in February, plus more. And a Q&A session. Are those ever any good?

Are any of my friends going? Or... or any of my... fans?

--

While in San Francisco we also have a signing at Comix Experience:



Friday, April 20th
5-7 PM
305 Divisadero St
415-863-9258

Kevin Huizenga, Gene Yang, Hope Larson and myself.

--

In other news, today I baked bread, from scratch, for the first time in my life. It was very exciting. So exciting that I forgot to take a picture before eating approximately 2/3rds of the loaf. *sigh* It was from my new favourite book, Baking Illustrated.

I bought the movie THREE KINGS on DVD at Staples (?) for $9 the other day. I hadn't seen it since maybe '99/2000. It is like a thousand times more disturbing now. It's very good. I love David O Russell and hope he makes another one soon. I HEART HUCKABEES was one of my top 5 of '04.

Yesterday I pre-ordered the PLANET EARTH DVD set on Amazon.ca. Have you guys seen this show? It's so mind-blowing. It's this BBC nature series shot in a super-gorgeous arty way. It's playing on the CBC right now, and I guess on Discovery (in the USA) soon; it wrapped up on the BBC in late 2006. The DVD comes out April 24 and Hope and I can't wait to watch the whole thing in one go.

--

While I was in the shower I was idly thinking about how comics are about the same age as like, rock n' roll, but there's probably 1 notable comics work for every thousand notable works of pop music in the past fifty years. There's a breadth issue. I was thinking about it because I was thinking about comics criticism and how underdeveloped it is, but I guess it's not really the critics' fault. There's just not much to work from. You can compare a new Graphic Novel to like a dozen previous works in your head, seven of which came out in the past five years, you know?

I'm sad about comics. Not really.

--

So I was thinking I would ask: who is going to this North York Public Library thing next week? The me thing? If you're going, what would you like me to talk about or show you? Even if you're not going, what in general do you think a speaking engagement like this should involve? I'm a little bit unprepared and I'm not totally sure how to do a "comics reading", which I think people are expecting. But I'd like to try. So, suggestions plz.

I am playing some songs in the setting of a bar next Saturday, February 10th, in Halifax. It takes place at Gus' Pub. This doesn't happen very often (or really ever), so if you're around you should come out. I plan to have a few drinks, play a few songs, and have a relatively good time. You can also watch the Stolen Minks do their thing, and Catriona Sturton is going to do some songs also (plus she might play some harmonica and stuff on my songs?).

Also, I'm doing a speaking thing at the North York Public Library on February 20th for Keep Toronto Reading. In relation to that, Book Buzz is hosting an online chat on February 19th, and they have my book "Lost at Sea" as one of their books of the month.