S.P.A.C.E. II: The Wrath Of Con

Cho,

Well I'm back from the Small Press Alternative Comics Expo (http://www.backporchcomics.com/space.htm), here's the wrap-up:

Friday:Paula and I drive a helluva long way through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. There's road construction on I-70 in Indiana and it takes 40 minutes to go three miles. That sucked.

We (finally!) get to the Holiday Inn in Columbus around 7:30PM. There we check in to room 1011. After taking a few minutes to get settled and freshen up, we go down to the lobby and meet up with the Yahoos from the Cerebus News Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cerebus/). After quick introductions, all us Yahoos (and Paula,) go to the restaurant to get something to eat. In the restaurant, Dave Sim and Gerhard were eating with the winner of the 2004 Day Prize. Not wanting to disturb them, we go over to a table and quietly start to not be quiet. After they finish eating, Dave and Ger come over to say hi. Dave then sits and chats with us for awhile. Around 10PM, Dave goes of to bed saying he's got an early day, I realize Paula and I have an early day too, so we head off to bed.

Saturday: We get up and get ready around 7:00AM. At 8:00 we went down and signed in so we could set up my table. All of that took like fifteen minutes. And the show opens at ten. So I start to get on Paula's nerves. In return she starts to get on mine. We watch as everybody else shows up and sets up. After an eternity (more like an hour and a half,) the show opens.

Da Show: For the whole day, Paula and I sold four misprinted Cerebus Coffee Mugs, all of the money from that is going to A.C.T.O.R. (http://www.actorcomicfund.org/). I also sold one of the good Cerebus Coffee Mugs I have left (I still have three if your interested, e-mail me at mouseskull@juno.com and say something about wanting mugs in the subject line.) And like twelve copies of my minicomic: RACECAR COMICS/CEREBUS VS. IGUANA VS. BEER #1.
I quickly discovered that the Cerebus side sold better than the Racecar side. The deal was buy the minicomic for $1.50, and get a poster for $0.50 instead of the regular $1.00.
I think nine people took advantage of my money saving bargain. If you missed me, or just weren't there, I'm still selling Minicomics, just e-mail me at mouseskull@juno.com and say something about minicomics in the subject line.
The people across from me sold this really funny comic, Go to their website: http://www.dandelionstudios.com/ and check for yourself.
Before 1pm, my good buddy Derrick showed up, and with a quick, "Kevin Smith? Wow I love your movies!" (or some such shit, you can ask him what he said if you go to HIS website: http://free.hostdepartment.com/g/g7productions/), cheered me up.
1pm was the awarding of the 2004 Day Prize. So Derrick and I went. After that it was time to get Dave Sim and Gerhard to sign a copy of Cerebus Vs. Iguana Vs. Beer for me.
Dave wrote: TO MATT-BEST WISHES ON THE #1/1 SPECIAL DAVE SIM EDITION OF cont'd [that was at the top of the cover, the rest was at the bottom] cont'd IGUANA VS. BEER VS. CEREBUS (YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL THAT I ADDED ANYTHING IT FITS RIGHT IN DON'T YOU THINK? Then he put "SIM 05" next to the Cerebus logo, the Iguana logo, and Beer. Then he flipped it over and put "YOUNG MATT (copyright symbol)SIM 05" next to the drawing of the three year old me on the cover of RACECAR COMICS #1. Now I'm wondering if I owe him a quarter every time I think back on my precious childhood memories?
Then Gerhard signed my minicomic. But first he drew a brick, because he's the background artist on Cerebus. So I had him add "V.S. BRICK" to the title. Dave, Ger, and I are betting on Brick winning, because he's saying, "GRRR" that means he's angry.
While I was away goofing off, Paula sold as much stuff as I did. So it wasn't my winning smile that was good for business.
Derrick left around 2:30pm. After making plans to have Paula and I come up to his house on Sunday.
The show after that was pretty good. Paula was walking around and the guys from the United Fanzine Organization (http://www.ufo.bizhosting.com/) talked her into entering their raffle. She won the grand prize. A copy of every comic they had there, plus a t-shirt and some original art. It's the first time she's ever won anything, so she's really happy.
As the show closed, I gave Ger signed copies of the two different posters I was selling.
After the show Dave and Ger bought all of the vendors dinner. The restaurant was pretty crowded, and for some reason the staff weren't seating anybody. So, instead of waiting forever, Paula and I decided to skip that and go to Schmidt's Sausage Haus with the Yahoos.
She and I road in the first car with:
e
L nny
Larry Hart,
and Josh.
The other car had:
Jeff T. (http://www.artofdavesim.com/)
His wife, Pat,
Jeff S.
and Margaret (http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/).
Both cars had directions (Apparently they got lost last year,) and we took the right exit, but didn't realize that we were in the wrong lane, and ended up back on the interstate going the wrong way. We took the next exit, and I suggested we tun right and look for a cross street instead of turning left and trying to get back on the interstate (apparently THAT was how they got lost last year.) So we got on a cross street and I looked at the directions and found out that we didn't have to back track as far as we though we did. We got there FINE. If any of the Yahoos say we were lost, they're LYING. I knew where we were the whole time. (Hey we got there didn't we?)
We had to park a block away, and walk through an alley. I promised Larry that if he got killed I'd dress like a bat and avenge his death.
There was an hour and a half wait at the sausage house, so we went to the fudge house down the street. Paula bought me some fudge covered oreos (man I LOVES me them fudge covered oreos!)
Half of the Yahoos went looking for a bar and the rest of us waited for our table. It turned out our table was ready sooner than they said it would be. So, those of us that were there, waited for the rest to get back (it took them awhile.) Once everybody showed up we ordered and a grand time was had by all.
Then we went back to the hotel, and they threw all of us out of the bar. The staff said we had to sit at the bar if we wanted to drink anything, but there were so many of us that we wanted to sit at a table. The staff wouldn't let us 'cause there wasn't anybody to clean up after us. So we went up to Jeff T.'s room and hung out there. Jeff S. told us some great stories about when he went to a Stones concert (HE had FRONT ROW seats, the Lucky Bastard.)
Around midnight Paula and I headed back to the room. Man was I tired.

Sunday: Paula and I didn't get up when we wanted to because I set the alarm, but forgot to turn it on. So we missed breakfast with the Yahoos.
When we finally did get up and check out, it was around 11AM. As we went to the car to drop off our stuff before we went to get brunch, we ran into Larry and Jeff T.
They were going to leave soon, but there was a snag. Before they could explain, this girl named Nikki came up. She looked like she had been crying. She was the snag. She had come down to the hotel to hang out with her boyfriend. He works in the kitchen of the restaurant. He had said he had to work today, but he lied. He had gone fishing, and abandoned her at the hotel. A friend of hers was at work and the bus to her hometown wasn't gonna be there until 7:30 the next morning. So Paula and I offered to take her home since it was on our way. The Yahoos gave us $10 for gas and took off.

Paula, Nikki and I went into the restaurant for lunch. Nikki had already eaten. So she just hung out while Paula and I ate. She explained what had happened with her boyfriend... And talked about how she was gonna kill him. She was real polite and quiet while she did this. It kinda freaked me out. So while she was getting cigarettes, she had quit the day before, I told Paula that I was changing our plans: instead of taking Nikki with us to Derrick's (I thought it'd be a nice surprise for him (course when I decided that, I didn't know she had a boyfriend.)), we'd take her home first. I told Nikki when she got back, and it was a better plan anyway, since Derrick wouldn't be home until after 1pm.
Paula and I had to go to the bathroom, so Nikki went out for a smoke. When we got out there she was telling Gerhard about what was going on, and how she was gonna kill her boyfriend (I believe by that point, she was gonna stab him with a straw. repeatedly.) So I said bye to Ger, and we headed on our way.
As we got further from the hotel, Nikki calmed down.
We had to take highway 33 west to get her home, so I got off on highway 33 east and turned around as soon as I could. Big mistake. As we soon learned, Ohio doesn't set up their roads in so simple a manner. We weren't on the right road. After driving for 45 minutes, we finally got on the right road. Stupid Ohio!!! Never trust a state that has more vowels than consonants.
So we took Nikki home and she gave us directions to how to get to the highway that'd take us to Derrick's.
She says Thanks to all the Yahoos who helped her out (I'm not sure who all did what, but she says thanks.)

Paula and I got to Derrick's place around 5:30/6:00. We hung ot until quarter after 7. Derrick and I are making a new webcomic, more details as they appear.
Then it was a long drive home. Paula drove the first half, but I couldn't sleep because her driving scares the shit out of me. So when it was my turn to drive I was a little tired. Paula has a fear of me falling asleep at the wheel, so she kept me awake until we were twenty-some miles from home. That's when I nodded of for a second and woke right the fuck up and managed to drive us to Manitowoc. Then I made her drive again (she got some sleep while I was driving, mainly cause I don't drive as crazy as she does!)
Anyway, we got home around 3AM. Which is 4AM Ohio time. So it was about a 9 hour trip.

Super Special thanks to my fellow Yahoos for being so much fun and buying my crap!

That's my SPACE report, if you want more details, go to SPACE next year and see what it's like for yourself.

Later,
Matt
(It's Tuesday night, and I'm STILL sleepy!)