SprouseNet

Geeks & Gobbles
Thanksgiving weekend was quite the good time this year. We spent the actual day at my parent's house. Dad was craving turkey this year, so we put the Chinese food tradition on hold and had a traditional spread of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, the standard drill. We brought Jess-Belle with us, and she was pretty good, considering that this was the first time my parent's had a visit from their grandkitty. She pretty much sniffed everything over and over all day, and only got up on the counter twice. She had a new toy, a laser pointer, so we were able to keep her busy while the turkey came out of the oven. I have a new respect for parents after trying to travel with the cat. After packing the catbox, her food, some toys, I started to think that parents of human babies have to pack like this everywhere they go! Yeesh! After food, we played some games, then fell asleep until my good pal Steve stopped by. He hung out for a few hours before needing to get back to his family's house and sleep, as he had begun his drive from Chicago at 3am that morning. Ouch!

Chris had some work to do Friday, so Mom and I drove to Kettering to visit family friends. My friend Sara and her son Gavin were visiting from Toronto, and her friend Kristen was visiting from New Jersey. Kristen and her mom Sherry came over to Sara's mom Debbie's house where we caught up, ate leftovers (specifically Debbie's homeade pecan pie which is the most heavenly pie of all time), but saved enough room so we could make a stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade. We also came home with Gavin's cold, but we didn't know that until Sunday afternoon. Saturday and Sunday were all about the Con, and since I worked Saturday and spent Sunday reading the Twilight Zone comics I bought, I'll let Chris tell more about it.

Saturday I packed up my artwork, some pencils and markers, and a box of comics and headed off to the Mid-Ohio Con. This is practically the only convention I do professionally anymore, and this was the fourteenth or fifteenth year I've attended as a guest. I was busy for the entire convention, signing comics, selling artwork, and sketching and chatting with fans and a few friends. Xan joined me on Sunday, spending time out on the con floor shopping and catching up with friends Nebbie Brown, Steve Swanson and Chris Collier before the symptoms of her cold started to manifest and make her miserable. She also helped at my table and gave much needed moral support and fetched much needed Mountain Dew as I started to burn out in the afternoon.

Throughout the show I ended up talking music almost as much as I did comics, discussing the recent Robyn Hitchcock show with Dave Aikins, gushing over Velocity Girl with a fan who showed up in a VG T-shirt, and trading stories about R.E.M. and Paul Westerberg with Aubrey Stallings. I met Aubrey at my very first signing as a professional comic artist, and he's easily one of the nicest people I've ever known. We hadn't seen him in a while, so when he showed up, it was the highlight of the weekend!

The next convention I have scheduled is the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle in March. HERE is a link to the show's website. Some of my comic book creator heroes will be guests there as well--Michael Golden, Howard Chaykin, Paul Chadwick. Best of all, Xan will be going with me, so this has all the makings of a really good time!
--C & X



Photos from top:
1) Saturday, signing an old Legionnaires comic just after being interviewed, photo by Vaneta Rogers
2) Aubrey Stallings
3) My cool new Midnighter action figure, courtesy of Aubrey
4) In this photo I'm doing a fun drawing of a fan's pet cockatiel!

Click HERE to be taken to a Newsarama.com feature on Mid-Ohio Con, the source of the first photo above