Looks like Seattle has itself an honest-to-goodness Con on its hands!!

The Emerald City Comicon was a pleasant surprise. I sold out of the Complete K Chronicles by 1pm Saturday afternoon, and flew back to L.A. with absolutely no books in tow.

The crowd was nice and steady, and folks came by to say they’d write the Seattle Times to request they pick up the Knight Life.

The con was heavy on webcomics. No surprise, since the folks at Penny Arcade run this town. I sat in on a panel about the business of Webcomics to learn a few tricks of the trade.

The big reason I ran outta books at Emerald City had to do with the fine book-signing event held at my evil twin sister’s T(ea) Gallery on Friday afternoon. Tons of folks came by, including my Pacific Northwest fanboy B. Giddy, Steve Bob the Angry Flower Notley, comedian Michael Cappozzola, and my ol’ college pal Amanda, mother of the triplets Dirt, Soil and Hummus. Even sold a few pieces of original aht. Nice!!

Got some spanky Ethiopian food on Friday. Hung with Brett from Top Shelf , along with James Kochalka. And later met up with Miriam Libicki and her hubby, Mike.

My sis said the 70 degree weather was the first decent weekend in months. Right on.

Overall..Good stuff!! And I hope to return next year. Course, I’ll be back in Seattle in two weeks for trip 2. Along with Portland.

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK…

Keith –

As a reader of comic strips (aka the funny papers) since I was 5 years old (65 years ago)
yours is one of the best I’ve seen. May you never run out of ideas.

I’m moved to write because, as the parent of a great kid (now 42 years old) who dropped
out of high school & is now a successful chef in San Francisco and a real mensch, I and
my dear wife have suffered those Hope & Quinton moments for decades. Those people will
annoy you forever. Coming sooner than you can imagine will be reports from them about how
little Effie has married the wealthy athletic student body president at UCLA, and their
little Chuck has been accepted into the graduate program in macroeconomics at Cambridge,
on a full scholarship, which they need like a hole in the head since Hope was awarded a
MacArthur genius grant for her work with disgusting sculptural materials and Quinton
recently sold 6 blocks of Wilshire Boulevard to a consortium of princes of the United
Arab Republic.

They will always be with you, your friends, those a-holes, their successes dwarfing the
greatest achievements of you and your loved ones, if you let them. And since you’re a
decent guy, it will be hard to take much joy when Quinton finally goes to prison for
fraud, leaving Hope homeless with her decaying sculptures, Effie’s husband deserts her
for two other guys, and Chuck is diagnosed with Tourettes. But you’ll love your kid a
little more for it.

Anyhow, The K Chronicles is great. Keep on keeping on, as we used to say, and I’m really
sorry I didn’t know that you and your band were in Salt Lake City until after you’d gone.

Thanks for putting a smile on my face with every strip.

Good Old A
——-
I am just sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, feeling depressed about my job prospects(none) and I decided to drop you a line. I was first introduce to your work through the Weekly Dig in Boston, and “Life’s Little Victories” resonated with me so much that, as an expression, it has made into my (almost) daily rotation. The ones from Iraq make me appreciate my little problems. Hey, at least I’m not under fire.

Next time you’re on the East Coast(NY,NY), give me a heads up and we’ll go out boozin’.

Good luck with Lil’ Gravy!

Peace-J.