Yesterday was the best car experience I’ve ever had. I bought my Dad’s old truck so we went to AAA to do the title change. We waited maybe 10 minutes before being called to the window and $15 and ten minutes later we were out the door. We then took my old truck (1998 Ranger) to Carmax to see if they would even want to buy it. I had a big dent in the front left quarter panel but after about 50 minutes total time we were leaving and I had a check in my hand that was probably double what I had expected to get.

We subsequently heard from a friend that they bought their last car at Carmax a year ago and were only there for maybe 60 to 90 minutes which makes me want to never buy a new car again; I’ll just use Carmax.

Check out Keith Knight’s write-up of his visit to Comic-Con this year. We ended up at his booth while he was eating that lobster roll.

SPELLING BEE FOR CHEATERS/INKPOT AWARD WIN/COMIC-CON WRAP-UP | The Official K Chronicles and Think Website

Here’s what he closed with, I love it!

Probably my favorite part of Comic-Con is meeting the writers and artists in person. The best place to do that is the Small Press area and one of my first stops every year is to see Keith Knight, creator of The K Chronicles, (Th)ink and The Knight Life. If you aren’t familiar with his work do yourself a huge favor and pick up one of his books, I don’t know how to describe his art style except to say that it’s entertaining. His writing is always funny and every once in a while he touches on current social issues and will really make you think. Check out his official site at http://www.kchronicles.com/ to see the daily (Th)ink single-panel comics as well as the weekly K Chronicles; if you enjoy it then go all out and get the The Complete K Chronicles.

I again saw Keith at a spotlight panel about him & his work but this year was special: he was awarded an Ink Pot award which was a complete surprise to him. It surprised me as well since I thought they only gave those out at a special banquet. Even though Keith will re-use certain strips in his panels I always enjoy attending since I am guaranteed to laugh the whole time.

This year I picked up the latest K Chronicles book, I Left My Arse in San Francisco as well as the first Knight Life book, “Chivalry Ain’t Dead“.

This year I also met Stan Yan, creator of The Wang. He was great fun to talk to so I bought his latest book, Erection Year and he did a neat drawing inside for me. My wife gets migraines from MSG which I mentioned to him since the front cover says “NOW WITH MSG!” so the character he drew inside (Wang’s mother) is saying “MSG is good for you!”

I was only able to attend Comic-Con on Thursday this year, hopefully I’ll go back to all four days next year. There’s so much to see and one has to be selective and ignore some areas completely in order to see the really interesting stuff in one day. It seemed to me like there was even more space dedicated to video games and this year, I really wish they would cut back on that and use the space for more genre related stuff. The toys were just out of control this year, huge Hasbro area for Star Wars/G.I. Joe/Transformers and there was a constant line at the Mattel area the whole day (for what I have no idea).

The wait to pick up badges didn’t take too long (only 20 minutes or so) but the line stretched all the way north along the front of the convention center, then wrapped around to the back of the building to the south. We got there at about 9am and had badges in hand by about 9:25am. For some reason even though the show opened at 9:30am the security guys (I hesitate to call them guards) weren’t letting people down the main stairs & escalators where everybody was coming out from registration. Luckily I am familar enough with the venue that we backtracked and went around to the Bayside area and went down those stairs to get in.

Steampunk was out in force this year, lots of people dressed up and more vendors than in past years. One booth had a giant selection of goggles and other paraphenalia; another vendor had a really neat steampunk mechanical arm. Lots of zombie comics this year, more than I remember from the last time I went in 2008 (I am not too sad I missed 2009 since Twilight was really huge that year).

I only picked up two of the convention exclusives this year (it took forever to read through the entire list on the web site): Devil Bacon from Mr. Toast and Neonomicon #1 written by Alan Moore, art by Jacen Burrows (and I even got Jacen’s autograph on it); fun fact: this was a limited edition cover for Comic-Con with only 1500 printed.

While we were at the Mr. Toast booth we also picked up a vampire candy corn for the dogs to play with.

Next update I’ll list out the books that I got and the people I met (in all honesty as much for myself as a journal to look back on as for my readers’ benefit).

This is a great video documentary of a WWII Mustang pilot getting to not only see his own plane but fly another one 60+ years later. I was very glad to see his grandchildren so interested in what he had experienced during the war.

Boy do I love the view from my desk. I have about 18 inches of window that looks right out to the outbound flight path from MCAS Miramar. I’ve had this view for a few years and it’s mostly F-18 Hornet fighter-bombers and some transport helicopters until recently. Less than a month ago the first two V-22 Osprey aircraft tranferred to the base in preparation for the whole squadron to arrive in October (or at least that’s what I was told by a fellow commuter on the train who flies helos).

It is really cool to hear the thrum of rotors and look up to see a pair of these babies headed out on a training flight.

Actually drink all the Kool-Aid you want, just don’t go around spouting the “Drink the Kool-Aid” cliche that’s so popular right now. Also please don’t say anything about “peeling back the layers of the onion”, I am so sick of that phrase right now you wouldn’t believe it.

Thanks to John Cleese’s Cheese Podcast site for this one. Check out xmasresistance for more (or their Facebook page).

I happened to see issue #2 of Dangerous Ink magazine at the store a few weeks ago [actually I had this drafted in July and never published it] and a quick flip through it interested me enough to buy it. Unfortunately the “read issue 2″ link on the web site goes to an issue that is totally different than the one I have (which has the Señorita Muerta skeletal bride on the cover). After reading down the page it looks like they had four issues previously and then “relaunched” this year so my copy is really like Volume 2, Issue 2.

The various comic strips were good (Kreepy Kat, Mooks, Johnny 2K9) but what really got me to buy was the article about Jessica Joslin’s work with found object sculptures of animals that incorporate real bones. Aster (from the Clockwork Circus series) is impressive due to the hornbill skull & beak but the paired pieces like Admiral and Luce from that same collection are really cool.

My next favorite part of the mag was the article about Jason Limón’s work. He has a really awesome style of artwork that I don’t even know how to describe. The artist says that his “work is filled with characters, some happy and some not so happy made up of electrical, mechanical and organic elements.” Drop Dead might be my favorite piece from the article, make sure you check out his Flickr page to see a larger representation of his work than his regular web site has.

We laid to rest a high school friend of mine named Sam yesterday. That was depressing as hell and I was surprised at just how emotional I got. Godspeed Sam, we miss you.

Prehistoric Yeast Used to Brew Fossil Fuels Beer – Slashfood

Yes, someone did the old “extract some yeast from ancient amber and then use it to brew” trick. Kinda like Jurassic Park but tastier (hopefully). Now I have an excuse to head up to the Bay area (although I’m sure I won’t).

Meanwhile… at the Hall of Justice: A Collection of Superhero Mishaps is a neat looking exhibition that Subtext is putting on the weekend of Comic-Con.

Let’s face it, everyone has a bad day. Even superheroes. And this July, Subtext will host a group exhibition that captures those mishaps for all to see. Did you know that the Hulk has been arrested for wreckless endangerment? Aquaman did some time for fishing in international waters without permits, and the Wonder Twins were still awaiting trial for public indecency. It just reminds us that even though they are super, they are still human (some of them anyways). Join us during Comic Con weekend at Subtext, and see for yourself what infractions your favorite heroes have been hiding under their capes.

Subtext Gallery & Design Bookstore

I know this update is ten days late but we spent the $10 each to spend the evening of the 4th of July on the deck of the U.S.S. Midway floating aircraft carrier museum. We got there around 7:30pm, put a blanket down on the canted part of the flight deck and hung out until the fireworks at 9pm. It was a nice relaxing evening and they actually shot the same set of fireworks off from three different spots around the bay which was kinda cool.

They also had a nice custom soundtrack instead of the stupid easy listening crap that the radio stations usually play. It had a bit of the Rammstein “living in America” song and a sound bit which could have been R. Lee Ermey saying “Listen up maggots! Happy 4th of July, hoo-rah and Semper Fi”. All in all it was an enjoyable day.

What is it about New Jersey that would make someone name their store Rag Shop?

I actually got a spam e-mail today that made me look twice even though on second look it was obviously spam.

From:Mr. John <34saket@gmail.com>
Subject: Good night
Body: Hi,

I am Back. Give me a call right now! If you want to know about “Where r I”.

Regards
John