As you may or may not have known, at Heroes Con I made a series of 12 superhero/villain themed watercolor and ink sketches to sell. I sold half of them, which means I still have 6 of them left! Rather than allow them to collect dust on my shelf, I am offering them for sale on the internet! They are $20 each or 2 for $30, which includes domestic shipping. For international orders, please email me at liz(at)lizbaillie(dot)com.

All pieces are drawn/painted on 6"x9" bristol board using archival materials (or at least that's what the labels say).

If you would like to purchase any of these, please email me at liz(at)lizbaillie(dot)com.


Wolverine at the Barbeque - $20


Still Life of Hellboy With Kitten - $20


Superman is Kind of a Douche - $20


Bizarro - $20 (goes great with Superman - if you put them side by side, Supes is giving Bizarro the stinkeye!)


Harley Quinn - $20


the Joker - $20 (goes great with Harley Quinn!)


MODOK - $20

L to R: Megan, Sally, me (MK behind the camera) outside Lupie's Cafe in Charlotte, NC

All photos courtesy of MK Reed Enterprises, Inc.

Me and MK took the train down to Charlotte, NC for Heroes Con bright and early, 7am on Thursday morning. We were fortunate enough to share the train with Alec Longstreth, who got on at DC and rode with us for half of our 15 hour long journey. Mostly we slept or hung out with Alec in the cafe car, getting work done and shooting the breeze, sharing snacks like a sweet apple pie that MK had brought with her. We were all picked up in Charlotte by Greg Means, who was not driving a rented White Patriot this year, but instead a small, less hilariously named economy car.

We got to the hotel so late there was nothing open but the hotel bar, which thankfully served food and even though they had to come out from the kitchen to confirm that I did in fact want orange juice with my meal at 11pm, and the service took FOREVER (thought probably normal by North Carolina standards) I was very very happy to finally eat. Since our three hotelmates weren't arriving until Friday, we went to the room and stretched out on big beds all to ourselves. Luxury!

 On Friday morning we went downstairs to set up (Heroes is a three-day convention) and mostly sat around all day. Traffic in the Indie Island section (where we were) was a touch slow and business showed it. It was sad to look around and realize so many of the wonderful people who attended last year were not in attendance this year and we only knew a handful of people, whereas last year it seemed like a room full of our friends. Nevertheless, we were determined to have a good time.

First, we decided to continue the tradition we began last year of visiting the amazing free-standing 1950's-era Dairy Queen with the borderline racist Alaskan girl sign holding the phallic ice cream cone. Like last year, we went EVERY DAY because you know, they don't have DQ in New York, but especially not one like this. Of course, the tradition would not be complete without the annual Pornographic Positioning Photo Opportunity with the sign:



On the first night, I got a hot fudge and marshmallow sundae. On the second and third nights, I got a medium Reese's and Snickers vanilla Blizzard. Alec and I were supposed to meet there on Saturday night to witness Roger Langridge ordering (with his English accent) and consuming his first DQ Blizzard, but due to a series of unfortunate events they left four minutes before we got there so we missed it. Apparently Roger chose the Strawberry Cheesequake flavor Blizzard.

Generally the show itself was pretty slow, and although I did not do as well as I normally do at shows, I did well enough that I would consider coming back next year (if I can convince even more of my friends to not drop out). I made the excellent choice of doing a series of 12 small superhero-themed watercolor and ink drawings to sell at Heroes for extra money, as well as choosing to charge $10 for sketches. This netted me about $85 extra that I wouldn't have made otherwise, and definitely made a big chunk of a difference in the final tally, especially when comparing this year's sales to last year's.

On Friday and Saturday I was kind of bummed because things were pretty slow at the table, and my social activities had been somewhat disappointing. I attempted to make Saturday night my raucous "party night" but my attempts at getting drunk failed miserably. MK had brought some fancy tequila with her and though I drank a decent amount mixed with some citrus-ey drinks, its only effect was making my stomach hurt miserably without the benefit of drunkenness. On top of that, I found out that the hotel pool was not actually located inside the hotel, but rather was part of an attached YMCA that closed early and was closed completely on Sunday (the best day to go swimming after a con). Sally and I went to bed early on Friday and Saturday nights and everyone else stayed out late to party.

Oh, except for our discovery of the North Carolina newspaper which features mugshots and crimes committed by various people, called THE SLAMMER. It was surprisingly entertaining, especially the section "Kiddie Korner" (juvenile offenders) and "Laughter and Tears" (people either laughing or crying during their mugshot photo).

Reading the SLAMMER with Sally next to the NO LOITERING sign

Sunday, however, made up for EVERYTHING.

Sally and I decided that since it is hard to sell your own books, and way easier to sell someone else's, that we would switch places for the day and she would impersonate me, and I would do the same for her. We even switched my nametag with her wristband. She did a great job of impersonating me and even signed a few comics for people as me, but I did not do as good of a job. I am just not a good liar. I would usually give up as soon as they asked me "Are you Sally Bloodbath?" This also got confusing when people who weren't close friends but knew who I was would come up to Sally's table and get really confused because my comics were not on the table.


impersonating Sally Bloodbath

I guess I had gotten a little bored or something, or maybe the taste of impersonating people got me thirsty for more, but on Sunday afternoon while Alec was at a panel, I decided to dress up like him (complete with fake beard and using his actual cap) and stand on the chair (for height) behind his table until he got back, pretending to be him, and wait for the inevitable collapse of reality when Real Alec and Fake Alec met for the first time.

 
photo by Jimmy Aquino

Mostly I stood behind the table yelling choice Longstrethian phrases such as:

-I'M ALEC LONGSTRETH!
-STAR WARS!
-WEEEEEEZER!
-DVORAK!
-JEFF SMITH!
-COMICS!
-It's a FAMILY OF BIRDS! (in reference to the origami family of birds MK made and taped to my napkin beard)

and occasionally:

-DRAAAAAGONS!

My antics got a lot of laughs for the first, oh... fifteen minutes. Little did I know, Alec would be gone for TWO HOURS! After the first half hour, I just couldn't give up and decided I would not leave the chair until the Real Alec finally showed up. My hope was that he would be with Jeff Smith so we could get the ultimate photo op of Real Alec and Fake Alec blowing Jeff Smith's complete concept of reality. And we did!


My beard was falling off because we had to pick it out of the garbage when we spotted Jeff Smith coming.

My favorite might be the photo of Chuck McBuck interacting with Fake Alec (note the presence of not just napkin beard, but napkin mullet):



So yeah... I impersonated Alec Longstreth for two hours and even sold a comic as Alec, which I was asked to sign as Alec, which I did (as "The Real Alec Longstreth")

After the show we quickly packed up and headed for the after party at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, the comic shop that organizes Heroes Con. They were offering free pizza, beer and cookies, so of course we headed there immediately to get the best of everything before everyone else got there. Apparently, Greg and Alec had the same idea because we saw them coming out of their car just as ours was pulling into the shop's parking lot!

We were among the first there and quickly ate up a bunch of pizza and cookies, and got started on the beer. They had a great selection that included Yuengling, which is my fave, and Blue Moon! Pretty unusual for the free beer! Just another reason to love Heroes!

Also present at the party, and at the convention in general all weekend, was Scott Adsit who plays Pete on 30 Rock. I kept seeing him around and since he looks like such an average dude I wasn't sure it was him at first (I am a HUGE fan of 30 Rock) but through the grapevine, I learned that it was! Although I wasn't trying to talk to him, he happened to be talking to Alec at one point during the party so I went over and joined the conversation. He was very friendly and immediately introduced himself and we had a nice casual conversation about Heroes Con. Apparently he goes to NYCC and San Diego all the time but people kept telling him Heroes was the best con to go to, so he flew in for the weekend and filled up a sketchbook with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sketches. Pretty rad!

At one point, Alec showed us how to play two bottles at once with his nose and mouth:


You can tell how drunk Alec is by how far back his cap is turned.

After the party at Heroes I was pleasantly drunk and happy in general, which was the perfect time to go with Alec, Greg and MK for our final evening of DQ. To make up for the disappointments of the previous night, Alec treated us all to Blizzards and even sprung for a little Blizzard shaped antenna topper to give to Sally!





The perfect end to a perfect evening.

BUT WAIT! There's more!

We decided to hit up the bar at the Westin (where most people go to drink after the show) where there was almost no one except Jeff Smith sitting with a group of friends! We decided to hang out at our own table for a while but after some time had passed we made our way over to Jeff and Co. and hung out with them for a while, which was super rad. At no other show would this probably ever happen.

The next day we left early for our epic drive back with Sally and Co. We had to drive Kiril back to DC, and then Megan back to Philly, and then Sally volunteered kindly to take me and MK back to Brooklyn.

 
Kiril at the Waffle House


A truck full of gazebos passing our car

 
A pit stop for dinner in Baltimore, MD - sign reads "LIVE HERE"

I got home a little after midnight on Monday evening feeling like I was getting sick, and woke up this morning to find that yes, in fact I had gotten sick. Awesome.

NYC Zine Fest next weekend!

I'll be at Heroes Con this weekend, in the extra special Indie Island area! I'll have all my usual stuff, PLUS... 12 pre-made superhero/villain themed ink and watercolor sketches which I'll be selling there. Whatever I don't sell at Heroes, I'll put online for sale when I get back. Here is a taste of a few of my favorites:

Yup, you can now get it online, right here on my website! Four bucks, plus a buck for shipping. If you want to order with cash through the mail, just fill out this order form and send it to the address on the form.

If you want to see a few preview pages, here's 13, 14 and 15!

Here's a list, by no means complete or comprehensive but the best I could do today (still gotta put Freewheel #2 for sale online and all that), of my favorite stuff I got at MoCCA. "Got" usually means "people gave this to me" or "I traded for this" but there are maybe three things on there that were bought with money (by Zane, not me, because I am a cheapskate and did not buy anything with money):

-SUMO by Thien Pham

Someone (I forget who) alerted Zane to the existence of this comic, and to that person I am eternally grateful. Zane loves, nay, is OBSESSED with sumo (as if you couldn't tell by the full sleeve of sumo tattoos on his left arm). Not only is the story beautiful written and drawn, but the book itself is a beautiful piece of work. I wish I could find a photo of the book but I can't. It's hand-bound/sewn with a silkscreened cover and is awesome. Zane said "it totally made me cry" and I said "it totally almost made me want to cry." But in a good way. I heard First Second picked it up so I'm sure you'll be hearing about it real soon!

-Jam in the Band 2 by Robin Enrico

If you know me at all, you probably know that I count Robin among my closest and most beloved friends. I've been keeping tabs on Robin's comics since before they were good, and before we were really good friends, so I would like to think my opinion is not swayed by our friendship. With that in mind, Robin is really stepping it up a notch with Jam in the Band 2. If you haven't read any of this story yet, but you read Robin's old comics (any of them), I beg of you to pick up JITB 1 and read the crap out of it. Then read #2. Then see if you don't want to know more about this uniquely-told story of an all-girl band's rise to the top, and the tensions that arise between them when they are confronted with challenge after challenge to keep the band going.

-Papercutter #10 edited by Greg Means/Tugboat Press

If you are a regular on the indie comics circuit, you are probably already well aware of this outstanding, award-winning anthology put out semi-regularly (at least once a year I gather) by Greg Means. Issue #10 is no exception to the high standard this anthology has come to be known for, with enjoyable stories by Jesse Reklaw, Damien Jay and Minty Lewis. I won't spoil it for you, you should just go get one for yourself!

-Awesome 2: Awesomer edited by Indie Spinner Rack and Top Shelf

I got a copy of this brand spankin' new anthology at MoCCA because I'm in it! This is the anthology with the Jerk Ghost: the Work Ghost story I did with MK. A portion of the profits from this book go to a scholarship fund for a student at the Center for Cartoon Studies! The book features work by Jim Rugg, Alex Robinson, Colleen Frakes, Julia Wertz, Mike Dawson, Jeff Smith and a slew of other fantastic creators. It also comes with a free minicomic inside! How can you pass this up?

-Girls Don’t Make Passes at Boys With Moustaches by Sally Bloodbath

Sally Bloodbath might be best known as one of two editors of the popular anthology, Always Comix, which comes out seasonally and always has a neat theme like "the Evil Issue" or "How We Met." Sally also puts out minicomics her own self and GDMPABWM is her latest! It collects a number of short autobio strips she's drawn recently and her usual self-deprecating sense of humor and visual sensibilities (like a panel where she shakes hands with the number 5 to show "getting off from work") shine through as always. My personal favorite in this collection of strips is directions on how to properly eat a cookie (spoiler alert: she is 100% correct in her direction on how to eat a cookie). Also it has a neat cover that has a wraparound silkscreened bit. Hard to explain, you should just buy it.

-Pile Driver edited by Sabin Calvert
-Demon of the Fall by Sabin Calvert

Sabin had a number of great new comics at his MoCCA table and I was fortunate enough to trade him for copies of both Pile Driver and Demon of the Fall. Pile Driver is a comic anthology of stories about wrestling, and though some of the art is pretty rough around the edges, the heart is there and a few of the stories stand out quite strongly. Overall it's a totally enjoyable read, and recommended if you are into wrestling at all. I'm not, but I'm into martial arts and also soap operas so I can appreciate why people love it so much. Demon of the Fall was one of Sabin's new minis and it's a story he wants to write rather than draw, so if you are interested in drawing a story about an alcoholic superhero who gets his power from booze, yet is in AA, you should get in touch with him! It's a great concept and the mini shows the very very beginning of the story, so it's hard to gage where it will go from here, but if Sabin's other work is any indication it will be an awesome tale for sure!

-Carl’s Large Story #5 by Marcos Perez

If you are not already familiar with the Carl is the Awesome series by Marcos Perez, you should be! Carl is a dinosaur with a beaver tail (I think) who has great self-esteem and in most of Marcos' comics, Carl never encounters any type of conflict whatsoever, thereby flauting the rules of good storytelling, yet somehow being completely awesome in the face of the rules he defies! Carl's Big Story has been a continuing saga of Carl's first real brush with conflict, and it's also Carl's first long story! Pick up the early issues, get up to speed, then continue on to #5 (or read some of Carl online at the link above). You won't be disappointed.

-untitled minicomic by Shauna Grant

Shauna used to be one of my students when I used to teach a comics group at an afterschool program here in NYC and she was the star of the group then, and continues to just get better and better with time. She's currently a student at SVA, which is pretty much a breeding ground for comics talent right now, and she is no exception. She has kind of a manga-inspired look to her art, like a lot of people her age, but you can see she is really coming into her own in her recent work, more and more with each passing comic I see from her. This mini is a collection of a few different short tales, my favorite being "O-Panda and Cheergirl," which is a silly and funny story about exactly what it sounds like - a cheerleader and a panda fighting crime. What more could you want from comics?

-Menstruation Station: Menarche Aboard! by Jen Vaughn

You know how people always make jokes about how women in comics only want to draw comics about their periods and stuff? Well, Jen Vaughn is making it easier for them to prove that, but lucky for everyone in the world, these comics are good! Lord knows we have enough comics by boys about their boners and the girls they wish they could do, it's about time a woman came in and did a little menstruating on the place, ya know? Anyway, these comics are mostly cute and pretty funny and from what I can tell, it's just the first in a series of comics about periods! This one seems to focus on the "first period." Go and buy it! It has a red cover too! As if you could accept anything less. Oh and at MoCCA you got a free tampon with it, which is pretty cool too.

-Leo Geo Acquires Ancient Knowledge by Jon Chad

Jon Chad rules at comics. Especially minicomics. Why are you still reading this? Why aren't you reading Leo Geo Acquires Ancient Knowledge? Seriously, though - Jon Chad is an insane talent when it comes to both drawing and reproducing minicomics. Each one is well-drawn, always has an interesting story, and most of them come in some really unusual format. Like this one, for example, is one sheet of paper that's been cut out at all weird spots and you have to unfold it in a certain way to read the comic, and the folding action follows the action in the comic! But it's much more complicated than your average one-page fold-out. Serious. It's awesome, and full of facts!

-The Legend of Hardcore Dan by Josh PM Frees

Do you think it's weird to draw comics almost exclusively about your friend Dan? Josh doesn't, and he's been drawing these cute, funny strips about his buddy Hardcore Dan (who is a real person, by the way) for a few years now. With every passing year, I've been watching Josh get better at not only drawing, but writing jokes as well. This minicomic not only showcases Josh's growing talent when it comes to writing and drawing hilarious comics, but he's kicked it up a notch with the cover as well. It's probably the best and most professional, put-together cover I've seen from him so far! It's not your typical autobio/slice of life stuff either, by any means. This comic made me laugh out loud on the subway. That's saying something, people.

-What is This? By Neil Brideau

A robot crash lands in a little kid's room and wants to know what all the stuff is! It's a simple, cute, well-told, well-drawn little ditty about exactly that, in the tradition of stuff like E.T. or the Iron Giant. If you like that stuff you'll like this. What else can I say?

-Cragmore: Book One by Pat Lewis

If you like the humor of the Simpsons, and who doesn't, you will totally dig Pat Lewis' new series, Cragmore. The heart and soul of this book is really in Pat's classic animation/cartoony style of drawing combined with his unique and impeccable sense of humor, which is particularly on display in this book. I don't want to spoil the plot and/or jokes for you, but to make it simple it's about a rich douchebag (Donald Trump-ish) who dies for a short period, goes to hell, and seeing what hell is like decides to make some drastic changes... but it's not what you'd expect by any means! Straightforward humor comics in the tradition of old-school MAD Magazine is hard to come by in indie comics, but Pat Lewis really brings it home with Cragmore.

-The Mourning Star 2 by Kazimir Strzepek

I haven't read this one yet, but I am SUPER EXCITED about it! I love the first Mourning Star book so much, I'm completely excited to read the second one! If you like great world-building sort of fantasy adventure with amazing linework telling really awesome stories you should get it. That is all. Oh, and the first book was award nominated! And rightly so!

-Lipstick & Malice #3 by Monica Gallagher

This comic is folded lengthways instead of widthways, which I think most of us minicomics people have pondered at least once in our folding and stapling adventures, but Monica has actually gone ahead and made a comic that way! And guess what, it works! Lipstick and Malice is the story of a model who is also an assassin, and a damn good one at that! You can tell Monica's having a great time drawing it, the linework flows really well and she does an amazing job of drawing the kind of unusual fight scenes that occur when a model is also an assassin.

-Silver Mercedes With the Top Down: A Minicomic by Jesse Post and Fred Chao

Basically this is probably the world's biggest "minicomic," being four legal sized pages stapled together at the sides. Mostly it's just really funny because of that, but it's also a short comic based on a Missed Connections ad. I saw people carrying it around and I thought it was pretty funny. Then Jesse gave me one and I was psyched! It was pretty cool.

photo courtesy of the Daily Crosshatch

I will admit, I was pretty nervous about this year’s MoCCA Art Fest. Not only was it in a new location (goodbye, classy Puck Building – hello, cavernous 69th Armory!) but to my knowledge, it was being run by a new group of people (no more emails from DKC is what tipped me off). Obviously there were going to be a few snags along the way, but it was a mystery as to what type of snags would come to pass.

Not to mention, I had already attended NYCC, Stumptown, and TCAF this year with fair-to-middling, unextraordinary sales (not bad, not awesome, but at least for Stumptown, not nearly as good as last year) so I was worried that MoCCA might also be hit by the recession and my usually-stellar MoCCA sales would suffer. Not so! I checked the number from last year and I actually BEAT my 2008 MoCCA sales by over $100!

Awesome!!!

Of course, MoCCA is not just about sales! There were a lot of other factors that went into it being good or bad. Here is a quick list of plusses and minuses:

+ Equal Opportunity table layout! I love the Puck Building and ALWAYS had a great spot, but not everyone was so lucky. What with all the little separate rooms, and always one room was gross or hot or something (remember the year of the sticky floor?), someone always walked away sort of dicked over by the layout. Not so at the Armory! At first I was worried about being all the way in the back but once I got there I saw that there seemed to truly not be any spot I would look at and think “thank goodness I didn’t get THAT spot!” The aisles also seemed wide enough to accommodate most of the foot traffic and I never felt overwhelmed or overly irritated by it.

+ GREAT neighborhood! Not only did I grow up around that area, but I also attended every grade from pre-school through college graduation right there! AND I even worked around there for five years! So I knew the ‘hood extremely well, got to revisit my favorite food spots, and even got to see the neighborhood legend, He-Man (http://findheman.com/), twice! I ate at Pick-A-Bagel, Jess Bakery, 7-11 and got my favorite egg sandwich at Pax! It was awesome!

+ SO easy to get to! Since I live in Brooklyn, the coordination of train lines, transfers, and number of stairs to climb and descend all factor into the ease or difficulty of hauling a suitcase full of comics to a given location for a convention in NYC. Since I live on the Q train, it was an easy transfer across the platform at Union Square to the R, which is as few stairs as one could possibly hope for on a subway ride. To get to the Puck Building, we used to have to take a huge staircase up at Canal Street to the 6 train and it was a real bitch of a task.

+The Armory is a really awesome venue in that it is virtually overflowing with charm, character, and history! How cool was the juxtaposition of all the butch army stuff with the sensitive artsy feel of MoCCA? Not to mention, since it was the 69th Regiment, there were 69s EVERYWHERE! They were in the floor tile, in the bathroom wall, everywhere! Hilarious!


photo courtesy of the Daily Crosshatch

- The Armory was also kind of a crappy venue in that there was NO AIR CONDITIONING, inadequate ventilation, not enough fans (some overhead fans would have been great), and stuffy as hell! I decided to forego my usual dress shirt and tie look on Sunday for another t-shirt day because I just couldn’t handle the idea of wearing any clothes at all, let alone the most uncomfortable clothes possible for the weather. It was nothing compared to the sweltering heat of the 7th floor last year, but still inadequate in my opinion.

- I’m sure a lot of the kinks will be worked out by next year, but a lot of the behind-the-scenes changes seemed chock full of unnecessary red tape and other ridiculousness. For example, the wristbands? What the hell?? And they claimed if you needed to replace your wristband it would be ten dollars! And there was a different wristband for each day and god forbid you put the wrong one on! Not to mention, at early check-in it said in the email that we had to print out the email and bring photo I.D. to get our badges! Is there really that much identity theft in indie comics? Seriously?


inside the Armory - photo courtesy of MK Reed

- I know that MoCCA Art Fest is a benefit for the museum, but... I am starting to feel like they are price gouging a bit with the table prices ($400 for next year!) and other small things, like the wristband-replacement fee, and though I never looked at the table refund policy before, has it always been as harsh as was listed on the advance table application this year? How can you say there is a non-refundable $50 deposit when YOU DON’T EVEN TELL US WHAT THE DATES ARE FOR NEXT YEAR?!? What if someone has a wedding to go to or something? You can’t go around penalizing people when you don’t even give them a chance to check and see if they’re free. We’re indie comics people, for pete’s sake! $50 is a week of groceries for me! Oh yeah, and they were charging $100 to have boxes delivered in advance! I have NEVER heard of any small press con charging anything to have boxes delivered in advance (I could be wrong though). Either way, the people who mail in advance are coming from far away, and are already paying for airfare and possibly hotel. How can you feel right about charging them $100 on top of the already-steep table fee? It’s ridiculous.

- Opening an hour late on Saturday was just incredibly insane to me. I have heard through the grapevine (though don’t take it as fact since it is purely hearsay) that the delays was because some books had not yet arrived. What? Seriously?!? Sure, they said they’d keep the show open an hour later but you know what? The general public was already gone by six because they thought the show closed at six. I made zero dollars in that additional hour, and was only made more hungry and tired from standing behind the table.

Zane demonstrates a sumo move on me from his sleeve of sumo tattoos, which proved an incredibly popular topic of conversation at the con!
(photo courtesy of Marianne Ways)

However, ALL IN ALL, I thought the Fest was GREAT and I had a wonderful time, did really well with sales, and pushed Freewheel #2 as hard as I could, which is all I ever wanted in the end. All the annoying stuff and bad stuff seems like it could be worked out better in the future, and since it was a new crew I am pretty forgiving on that front.

As far as the social end of things went, it was also really great! We had Rachel and Mikey of Poseur Ink staying with us, as well David Beyer (“the other David B.”), and I really enjoyed showing them around NYC (David used to live here, but it was all new to Rachel and Mikey!). We went to the Museum of Sex on Friday (we were going to go to Coney Island but it was raining) and had a really awesome time! Rachel and I also hit up the Drink and Draw Like A Lady party put on by Hope Larson and Raina Telgemeier, which was AWESOME! It went well above and beyond my expectations and I got to hang out with all my favorite ladies! Who could ask for anything more?


Me and Colleen at the Drink and Draw Like a Lady party (photo courtesy of Marianne Ways)

After the Art Fest on Saturday, we got a big gang of ten or so together and went down to one of my favorite restaurants, Bubby’s, in TriBeCa. It was Rachel’s birthday so we wanted to make sure we took her to some place that was REALLY great, and Bubby’s delivered! We even got them to bring her a cupcake with a candle in it! And I totally forgot that the Ghostbusters fire station is on the way to Bubby’s, so that was a nice surprise for them too!


I promise you, that is the Ghostbusters fire station (photo by MK Reed)

After dinner, we went to one of my favorite post-con hangouts, the Limerick House, which is a sort of divey Irish pub on 23rd St. The ISR guys were supposed to show up there, so we assumed we’d meet them there, but we were too early and ended up missing them altogether. What we DIDN’T miss, however, was the 21st birthday of some B&T girl (Bridge & Tunnel, for you non-New Yorkers – it is a sort of derogatory term for obnoxious commuters who don’t live here but rather come via bridge & tunnel from Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut). We had to endure shriek after shrill scream from this gang every time a song came on the jukebox that they wanted to sing along to (which was seemingly every single one). On the bright side, they helped us coin the phrase “We’re friends! Let’s hug!” which we would look at each other and shout every time one of these girls gave out one of their signature “WOOOOOOO”s. Me and MK even wrote a song about it, right there in the Limerick!

On Sunday night we took it easy, ate at a Japanese place near our house, and watched the Fred Savage picture, “The Wizard” on VHS. It was a fun weekend! Busy and crazy but fun as hell nonetheless!



Next stop: Indie Island at Heroes Con! Oh and Freewheel #2 will be up for sale online shortly, but that'll be a separate post!

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Page 13 here
Page 14 here

Freewheel #2 will be debuting at the MoCCA Art Fest here in NYC June 6-7!



The free .pdf of Sing Along Forever is still available for download here! 65 people have downloaded it so far and I'm trying to get to 100, so tell your friends!

I decided I want to put up pages 13, 14 and 15 as I finish them, in anticipation of the MoCCA Art Fest in two weeks (where Freewheel #2 will be debuting), and also because these three pages hint at the super climactic ending of issue 2, which I am VERY excited about! You can read page 13 here. Page 14 is below. Page 15 will follow tomorrow.

These pages feature a character called Old George, who I like to imagine is actually an aged Gabby Schulz/Ken Dahl for some reason. Maybe it's the crankiness. Maybe it's the wood-whittling. Maybe it's the living in the middle of the woods using improvised tools and making sure no idiots fall in the cavern.

Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear!



Also I am going to gently remind you about the free .pdf download of Sing Along Forever, which is still up and still free right here! I'm not totally sure why I am giving it away for free but I am in a generous mood so take advantage of it before I change my mind!

Freewheel #2 is coming soon to a MoCCA Art Fest near you! Yes! It will be done in time for MoCCA! Here is a preview of one of the pages (page 13, which I finished today):




And don't forget to go download your FREE .pdf copy of Sing Along Forever right here!