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(You can click some of the pictures for bigger versions. Please let me know if I made any mistakes.)

Coming to San Diego felt kind of risky. I hadn't visited my family there on my own before, and I was meeting several people I'd previously only known through comics and internet conversations. I was leaving my comfort zone—but it wasn't very comfortable anyway, and you can't improve your life without taking chances, right? Moreover, I had to be there for the unveiling of Flight Volume One, and I'd been excited by a brief visit to the MoCCA festival in New York a month before (where I met Vera Brosgol, Derek Kirk Kim, and Ryan Sias), which gave me a hint of how fun this convention could be.

yours truly (photo by Kean Soo)
The next morning, fellow Flight artists Kean Soo, Kazu Kibuishi, and Rad Sechrist showed up to take me to the con in Kazu's mom's SUV. We immediately got along like old friends, and I was ducking photographs already…
(by Amy Kim Ganter)
The city's enormous convention center filled up quickly; a record 80,000+ people attended. Movies, video games, and books were on display in a huge pop culture frenzy.
me, Kazu, Kean, and Vera (by Kean)
Clio Chiang, Bill Mudron, Dylan Meconis, Vera, Jen Wang, Erika Moen (by Kean)
Dylan, Bill, Vera (by Kean)
Upon arriving at our space on the con floor, it was my pleasure to see Vera again, and meet her friends Erika Moen, Clio Chiang, Jen Wang, Dylan Meconis, and (later) Bill Mudron. They all contributed to Flight, and together make up Pants Press. They're incredibly bright, hilarious, and though it's trite to say, frighteningly talented—it started to dawn on me that I was having a pretty swell time easily making new friends. That's probably because they were all so kind and awesome, but also because I really did already know them through their comics—a testament to the sincerity of their art.
me, Erika (by Kean)
Due to power outages, a chemical spill, etc., Flight was still en route from the press in Pamona, making us all pretty anxious. I had a lot of time to wander around and meet great artists, though. I was so happy to see Martin Cendreda in person, and he remembered my name!
(by Brad Silverman)
The weirder side of the con was captured quintessentially by this feeble man leading a big blind Pikachu. He almost ran right over Kean as he was trying to take a picture.
Kean and Vera crack open the first box (mpeg video by Stephen Heintz)
Around 3 o'clock, the book finally arrived with much fanfare. Kazu and I had to wade through a huge crowd just to get back behind the table to see it.
Scott McCloud (by Stephen Heintz)
Of course our mentor and best friend Scott McCloud was first on our list for a free copy, but in typical amazing form, he honored us with the first purchase. I was very happy that I got to meet him and personally thank him for all he's done—and his nearby Tranquility Base, with its charming denizens and comfy inflatable furniture, was a prime retreat during the con.
(by Kean)
It was such a relief to finally see the books, and they sold like crazy for the rest of the day!
Enrico Casarosa (by Leo Santos)
Signing book after book was a love/hate activity, but it's incredibly humbling to have fans ask you to do this. We went from simple autographs to fun sketch jams, reacting to each other's drawings. The one where we all worshiped Enrico Casarosa (who's in our book but had a separate booth nearby with Ronnie Del Carmen) was probably my favorite! Enrico's new wares were all terrific, and he even threw in a "Haiku 5-7-5" sketchbook for me.
Kean and Joel Carroll (by Kean)
Fellow Flight artist Joel Carroll and his super cool friend Ed Siemienkowicz (we both like "John in the Morning" on KEXP) showed up later at the con and then joined us for dinner at the food court of a nearby mall, where Phil Craven (also of Flight) finally showed up! Once again I was impressed by how sweet and funny these new friends were in person. The Dumbrella guys and other chums were also in attendance.
"Emotion Eric" and Clio (by Stephen Heintz)
Eric (who runs a website so famous I probably shouldn't even use his last name) was fantastic to hang out with throughout the con, and has a great sense of humor; no surprise there. He sold his shirts (all proceeds go to a children's hospital, wonderfully) at our table, which ratcheted up our coolness factor a good bit.
Kazu, Rad, me, Jen (by Erika)
We had our quibbles with the way the book was printed, but overall we were very pleased. People seemed to think the colors in my story came out particularly well. It was nice to have the approval of all these immensely talented people!
Hope Larson, Derek (by Erika)
Many more people were able to come to the con on Friday. It was especially nice to see Hope Larson and Derek again. They're two of the four or five artists that gave me the initial inspiration to start doing this myself, and I sincerely can't express how talented they are. And now I'm in a book with them! Hope's husband Bryan O'Malley (Mal to his friends) was also there, but unfortunately his new graphic novel from Oni, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, was delayed and couldn't debut at the con.
Derek and me (by Vera)
But hey, I did get to sit on Derek's lap. Yow!
Erika (by Stephen Heintz)
One unfortunate tradition of the con is that of the "booth babes" who shamelessly objectify themselves. This one, promoting the film Species III, had to be the most egregious example ever—she was trapped in a glass box, stroking a writhing phallic tentacle, completely unresponsive to the outside world and apparently coked up out of her mind. Erika balanced her out by being our very own Tank Girl.
Vera, Craig Thompson, Kazu (by Rodolphe Guenoden)
I was a little taken aback when comics darling Craig Thompson asked me about Flight while signing his new Carnet De Voyage; it was even more surprising when he dropped by our booth to get a copy! I wanted to just give him one, but he said "Hey, you bought my book," and I thought, Well, can't argue with that. It was very cool to chat with him and to actually be drawing pictures for him. His work is excellent and deserves the great attention. I wept like a baby after reading Goodbye Chunky Rice! I tried to avoid being a fawning idiot and just be cool, but I think I came off quiet and creepy.
Craig, Kazu, Doug TenNapel (by Vera)
Craig and Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim, Creature Tech) have pretty different—er, opposite—public views on Christian spirituality, but they're both awesome artists, and of course everyone is civil in the Flight booth! And then…
We got a visit from Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons and Futurama)! I… met and drew pictures for… Matt Groening! As my cousin Rahul said later, "that's tight." We started to catch on that our little book experiment was going well.
Catia Chien, Jen, Kazu, Ariel, Vera, Rusty Yates, Clio (by Kean)
After the con, we grabbed dinner at Denny's with Catia Chien and Chris Appelhans (fellow contributors) and their awesome roommate Rusty Yates (all these people really know how to pick friends!), and headed over to the Casbah for a concert. Ariel, an enthusiastic fan of Flight and a very nice guy, also came. Then apparent disaster struck: even though I'd been pushing hard to organize this thing and bought half the tickets in advance, I forgot my ID. I had to take it out one too many times at the airport, and managed to leave it in my shirt pocket on Wednesday. The bouncer was not having any of it! So, after I finished freaking out, Chris drove me back to my family's place to get it (hence we aren't in the picture). Everything worked out well though—we had a nice conversation in the car, and we only missed the opener Liz Janes; I got to see the acts I came for. (Everyone else got in and saw the whole concert.) Thanks again, Chris!
Joanna Newsom (by Vera)
Joanna Newsom was mesmerizing and beautiful, on cue. I'd seen her before in Pittsburgh, and she was just as great, though maybe a bit more stressed. Here she's being accosted by some jerk who was bothering the girls, which probably didn't help.
Joanna Newsom (by Vera)

Sufjan Stevens (by Vera)
It was wonderful for me to catch Sufjan Stevens here, having missed him in Pittsburgh because of final exams. He came with a whole backing band, and they all did a great job. The songs from Michigan were visually aided by a big map, and plenty of tunes from Seven Swans were also played. We also got a couple of treats: "Chicago" from the forthcoming Illinois, and an awesome version of "The Star Spangled Banner" (when can I hear these again!). Sufjan came back by himself to play "Romulus" for an encore. The club was hot, and everyone was very tired after a long day, so understandably, not everyone could keep up the energy to fully appreciate the show; but I'm pretty sure everyone was glad to go. I really wished Eric could have made it. It turned out later that the concert was about a block away from his hotel!

Kazu, Kean, me (by Clio)
As we were leaving the show, just when the day couldn't get any better (or longer!), we found out that Derek had won an Eisner award! We wound up at the Pants Press hotel room waiting for him to stop by. As soon as Kazu and I saw the bed, we fell in. Kean sidled in as well.
Jen, Vera, Derek (by Erika)
We gave Derek our groggy but heartfelt congratulations. The girls' plan had been to shower him with underwear when he won! He was very glad it didn't come to fruition, though he liked that one on his head a lot.

…On Saturday the plan was to let Kazu sleep in while I rounded up the money for our big dinner, but I overslept! I just put on some clean clothes and a hat and rushed out without taking a shower, which made for my grungiest day at the con.
Our booth received casual visits and great compliments by people from Disney, Pixar, etc., which was great of course. I was kicking myself for not having finished my minicomic! A really nice Scandinavian fellow (I can't remember his name now, unfortunately) showed me a mock up for his super impressive book Astro, so I did my best to advise him on how to get it published, and it actually helped! He was in a good mood and I'm really glad I was able to help.
Richard "Dik" Pose, Mike Williams, Josh Pruett, Matt Spangler, Justin Ridge, Israel Sanchez?
Having become more familiar with the Flight crew, Pants Press, and Dumbrella, I decided it's a pretty good idea for artists to band up together. The Those Guys are no exception, though I couldn't visit very often, what with their table way on the other side of the convention floor (it took about a half hour to traverse!). Dik Pose and I got on very well (he'll contribute to Flight Volume Two), and I also loved Israel Sanchez's book.
me—or an ugly baboon? (by Rich Thigpen)
The folks at the Prism booth (where Erika had already introduced me to the amazing Collen Coover) were kind enough to ask me to sign there for an hour. They had music playing off an all 80's iPod, but when I switched it to The Smiths, the crowd dissipated in a hurry! It was fun to sell Flight by myself to people who were unfamiliar with it, and everyone in the booth was really friendly. Chris Butcher (The Beguiling) and Scott Robbins (Scholastic) very kindly invited me to what I think was Prism's mixer that night, but unfortunately I couldn't go because of the dinner we'd planned.
Eric, me, Jake Parker (by Leo Santos)
I got to talk to Jake Parker a lot more. Jake's artwork is really amazing; he takes the typical comic book fare like chicks, aliens, and super vehicles and does it so classy and well that it's really cool all over again—you can't help but be a little kid when you read his stories, and his contribution to the book is the nexus of the all ages theme of our project. He's also a faithful family man with 2 kids, and barely any older than me. His minicomic was the most successful one at our table.
Jake grabbed the mounted poster that Image Comics had made us and came up with an innovative, effective way to help people find our table. Image was so great and supportive; even Allen Hui, who did post-production on Flight, came by to say hello.
Eric followed suit with much success. We hung out together behind his friend David Bort's table for a while (Eric was sort of stuck), and had a good time as we honed our more aggressive sales techniques.
James Kochalka (by Vera)
That was pretty futile, because I gave James Kochalka a free copy of Flight there. But he returned with a book for me! I also spread my love for Martin Cendreda's work to Eric.
Doug (by Leo Santos)
Having been bounced around a bit, Doug found himself at home in the Flight booth where he did signings for his new book Tommysaurus Rex (he'll also contribute to Flight Volume Two). Could it get any more auspicious? I had a great time sitting with him; we talked shop, and he told me what it's like to have Universal Studios buy the rights to your book for a million dollars.
Kazu (by Leo Santos)
By this point, my respect for Kazu was towering beyond all human reason. He had to pull double duty, running from one end of the con to the other to promote both Daisy Kutter at Viper Comics, and Flight, which he created, edited, and contributed two stories for. Sure the artists of Flight organized themselves pretty well, but it wouldn't have happened without a person as great as Kazu to put our trust in. He's easily one of my favorite people, and on that note I think I can speak for everyone.
Jeff Smith, Kazu, Scott (by Kean)
Nobody could feign cool detachment when Jeff Smith payed us a visit. He was the king of the con with his completed Bone compilation: 1300+ pages, over a decade in the making, and just an awesome book. He gave us some horribly great compliments and presented us with the Bible-styled Bone hardcover (something like a $150 value), which is probably still firmly in Kazu's grip. I nearly choked when I sketched in Jeff's copy of Flight. Gah, it's so awesome!! Rad and Derek missed the visit so we sent them after him, and I know Derek was really touched that Jeff had already read his Same Difference and Other Stories and liked it a lot (but that's no surprise to me).
Joel, Hope, me (by Kean)
After another great day at the con, we headed for the grand dinner that Kazu had organized, on top of everything else. I had a nice chat with Hope as we strolled down to Bucca Di Beppo with about 90 other people.
Jeff Rowland, me, Vera, Clio (by Kean)
It took a little while to get seated with so many people in our party, but chatting outside the restaurant was fun, and Clio did a great job of taking charge and organizing us.
Khang Le (by Kean)
Fellow Flight contributor and computer art wiz Khang Le had shown up earlier that day at the con, and I even got to meet his parents. He took a puddle of silver ink that had been spilled on a book and salvaged it into a cool robot creature; Kazu remarked that's basically what he does for a living! Chris told me that when he was a kid, Khang created a superhero called The Locator, who could locate the villain… That's it.
Joel, Kean, Khang, me, Rad, Cat, Chris (by Enrico)
Chris, Alex Woo, Kean (by Clio)
I sat with these fellows, and a couple of Alex's friends. Alex directed the animated film Rex Steele Nazi Smasher, a loving send-up of cartoons and fervent patriotism, that had everyone in stiches. It was hilarious to witness some guy mistaking him for Kazu.
Amy Kim Ganter, me (by Amy)
Amy creates the manga-inspired epic Reman Mythology and will also be in Flight Volume 2. She's good people.
Jeff Rowland (by Vera)
Another awesome friend to have at the con was Jeff Rowland, creator of an enormously popular (10,000 daily readers! That's like an army!) and really funny strip called Wigu. Erika introduced us, and anytime I needed to get outside for a breath of fresh air, or see a frightening brown recluse spider bite, he was there to take a break with me. I wish I'd gotten to know his Dumbrella friends better as well, but there's always next time. I did at least get to say hi to and inadequately compliment R. Stevens and John Allison.
Kazu, Rusty, Rad, Dave Demarest? (by Enrico)
I think that dinner was the most cool people I've ever eaten with at once, and again we owed it all to Kazu. There was much regaling, and Scott delivered a great toast; even the waitstaff had a good time. There was no place I'd have rather been.
Hope (by Vera)
Usually I'm the one weirdo drawing on a placemat, but here I was really among my own ilk.
Afterward, there was a lot more drawing when Kazu, Kean, Phil, Rusty, Cat, Joel, Ed, and I headed over to the Sketchbook Sessions gathering at the Marriott. Kazu introduced me to a lot of cool artists like Ben Caldwell, and Kean got thoroughly drunk with the jug of wine he saved from dinner (the comics don't lie!). We spotted some famous people like Mike Mignola, whose limited new Hellboy sketchbook was a hot item at the con.
me (by Kean)
Later we nearly got trapped in a parking garage. One woman had actually shacked up in her car there! Once again, I crawled into bed very late…
Sunday had a pretty sour beginning, with me stranded in the driveway for a long, long time, and Kazu manning the Flight booth alone.
Phil, Jake, Rad, Joel, me (by Dik?)
But nothing cheers me up like a chicken man—courtesy of The Those Guys.
Michel Gagné (by Brad Silverman)
Since it was the last day of the con, I figured I'd better see all the artists I wanted to before it was too late! One of them was Michel Gagné, whose A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex is a tiny masterpiece. Rex will be back in Flight Volume Two (the already completed story is beautiful!).

All of the sudden, things started shutting down. People were even tearing up the carpet in a hurry; i was expecting a wrecking ball to come crashing through at any moment. Jake had to catch his plane, as did the Pants Press kids after a few quick hugs. I started missing them all immediately! Cleaning up and hauling our stuff out of the con was sort of an imbroglio (especially when they indiscriminately closed off the road out front), but we got it done with teamwork and a little patience. Rusty had to go, and Joel and Ed needed to return their car and take off, so Kazu, Kean, Khang, Cat, Johane Matte, Chris, and I went out for a last dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, with Eric and his friend Andy Park, who was shooting a documentary about the con. I felt really bad that Hope and Mal couldn't make it; this whole thing was ending too fast!
Everyone left for LA except Kean and Kazu, who went to take care of stuff at Alfred's place (where most of the Flight gang had been staying) while I hung around the Gaslamp District with Eric and Andy. All the nerds had cleared out of town, so the area was back to "normal" with lots of club-hopping meatheads and hoochies. It wasn't all that, so we headed back to their hotel room where we read comics, watched TV, curiously perused each other's websites, and generally chilled out until Kean and Kazu came back for another trip to Denny's.

The next morning, I got to see Kean and Kazu one last time, as we had "brunch" at Roberto's Very Mexican Grill and walked the beach near my family's house, talking about everything that had happened, and dreaming about the future. That morning on the beach was really splendid…

I spent the next couple days having a great time with my family and touring San Diego, but I've already gone way outside the scope of a con report—and yet I only described the tip of the iceberg really. I was exhausted from happiness everyday, and miss all my new friends a lot. The apparent risk of the trip payed off incredibly, and it proved to be an object lesson in the philosophy of "fake it til you make it." Flight was successful beyond all our expectations, and Image ordered a second print run shortly after the con. Meanwhile, Volume Two is coming together quite nicely. I can't wait for next time.