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Having had such a wonderful experience at the San Diego Comic Con in July, I couldn't really miss SPX in Bethesda, Maryland (right outside DC)—there aren't many chances during the year to see these great people I already consider good friends! I was quite proud of myself for being able to speed down there in under 4 hours, even after stopping to eat; it's just not a road trip unless you top 100mph at least a few times…

I found Joel, Ed, and Kean dutifully manning the Flight table and was immediately informed of their encouter with Mike Mignola. I knew I was going to miss something! I was glad to see with my own eyes that Joel and Ed were still in one piece after this ravaging hurricane season, though Joel pointed out that the storms had helped rebuild the Everglades. I had a zen yin-yang sort of ephiphany as I pondered this. Kean was in good spirits as usual, and in talking with him I realized how much I'd grown to really like everyone even more in their absence; it was like seeing old friends. Oh, and Joel's sketchbook was friggin' awesome.

The guys were kind enough to let me clear a space at the table for my paraphernalia. I'd really recommend making at least one mini for any comics convention you go to; it's great because you can trade them (or use the proceeds) for other cool books, or to just let people know about your work at a glance, in a wonderful little economy of soul-bearing, which is much cooler than just shopping. They're also so rewarding to put together!

I was really happy to see Erika again! She'd sold out of her wonderful mini "I Like Girls," but I pressured her to staple together one last copy for me right there. Sara, who I met for the first time, also had a nice little comic that involved American Sign Language, which was a neat coincidence, since I stayed in an apartment with a deaf roommate later that night. ("Pittsburgh" has its own sign, which apparently consists of something like flicking your thumb at your chest.)

I headed over to Hope and Mal's table to meet the rest of the gang, and was pleasantly shocked to find that Vera Brosgol (Return to Sender, "I Wish" from Flight Volume One) had made it down to the Expo as well! Mal had his awesome new book Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, and it was really neat to go through the original art for it. Hope's stuff was also impressing a lot of new readers. They'd driven something like 10 hours down from Toronto with Vera, Kean, Chris Butcher, Scott Robbins, and Jason (Shhhh, Hey Wait, You Can't Get There From Here), one of the living grand masters of comics. Had I known straight away that he was the Jason, I think I would have been a bit more shy about sharing my crap with him.

Drawing in other people's sketchbooks is another fun little comics convention activity. Dean Trippe started a jam comic, and here I'm making a bizarre little drawing for Vera, complete with crayons that Hope had brought for the explicit sex farse/children's activity book that she'd created. People seemed impressed that I was inking without penciling anything first, and this proved to be an efficient distraction from the fact that I was drawing crap. Vera, on the other hand, drew me this simply awesome self portrait.

I met Les (Life With Leslie, Highway 13) out of the blue, and he was selling his journal comics collection Repeat Until Death at the Flight table. I looked through his gigantic original art for Johnny Crossbones with bemused amazement.

I also got to meet Raina and Dave for the first time, and they were very friendly and generous with the comics. Dave's "Teen Boat #6" later won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Debut Comic (decided by the votes of SPX attendees) which was all the more amusing because the comic is about an election campaign.

Jeff flew in from Oklahoma on this really cool helicopter/bike contraption, but he wouldn't let me take any pictures of it. And Antar was afraid of being photographed with Jeff.

We headed over to a Thai restaurant just a block away for dinner, and chatted it up outside while we waited for our table. I was honestly surprised that these people seemed to know my comics already. I hope I didn't seem too annoyingly incredulous.

Hope and I strangely had to sit with a large pole right between us, but it was a handy phallic visual aid for any crude jokes made during the dinner (Kean, I'm looking in your direction). Unfortunately, this was my only shot of Dylan! She's on the verge of graduating and has finished her comic series Bite Me! (about vampires during the French Revolution). Eventually a small food fight broke out and Jason Little (Shutterbug Follies) became an unfortunate casualty.

This photo is actually from another dinner on the previous night, but I wanted to recognize the pleasure of meeting the Failure crew. I'm still fawning over Drew's full completed Journal Comic book and his damn impressive mini, my favorite of the con. The Journal Comic was the first of its kind that I found after starting my own, and really made me think, wow this can work really well, which proved to be great motivation. I was really honored, and once again surprised, that he remembered my comics.

It was also really nice to see Rich and the Dumbrella people again! After dinner the gang headed to their hotel room…

But I hung out with my friend Ashish, who lives nearby. Because of his hospitality, I was able to stay for another day of comics convention adventures, though we didn't get to hang out that much. Thanks Ash!

The next day I met Christine, who's actually been reading my Imitation of Life from around the very beginning. How embarass—I mean, awesome! Her 24-hour comic "Simply That" was neato.

Vera showed off her awesome hat in this glamour shot at the Flight table. I met tons of new people on Sunday, though I felt kind of bad that things were winding down. I swallowed my inhibitions and foisted my comics on lots of people I admired, including all the best indie publishers, just as a silly act of gratitude.

Erika frantically waved goodbye. Yep, so everyone left and I drove home alone. I should have taken more pictures. The next time I see many of these people will probably be at the Alternative Press Expo, along with the rest of the West Coast crew who couldn't make it here. I'll just sit around and wait anxiously.