I’m not sure whether William actually included the word “fuckin’” in his question.  Perhaps the comic would’ve been funnier without it.  Either way, I hope that Daniel Clowes fans will appreciate my attempt at his lettering style in the first panel.

So I went to that Graphic Novel Conference at Open Book on Saturday and had a GREAT time. Gene Yang gave a wonderful keynote speech; he’s an extremely smart, witty, down-to-Earth guy. He was very modest about his work, which is incredible. He was honest, but not bitter, about the difficulties of making a living at comics.

This made him an excellent lead-in to the panel I went to right after that: Lars Martinson’s “Self-Publishing a Graphic Novel (in Eight Hard Steps).” Oh man, guys. This panel was SO INFORMATIVE AND HELPFUL. Lars published his book, Tonoharu, with the help of a Xeric grant. It looks beautiful, and I hope I can buy a copy at MIX. Like Gene Yang, Lars was extremely down-to-Earth, practical, and honest-but-not-bitter. Some of the big take-home points for me were:
* Get a million times better at drawing/making comics
* Manage personal finances better
* Continue seeking out grants
(I have way more take-home points than that, but I won’t subject you guys to my full notes.  Suffice it to say that this lecture was Exactly What I Needed.)

Sarah Morean was also at Lars’ panel. After it was over, she invited me, Lars, and Mike Toft to lunch. We ate at Grumpy’s which, though it was 1:00 PM, was still serving only the breakfast menu…which Sarah had just been warning us about. But we stayed and it was okay.

I skipped out of the afternoon panel because I had to leave early. Instead I went next door to Big Brain and bought two comics from Big Brain owner Michael Drivas.

Then I drove home and played with Dad’s band at the Grand for Mom’s 30th Carleton reunion. For this, I was given free drink tickets and some extremely mediocre vegetarian lasagna. But hey, free drink tickets!

On Sunday I worked.  Now I am going to work again!