SDCC was a ton of fun, but seriously – five days is really, really a long time to be on your feet. We were all pretty exhausted by the time tear-down was done on Sunday. We headed for some celebratory tacos & ice cream, and then back to the house to crash. There was briefly some talk of heading back downtown to hang out with whoever hadn’t flown out yet, but the lure of the couch was simply too strong.

We laid down for all of twenty minutes before the lure of Rock Band became too strong. I mean – playing drums is still sitting, right? And you can totally play a guitar sitting down… Besides, the couches were within crawling distance of the PS3, and the temptation was simply too much!

It was a ton of fun, and exactly what we needed to unwind after a long convention sitting within range of the Rock Band 3 booth. (Which, coincidentally, looks like it’s going to be [i]awesome[/i]!!)

So there you have it – the end of my journey to SDCC. Next – Gen Con!!

Layne and I are giant ship nerds (ok, ok, Layne moreso than I…), and we were recently let loose in the San Diego Marine Museum. Much jumping around and squeeing ensued.

We first got into real ship nerdery when we stumbled across the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian. Layne had asked for a set of the books for Christmas – no small feat, when there’s twenty books in the series!! He got enough of the books to get started, and then quickly hooked me on the books too. There was something fascinating about the details in the novels, and though I’d grown up in a place about as far from the ocean as you can get, I was charmed by the descriptions of seagoing life. When the movie, Master and Commander came out, it was just icing on the cake.

And so, to suddenly find ourselves on the very ship that the movie was filmed on was pretty amazing!!! Layne and I ran around like little kids, pointing at things and blabbing loudly about how awesome it was, and, oh, look at all the rigging!! In fact, Layne was so well-versed on the ships sails that one older woman asked if he worked for the museum! All in all, it was an awesome trip.

I wish I had a picture of Matt the Cat, because he is absolutely adorable. He is belongs to the wonderful folks who draw Little Vampires, and is something of a celebrity himself, as he often appears in the comic, being pestered (or rewarded!) by the minuscule monsters.

This comic fudges the truth just a little a bit, for humors sake. For one, Matt was having a bit of an all-expenses paid vacation at the vets, where he is beloved by all of the vet techs, in order to spare Layne and I some serious allergic reactions. (The Hicks’ were even kind enough to borrow an air filter, which made a HUGE difference! I never even got the sniffles!) And, for another, he was far too much of a gentleman to end up on my face, though he did sniff curiously at me from a distance upon his return home after SDCC was over. (We didn’t leave until Tuesday, so we had a little time to visit San Diego after the con.)

Apparently, Matt really loves Canadians. The only other new person that he hasn’t hidden under the bed from was also Canadian, and he was treated to a full-on “pet me, love me” routine. I think that if Matt hadn’t been a little bewildered from the trip home from the vets, and had I not been to quick to keep my distance, lest I start sneezing, he would have wanted cuddles. He certainly peered down at me from the stairs for a very long time while I finished coloring my comics for the week.

So, Matt – here’s to you! Next time I come down there, I’ll bring you some maple syrup flavored catnip!

This year was the first year I’d ever attended San Diego Comic Con, either as an exhibitor or as an attendee. I’d heard stories – wonderful, amazing stories – from other people who had been to the show before. “Geek Mecca”, they called it, or sometimes, jokingly, the “Geek Prom”, but the one thing that remained the same about their tales was the slightly-misty look in their eyes as they spoke of it. Some people had met famous actors and shook their hands. Others had gotten their hands on enough fabulous loot to make pirate envious. And others had met life-long friends in line for Hall H.

So, to say that I was a tad nervous about exhibiting at San Diego is a bit of an understatement. One of my friends tried to reassure me that I’d exhibited at other big cons before, and that I would be an old pro at it. I looked him dead in the eye and replied, “To say that is akin to saying that I’ve walked through a rainstorm, so I should know how to deal with a hurricane.”

So, was it a hurricane? Hells yeah!! More people attended that con this year than live in the city I was born in.

But was it one hell of a fun time?? Oh my god yes!!!!

More later!! There’s tons of San Diego stories to tell, but only a few days before I ship out to Gen Con!!

Layne informs me that I got the song completely wrong. It’s bread, mayo, lettuce, CHEESE, tomato, etc, etc, etc… He says that the cheese provides a nice, flat platform for the tomato to sit on so that it doesn’t fall off the sandwich while you’re trying to eat it.

This is a man who had put a LOT of thought into his sandwiches. A LOT.

Which is probably why they taste so good. I used to be of the opinion that anything thrown onto bread in any order was a sandwich, and why should I care what order they go in because it’s all just going to wind up in my belly anyway. But there is a certain logic to his arrangement of ingredients. Lettuce tastes best with a little bit of mayo. The meat tastes best by the mustard. Everything has a reason and a purpose. It’s all very zen.

Sorry to be a bit of a downer, folks. This was a hard strip to write. I discarded seven other scripts, including a few lighthearted takes on the holiday. None of them seemed to fit. They felt fake. And, loathe though I am to air any of my dirty laundry in front of you lovely folks, I felt like this one needed to be said. Or drawn, rather.

I hope you all enjoy your holiday. I won’t necessarily enjoy Father’s Day, but I will do what I normally do, which is to call my grandpa and my uncle and thank them both for being a part of my life, and then try and ignore the urge to huck a remote at the screen every time I see one of those damned saccharine ads for Father’s Day on tv. Seriously. They all boil down to “Dad’s so funny. Look, he likes golf and napping!”. I do believe that I hate them even more than I hate the usual ream of sexist beer ads.