ShortRun 2019 Powerhouse

I can only share one photo because I simply didn't have time to take any more!

Bruce Simon and Me - I told him all
about Ka-Blam, the best floppy printers
for the best prices.

Never in all my years going to hundreds of conventions has the floor been hotter. 4,000 people crowded into the Fisher Pavilion in the Seattle Center, and they were there to BUY. They wanted books, tshirts, facetime - they were in the moment, and ready to party. Thank Goodness my Square reader was working!

The photo is of Hoo-Hah publisher Bruce Simon, who offered, among other books, a truly well-done collection of the classic Out Our Way cartoons from the 1930's. We got on so well we've shaken hands on sharing a table next year, if ShortRun will have us both back! 

I told him he MUST submit the Out Our Way books to the Pulitzers this year, in the publisher category. The books meet all their criteria, especially being a very well-done collection of a wonderful American series.

He came up from Berkeley, and was unprepared in a number of the business points of running a table at a show, because - according to him - the comics scene in San Francisco is badly faded. 

I told him to run right over to this site and look up the Clallam Bay Comicon and start the process of running his own one-person minicon. The secret to this is, after about seven years of what is really quite easily organized, somebody else will want to take it over and expand it, as happened with the CBCC, which has morphed into the Forks RainCon. 

So, anybody in Berkeley or environs who wants to help out, look up the book on Amazon,* where there's always a contact email block.

*(I'm sorry for that - so many of us put our books on Amazon before it went asshole).

I missed the afterparty again because I was just so exhausted. I have a lung infection, and am on antibiotics. So I can't drink anyway! I should have just made up my mind to Uber* home, but I'd only used Uber once, and my brain was fried from the intense show. 

**(AND I will have to transfer to Lyft, because Uber's CEO is calling the murder of a journalist by his Saudi shareholders a "mistake." We know what Friends' Rachel had to say about mistakes. Which is sad, because I really like Uber.)

I did make it to the Fantagraphics afterparty Sunday evening, which featured an interesting music/animation from Berlin.

Sunday, there were two great ShortRun events downtown and on Capitol Hill, featuring Shortrun authors. And did I just pick up an opportunity to talk at the University of Washington? We'll see.

ANYWAY, I was dreading the bus ride back home on Monday, but not because it was a bus ride- Clallam County Busses are fabulous - but because it was Veteran's Day (Properly called Armistice Day, before America got mad about losing the Korean War), and rural areas get stupid. 

BUT - it turned into an opportunity to POSSIBLY start the gay pride festival in Port Angeles. I can't share how, because it's Somebody Else's Story.

But I can share how I walked by the old vets selling vet stuff in front of the Safeway and said, "We're going to try to have a gay pride parade in Port Angeles." 

Their answer? "All RIGHT!"

I will certainly be back to ShortRun next year, especially if I can run at least a quarter table. That's a privilege.