I’m surely not the only person who feels his brain is his greatest asset and enemy at the same time.

Teeth falling out dreams is one thing, but teeth shooting out dreams is just too much. Come on, brain!

Before you ask, the one Annie is giving the other a footrub–hopefully this worked better in print, but here it’s a little teeny to tell.

This was an ad for the just-completed Brooklyn Comics + Graphics Festival program book, where Koyama Press debuted (as you can see in the strip) new books by Matt Forsythe, Maurice Vellekoop, and Jeremy Kai. I have Matt’s book, it’s awesome. And I’ve seen Maurice’s book, it’s raunchy! Jeremy’s book is presumably also excellent. Keep your eyes peeled for when those books are available in the wide world, either through better comics shops or through the creators’ sites.

I really just cruised right through that intersection. Like  a dummy. Fortunately there were no a) cops watching, and b) cars broadsiding us at high speed.

I can’t remember the exact rules of Mike Mitchell‘s drawing game, but they don’t matter that much. The short version is “get a bunch of awesome people together and then try to draw old stuff you don’t remember as well as you think.” Olly Moss was pretty great at it, which was not really surprising how good he is at anything to do with visual concepts. But the real champion turned out to be Steve Wolfhard, who won literally 4 or 5 rounds in a row. Steve is not super into being the center of attention, so after win #3 several of us started rooting against him, just so he wouldn’t collapse into a puddle right there in front of us.

Eric Feurstein is the best guy! If you don’t know him already, he’s behind a lot of great comics, including his current one, Rutabaga. He’s also one of my desert-island Twitter follows; meaning, if I were stranded on a desert island with a smartphone and could only.. oh never mind.

Perhaps if we could get the cantankerous leaders of the world together, a little hungover, and have them split a big sandwich with a bunch of greasy cold cuts on it while standing around some half-empty comic boxes… at last there would be peace.

I am slowly, slowly getting better at conversations over time, but mainly by avoiding them.

I had enjoyed a goodly number of drink tickets downstairs after the Ignatz, so I hope Ted May and Jesse Fuchs will forgive me for mistaking one for the other. Standing next to Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch, and looking like a generally fun guy– how could you not mistake a person like that for Ted May??

By the way, if you have not read Ted’s It Lives and Injury comics, oh man, hunt those things down. And he’s also an occasional contributor to the Amazing Facts… and Beyond! strip, along with Kevin and Dan.

Although they didn’t get used, thanks to my brother-from-another-mother Jason Michel, who helped me edit up a bunch of 10-15 second music cues for each presenter. By “helped me”, I mean “he did everything while I drank a couple beers and played with his daughter.” Jason’s part of the Super Ape/Electric Mountain smorgasbord of musicians and producers here in Charlotte; if you like music, check out the Electric Mountain site, there’s a ton of stuff, both the free kind and the kind where you can support the artists by, you know, buying.

Beside having to ditch half of my plans, replace a couple of last-minute cancellations, and start a good 45 minutes late, I guess the Ignatz Awards presentation went well. People seemed to have a good time. More importantly, *I* had a good time. Many thanks to Eden Miller, who organized everything, let me have my way with almost everything I asked for, and did a really great job. Whoever hosts the Ignatz next year, I hope you’re lucky enough to get Eden again, and also I hope if you won’t presume that they hotel staff knows how to operate their own equipment.

The thing that any creative community needs most of all is people putting their money, attention, and energy where their mouth is. I’m glad that Dylan Williams wasn’t the only person doing that, but I wish there were more of him, and I’m sad that he’s gone.

Tom Spurgeon has collected the many, many, many moving tributes to Dylan here. And, maybe more importantly in the short term, check out these ongoing auctions benefitting Dylan’s family, who are struggling with what must be titanic medical costs, not to mention the financial realities associated with Sparkplug Comics. There are so many amazing pieces of artwork available at that site; I encourage you to help out with a really really good cause.