I had so much fun at Book Expo on Friday, I don't know where to start. And I also don't know how to even tell the story without sounding like a name-dropping ass -- so I'll just list the highlights:
- Mark Smylie giving me the complete set of his Artesia graphic novels for the low price of gas money;
- Talking with Jeff Smith about what a nice person Colleen Doran is;
- Spotting Wil Wheaton across the hall as he was walking with a man who turned out to be John Scalzi;
- Slash being yards away from me as he signed books;
- Sherman Alexie doing a drawing in my copy of "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", because I gave him a drawing;
- Having the man I was chatting with at the bar turn out to be Marty Davis, who taught at Watts when I was there, and spending the next couple of hours geeking out about art;
- And finally meeting Neil Gaiman in person, and discovering I had inadvertently given him something related to Chapter 5 of The Graveyard Book.
Hrm. I probably still sound like an ass. So many wonderfully kind, brilliant, and talented men were there that I thought I might faint or swoon at several points during the day. And sadly, I took pictures of myself with none of them at all. But here's two very small and quick sketches I did as studies of Neil, during the breakfast panel:
I didn't think to take a photo of the one good sketch I did in ink, before I gave it to him. Damn.
Still, an awesome day, despite the lack of photographic evidence of its awesomeness.
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