graven.images

We're over by the lady with the python.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:52:47 GMT

Comfest Day 3.

I lucked out and scored a parking spot on 2nd. Walked a few blocks and I was back in the land of drum circles and didgeridoos. The weather held out all weekend. A mild breeze today. Foot traffic was slow but steady. The talk of the day was *some kid got stabbed the other night in Gooddale Park. I walked past the eyeroll enducing pile of BYOB on the way back to the booth. There was an impressive pile of wine and hard liquer bottles piled up. Seriously, it wasn't as bad as a stroll through OSU campus. Wait, that is bad. Moving on, I spent more time checking out bands than I thought I would.

Vegas 66 was your run of the mill rockabilly act. Made me wish the Cowslingers still played out. One of the guys from the Means has a new band: Vespin. I was really there to check out the Sick Thrills who were great. If I had the time and energy left, I would have went back for a t-shirt. Meanwhile, I missed some goings on over in camp ferret. Kinda surprised someone wanted their body painted that late in the fest. I don't know if I'll continue the face/body painting next year. You never know unless you try it out. The colors I found at the costume shop were run of the mill colors. Nothing like what I was seeing walking around the show.

What I did get to see was a golf cart hauling it past some folks on the lawn behind us. The guy hit a bump or something sending an unsecured chair flying in the direction of one of the ladies. There was almost a fight between the volunteer and one of the guys in that group. It got smoothed out but it could have gone south quickly.

The wrap up went even smoother this year. I was home by 10:30. Next year, I think I'll take Monday off. It's fun but exhausting.

As in life, things are never work safe. While I think I caught everything, you may want to view this at home. Comfest comes with a PG-13 rating. I was kind of bummed the belly dancing shots didn't turn out but oh well. Now on with the slideshow.

*update: The kid died of a self-inflicted stab wound. Apparently high as a kite. This points out many things. 1) the event is so huge, it's beyond the cops control. They could shut it down if this gets more noise. If more events like this happen, the cops just might. Again, it's a crowd thing. The more people you have at an event, the more variables there are. Far worse than BYOB, drugs are prevalent throughout the festival. Mainly pot, but other psychedelics are in use. I'm guessing this kid popped some acid. Haven't heard the toxicology yet, but I'd say that what he was on. 2) because of the shear bloat of the festival, encouraged by the organizers, I'd agree with the alt-weeklies and tell the organizers to step back... way back out of their box and analyze what they've created. Mildly organized chaos. Saturday's crowd was the largest I've ever seen. Since I've started going to this in oh... 10 plus years, I've watched it grow into a monster.

Other fixes:
- Rethink that freaking program! The one with the crappy Crump pastiche on the cover and interiors. 2/3rd's of the Comfest program really ought to be limited to the website. Start a blog. The only thing people care about are the band listings in the back which also needs laid out better. A list of vendors would be nice (with locations). I'm sure the bands would appreciate more of a paragraph write-up (with web link) in the program. Rather than a 'wacky' haiku description of their sound.
- From an outsider's perspective, this show is a Disneyland version of what was the `60's/`70's era. A lot of the causes that are presented miss the mark on the apathetic crowd that attends this show every year. While I'd love it if people took some of the causes seriously. The way they're presented comes off like a trip through Pirates of the Caribbean. People don't protest like they used to. I blame tv and the internet. These should be going on year round. Not on a weekend where you have a bunch of pervy men looking for free 'titties' by the body painting booth. You're delusional if you think most of the people there are there partly for the protests and causes. People come there to get hammered, listen to bands, and cruise the vendor booths.
- Someone on the CU board had a good idea, and that was to move it to a State Fair weekend. It will never happen, but it's a good idea. Moving it out to a farmer's field seems appropriate. Ironic that the festival promotes change but shuts down any attempt to change their festival for the better.

I swear I bought this hat before MJ moonwalked into the beyond.

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:40:25 GMT

Day 2 of Comfest.

Good times at Comfest. More people. More flesh. Some random volunteer high fived me on the way in. 'Happy Comfest'. The exotic animals were kept to a minimum. This is the most I've been away from the booth so I'm not up on the crazies quota for the show. I did get one burnout the other night that started chatting me up. Didn't buy anything. The talkers never buy anything. I missed a couple of bands at the Off-ramp as I got to chatting the time away. Friends from out of town turned up today. The face/body painting kicked up a notch into the lower lands. Dara tried to get me on my cell but I was already on my way over to check on the booth. I should have made a point to check and see what the other facepainting crew is charging. I way undercharged the lady by $25. Oh well. The paint held out but it was clear I'm going to need bigger tubes for that stuff. The timing was surreal as Ian had set up to play some kids songs in front of the Red Rover booth.

Par for the course, the crowd was insane for Saturday. I've snapped a few pics of the crush of people. For those that have never been to this show, here's an idea of what I'm talking about.

Of the bands I did see were Bird & Flower, the Kyle Sowashes, and the Main Street Gospel. I missed the Floatation Walls, Karate Coyote and the Lindsay. I was within earshot of it, hanging out by the Jolly Rodger flag. The Floatation Walls set sounded great. I may pick it up today at the Band booth. Briefly checked out Tintonton's set at the end of the night. By the time I got there it was half over. You could hear the throb from yards away. Busy day with the bands. Sunday's lineup is more uneven than usual. If one were to skip it, they wouldn't miss anything. I might surprise myself and find something listenible around there.

Tips on parking: if you have any hope of parking close (offstreet), go early. I was able to find a spot at 10:30am. A couple of my friends had a good idea of parking their ride somewhere far away and biking into the park. Sunday might not be so bad. Pride was last week but there's still Comfest, Origins and some stupid Clippers homegames to contend with. Parking is $5 higher than it should be.

We're by the 'I Wish You'd Stop playing Panama' stage.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:49:37 GMT

Comfest 2009. Day 1.

It was, earmuffs Dave, hot as balls today. It rained last night and the humidity is off the charts. Par for the course with Comfest. I definitely saw a shower and pounding back Gatorade in my future. Impromptu fits of Billie Jean played in the background. Everybody at the booth sold some stuff. Checking the stock, we're low on XL and LG tshirts for Brainbot and SPB. Plenty of mediums and small tee's. There was a little Comfest Bingo action.

a friend of mine unintentionally flashed his junk in my eyeline. Love the guy to death but knowing him, this was inevitable.
fishboat was eaten. For two years solid I've been hearing about this Fishboat. Don't believe the hype. It has to taste better after a couple of mugs of Comfest beer.
I saw two ex-ladies at the show. Never really dated much or this would be way higher.
I think ironic cross-dressing is on a comeback at the show.
Our booth is within earshot of the I Wish You Jazz stage. Out of all the spots they could have placed us, this is the ideal one. Today there was an unnecessary 15 minute take on Walk Like an Egyptian. This came after they took Panama for a spin. That's right, Van Halen's Panama.
I had one dude try to hard-sell me his crappy dvd he made that, of course, was about pot. You're just delaying me from the experience of fishboat. Why do you hate fishboat?
So far I haven't had to call the nice costume people for a supply run.
Saw my first Steampunk couple walk by. If you didn't know, Origins is happening next door at the convention center.

Saw a lot of musician friends and ex-coworkers. Good rule of thumb: If I'm not at the Panel booth, I'm at the Off-ramp Stage.

At some point, the Comfest fold moved all the Tom-friendly bands to one stage. A short walking distance from a twist-cone trailer. Bands I checked out today were TV Eye , Grafton, and Sandwich (Ron House's new band).

I've washed the hippie off of me. Time to crash. I'm hoping tommorow isn't as much of a broiler.

So I'm in a costume shop...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:17:21 GMT

Ever since we started up this booth business at Comfest, I've joked about taking up 'face' painting. Well last year we got confronted by two confused women that came into the booth needing painted. It dawned on me that, hey that's money walking out the tent. Skip to a year later, I'm in a local costume shop to score some body... face paint. I get a strong conservative vibe as they immediately pounce on me. All the makeup and face paint is right by the register. This is how I come to find out that Micheal Jackson died. The shop owner blurted it out as they were selling me the stuff. Wait, Micheal Jackson died? This came to me totally off the grid. Old school. There's something appealing about that. For once in a decade, I find out a piece of major news not on the internet. Sad news but still.

That's how I like to remember the Man in the Mirror. Before his life completely derailed into freakshow terrritory. My childhood spent off the grid. We didn't have cable so all there was was the radio. Kenton radio operates five years behind everyone else. Hearing a new cut off of Thriller was an event. Fuzzy childhood memories of Jackson 5 and Globetrotter cartoons blurring together. Then Fat Albert came on like a hot dump on camera. I never liked Fat Albert. I didn't like Scooby Doo either. Anyway... Jackson at his pop peak hit at the right time when I was a kid. All the weird crap didn't register. Now it's all in your face. I know more about Christina Aguilera than I care to. I'm not even trying and I know what's going on in Jon & Kate. Baaaah, you kids and your Girl Talk records. (shakes fist in the air).

RIP Micheal.
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On a lighter note, Comfest begins tommorow. Resiliantly still in Gooddale Park. What is it going to take to get this behemoth in a bigger venue? The BYOB issue?? Area residents are really tired that it's gotten so big that it spills out into the neighborhood. Talking to a coworker today. One of his buddies leaves his house for the weekend. The weather looks like it will hold out till Sunday. There will be painting of things, and I'll get my twist cone fix.

Rally for Ohio Libraries today!

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:59:44 GMT

Ohio Libraries are on the chopping block as the State is proposing to slash funding by 50%. This is in addition to a 20% cut the libraries are currently working around. If the budget is passed, this will close many branches, cut staff, shrink money for new materials, and kill a lot of services.

Today at 11:30am on the Statehouse lawn there's a rally to protest this cut.

If you can't make it out, go here and voice your opinion. We have till June 30th.

progress of sorts

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:39:31 GMT

So I broke ground on my Mona Lisa project that I've been doddling on. I was about two pages into Hide before I had a change of heart and decided the opener needed a tweak. It's creaking along but I was happy that I could still crank them out in breakneck Kirby fashion. Still no home scanner so above is the raw un-tweaked inks. One of the four done may still be salvagible. I struggle pretty bad with writing.

I'm still experimenting with quasi-air brush splatter techniques.

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Showtime in a couple of days. Pretty excited. Bummed I didn't get to screen some new shirts but I'll live. If the weather holds out this should be awesome. Hot but awesome. Downloaded the Craftin' Outlaws application today. New show time in mid October. Outlaws has been relocated to the Lodge Bar which is in the Park Street area.

I thought this is why we voted a Democrat in... guess not.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:13:24 GMT

Ohio Governor Strictland wants to effectively shut down the Ohio library system, or cripple it. He's proposing a 50% cut for funding to Ohio libraries. If the Green Party was paying attention, this would be your 'in'. I believe the local Columbus Library was already operating under a 20% cut. This would shut down internet services, roll back any new purchases, cut staff and close a few branches.

This would really suck as the city (and the state) need libraries more than ever. Among the many uses the library has, one of them is finding / researching jobs for many who are jobless.

Call Strictland at 614-466-3555 and voice your opinion.

...or fill out this handy form that will be sent to your local representative.

Okaaaaaay

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:18:38 GMT

So Comfest is cracking down this year on BYOB. If it's illegal to drink in a public park then why is it legal for Comfest to sell beer in a public park? I don't get it other than it might be a ploy to buffer the hit they might take from the recession currently going on. I could see BYOB doubling in scope. Still, it's semantics. Trash is trash. If they're going to buy Comfest beer instead, wouldn't that almost be the same amount of crap to clean up in the night / morning? Sure the park is trashed for a day but that's what happens every year. It's only gotten worse because the crowd keeps multipling by the year. The festival outgrew the space 10 years ago.

Any of my friends coming out of town for this, be warned. If you bring a cooler, they might search it. It's only applicable to alcohol. Worst case, if you don't toss the beer, it's a $250 fine. (ca-ching! goes the city). For once, I'm siding with the drunks.

If you really want to pick up reading comics / graphic novels...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:27:29 GMT

It's no guarantee but here's some books I'd recommend to folks that are GN-curious. I would not start out the gate with Watchmen. It's a good book, don't get me wrong, but it's the comic equivalent of the Sound & the Fury. Same goes for Chris Ware. Frankly Chris Ware's a bit of a Debbie Downer for a first experience or second. I hesitate to suggest Love & Rockets, only because there's so much of it. These are all non-superhero/ continuity suggestions. You do not need know 30 years of back story to 'enhance' your reading experience. Also note, with exception to Bone, most of these I'd recommend for tweens on up. All these books are also available at the Columbus Library so they're recession proof. Unless you slip and get a fine on your card or don't live in a town that has a well stocked graphic novel section.

Y the Last Man. by Brian K. Vaughn & Pia Guerra. It reads like a really good HBO show. The pacing and dialogue are on par with any show currently on tv at the moment. In fact, the writer's now one of the guys working on Lost. The basic premise is Yorick is the only man left alive after a mysterious infection sweeps the world.
It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken. by Seth. Charming. Easy page flow. No confusing overly elaborate page layout and a great read.
Bone. by Jeff Smith. As Jeff often puts it, the premise is Lord of the Rings meets Bugs Bunny. The one all-ages entry on this list. Really it wasn't intentionally written for kids, it just worked out that way.
Sandman: A Game for You. by Neil Gaiman. I'm ashamed to admit, that was the first collection I ever read of Sandman. Having not read anything previously to that. It's my favorite arc in the Sandman series. I'd recommend most Vertigo titles.
Demo. Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan. A collection of short stories that riff off superhero elements without the capes. It's a bit abstract describing this but don't run away. My favorite story in the collection was Mixtape.
Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Funny stream-of-consciousness coming of age story. That riffs off of video games and indie rock kissed by manga.
A Perfect Example. by John Porcellino. If the library doesn't have this, D & Q did release a collection called King Kat Comics recently. Deceptively simple in execution, there's something in these pages that makes you want to go pet a kitten or rock out to Husker Du. I dunno. It's charming.

So yeah, no harm no foul right?

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:06:13 GMT

Color comp for the shirt. Playing around with it but now I don't think this is going on the shirt. There was a miscomunication somewhere as far as what was going where. I'm shelving it for now till I talk to the organizer again. Good news is the composite lines up pretty well. Since it's flat colors only, I was playing with dot screens. I'd really love to get CS3 at home.

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:19:38 GMT

Line art for next year's shirt. Bob's doing these up in color. We're working with another volunteer from last year's show on producing the shirts. It's not a silk screen process. I'm guessing heat transfer. I'll post up the end product once they're made. My scanner broke Friday so I'll be shopping for a new one here soon. It's not going to be the one I want (11x17 flat bed) but something that's not the same price as my computer set up. Any suggestions? My price range is $300 or less.

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Happy 2nd anniversary to the Rivet Gallery! Totally missed it last night. There's an interview with Laura over at Columbus Underground. Too much going on this weekend. I did a brief run through of the arts festival. Mostly to note what kind of displays are being used. Mesh Panels are surprisingly expensive.

Done McDone Done

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:35:53 GMT

There are some tweaks still left. I have no idea what the hell to do with the store page. Since the shirts are all hand-screened, we could do an etsy shop. I think what would help sell them is pics of folks wearing the shirts with a shot of the graphic. The sponsors page got the biggest reworking. While there are some old-hands at the show who understand bleed, there are also a lot of folks who don't know what bleed is. I've had to go in and rework ads that have come in that aren't set for bleed.
Paypal buttons have to be worked out and banners designed but it's mostly done. There will be some pdf flyers for download as soon as Bob firms up hotel information. If we figure out theme design for wordpress, the front page will have rss feed. The links off to the right will be linked tags if that happens. The more I talk to Bob, the more it sounds like the forum is a goner. Outside of a handfull of people (including Bob), it's the least visited/used part of the site. Having a blog with comments running should offer some interaction. Until we read up on some CSS/PHP coding, the wordpress/rss feed is on hold. I think this is ready to go live soon. You can check out the test pages here.

Any comments are welcome as we continue to iron things out.

Stoopid themes.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:38:10 GMT

Some days you wish things worked like the Matrix. 'I know CSS'. I'm crashing from my coffee high right now and all the code looks like... well code. I've been going online tonight to find some kind of crib notes to turn the front page rough I have into a theme for wordpress. It looked simple enough on the outset but now it's so complicated. There's the $10 easy way out that I came across but that's not a workable option. I'll try to take a crack at it tommorow.

Worst case what we've got now is going up with the redesign. Hotel information hasn't been firmed up yet. I have a 4 day weekend to work all this out.

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Cut up a lot of bristol today. I swear some ink's going to drop on it soon.

Happy Birthday Kish!
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Stepping outside the twitter-verse, I got the news from my brother tonight that I'm going to have a nephew. Nobody knew till now. The kid's due sometime in early August. It's the kind of news I needed. This week has been insane at the day job.

Wed, 27 May 2009 03:16:24 GMT

The redesign continues. There's still a few place holders on the demo site but it's coming along. Throwing a couple of spot illo's on the front page and that's done for now. Premiere comics and comic happenings I'd suggested being phased into the blog that'll run down the middle. I enlarged the text a stop in most places. Again, comments are welcome.

the end of the scroll...

Tue, 26 May 2009 01:50:16 GMT

I'm in the process of helping Bob rework the SPACE site beginning this weekend. Right now I have a rough mock-up of the front page on my site, just to show him. We went over some things yesterday. The turnaround for this will be pretty fast as he'd like this done in a couple of weeks. Biggest change is swapping out the never-ending scroll for a wordpress format. Exhibitors listing and information will be merged into one page. There will be some static pages and merging of different features that were there before.

New idea was to move all the exhibitor info to one static page. The legal stuff, exhibitor forms and exhibitor listings to one page. New additions will come up as a blog post on the front page.

Did anybody use the forum feature on the SPACE site? Or are the RSS feed update/ social sites sufficient??

Any feedback is welcome. Please speak up.

By the way, the show has moved to the Ramada Inn now off of Morse Road on Sinclair. Unfortunately, the time is again the same weekend as Stumptown which couldn't have been helped. April 24-25th, 2010.

*newly added: media.kit and exhibitor page (mock-ups)

new stuff!

Sun, 24 May 2009 16:18:37 GMT

Cover piece for something Kish has been wanting to happen for a very long time. This is the 'Mona Lisa' project I've been noodling on for freakin' forever. Never happy with it enough, research a little more, etc. etc. Time to clamp down and do it. First fifteen pages are scripted/thumbed and ready to draw. 600 plus more to go, if I can stand it. Something to do inbetween gigs.

Thu, 21 May 2009 01:19:19 GMT

Character Wednesday's are up again over at the Panel blog. Every week, a member from Panel picks a character to draw. From popular to really obscure. (Kish's pick Supremor comes to mind) Next week is my pick: Spiderman. Expect a lot of random catch-up as we got ahead of ourselves. I completely missed Hulk and Modok week.

Time for prep for Comfest. We'll be dabbling in hand screened tee's for adults and kids. I've got wet media acetate and I'm not afraid to use it. I'm about 70% serious about buying a face painting kit for.. um 'face painting'. Look slightly downward. There you go.

Character Friday?

Fri, 15 May 2009 12:17:57 GMT

The character thread's become unhinged lately. Things fell off on the Panel blog. I think the anthology was to blame. Molly's pick (Lex Luthor) to help get things rolling. Don't know who's picking for next time.

Well I think we're in for some rain tommorow at AGORA. I just found out that there will be two stages with bands playing all day. No idea where these bands are going to be set up at in relation to the vendors booths. I am kind of excited that Pretty Mighty Mighty's playing out tommorow.

Student exhibition opening's tonight at old school. There's also a CCAD 90's reunion I've been kicking around going to tonight. This is the year for 90's nostalgia I guess. Some of my high school classmates are doing the same later in the year.

Oy that was a long night

Thu, 14 May 2009 02:01:45 GMT

I did manage to finally finish Tony's story last night.. at about 2:30 in the morning. Crashed then woke up at 6am to get ready for the day job. Ack! It was worth it to check out the P. Craig Russell documentary playing at the Wexner Center... and hear P. Craig talk. A small group showed up. Felt kinda homey. Jeff Smith was in attendance. Q & A was pretty good. The documentary, while informative, was no Fog of War or Crumb. Russell is non-controversial. He's a quiet and reserved fellow. The anecdote about Marv Wolfman was funny as hell... but not in the movie. I don't think I'll be seeking this out on dvd.

I'm freed up again to focus on other things. My head's been all over the place lately. Took Friday off before AGORA which is this Saturday. I hope y'all can brave the weather. It's supposed to rain all day. There should be an alternative space indoors for vendors. Especially in spring. Only so much you can do with the space alloted.

AGORA is go!

Sun, 10 May 2009 21:05:32 GMT

The vendors page is up now on the AGORA site. I'll be at the Panel booth with the rest of the gang. Which now looks like Tony G., Molly, and Brent. It'll be interesting to see how the show goes. It's our first time doing it. AGORA runs from 12noon to midnight next Saturday in Grandview (Columbus, Ohio for you out of towners). Metric crapload of art from area artists and artisans. AGORA's held in Junctionview studios (one of a few massive art studio spaces scattered around town). Vendors are all outside and we shut down around 10pm. It's going to be a long but fun day I hope. Setup's at 10 in the morning so I'm looking at potentially 12 hours. Don't know if I'd do a show like that without help.

Cross our fingers but the new Panel anthology will be debuting at the show.

Dara will be out of country and Andy B. will be at the Motor City Comicon in Novi.

...and now is the time I make an ice cream run.

Big Johnson Bone

Sat, 09 May 2009 21:27:08 GMT

First time going to the Ohioana Festival. A more subdued book festival than I'm used to. Good talk with Jeff Smith. Fielding questions from little kids to adults. The festival was held in the mysterious state library I've heard about. It's my understanding that most of the stuff contained in their collection isn't what you would find in your local library. Primarily stuff that's state related. Surveys and crap. It's nested in a dilapidated industrial park. Two steps away from a bad spot in the Short North. Just as I thought, the line was shorter than the Wexner talk so I brought along a RASL for Jeff to sign. I was in front of his parents almost the entire time in line. Something about a framed pizza box drawing. Anyway a good way to kill a blustery afternoon.

Thanks to this dork for making the experience feel somewhat like a comic convention. I'm disturbed there's a hole under Clifford's tail. With exception to Jeff and R.L. Stine, I had no idea who any of the authors were at the show. It was a mix of different genres: sci-fi, romance, non-fiction, etc. No picture book authors or illustrators floating about so I bailed.

Once outside, I started snapping some of the awesome decaying buildings surrounding the library. There was some passable graffiti further back. I snapped a couple more of that. C-bus has some really crap graffiti so I won't bore you with it.

Did you hug your cartoonist yesterday?

Wed, 06 May 2009 22:16:10 GMT

Yesterday (May 5th) was National Cartoonist Day. I don't think there's any real way to celebrate it. Every year it comes up, it depresses the crap out of me. It's pretty brutal out there. The syndicated newspaper strip, editorial cartooning, and the monthly comic pamphlet are all in a horrible state right now. Staff editorial cartoonists are dropping like flies. If Warren Buffett has no faith in the daily newspaper, then it's surely doomed. The traditional comic book isn't doing much better. The price point for the average mainstream comic is $3 to $4 and may only have 16 to 24 pages of story inside. I'd really like to see a day where it's not just nostalgia keeping American comics alive.

The new Kindle is showing some promise. There are new apps being developed for reading comics on an iPhone and so on. It's hard telling where things are going. The only positive thing right now seem to still be downloads, webcomics and graphic novels. Hollywood still seems enamored with the graphic novel or comic. To get a movie green-lit these days, they're either optioning remotely successful books or pitching new concepts like they're a graphic novel. Which I don't know if I want to see what a Hollywood version of 'graphic novel' style movie is. That's seriously how the new Sherlock Holmes movie was pitched. Screenwriters with crap screenplays are turning them into crap graphic novels in hopes of landing a movie deal. Yikes.

Lester

Wed, 06 May 2009 03:31:52 GMT

Don't know where this one's going. Got about a half hour into it then stopped. I start these things in Painter then get disappointed because it's too clean in the mark making.

Got a book on Murikawi today at the library. The guy who recently did the hilariously wrong anime man/woman nude sculptures. You'd know it if you read Boing Boing.

Tue, 05 May 2009 22:22:47 GMT

Occasionally Jeff Smith publically pops his head out in Columbus, that time would be this weekend at the Ohioana Festival. I don't get out to German Village much. Before this, I've never heard of the Ohioana Festival before. Looks like a large book signing with a mix of different authors of different genres. Panels and what not. As far as I can tell this is a free event so come on out. I'll try to make it to the thing on Saturday.

(From boneville.com):

The Ohioana Festival takes place in Columbus, Ohio this week May 6-9, 2009

Here are the details of Jeff’s appearances:

Tomorrow, Wednesday May 6, kicks off with a WOSU Interview hosted by Fred Anderle with fellow authors Ann Hagedom, and Phil Brady from 11am-12pm. You can stream it live by clicking here.

Thursday May 7, 2009: Signing at Barnes and Noble Lennox Town Center from 6:30pm-7:30pm

Saturday May 9, 2009: Panel Discussion with fellow author Erin McCarthy at the Board Room of State Library of Ohio from 11:30am-12:15pm

A Conversation with Jeff Smith at State Library of Ohio from 2:00pm-2:45pm followed by a booksigning / meet & greet at 2:45pm-3:30pm

now get me a juice box!

Sun, 03 May 2009 17:21:26 GMT

From right now, till 6:30 the Cartoon Network is having a Foster's marathon leading up to... the last Foster's cartoon ever. In my opinion, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is the best all ages cartoon that Craig McCracken has ever come up with. I took it for granted and now it's off to the DVD shelves. Oh well. This is what I'll be watching the rest of the day.

Foster's homepage.