-The first sign of being in the South is when we stop for gasthey’re selling decorative Nazi knives at the counter. The guy working there assumes I’m a fellow White Supremacist and gives me a nod. His relationship with me is ruined when Black Chris walks in. I guess the idea of a multiracial road trip doesn’t make sense in Virginia.
-After dropping Colleen off with her family, Rob and I ask Black Chris if he likes White Zombie. He asks if White Zombie is a cover band for Rob Zombie. If we weren’t in the South, Rob and I would have left him by the road. Instead, we sentence him to the back seat while we blast Astro Creep 2000 all the way to the convention.
-We meet Shawn Crystal at the show, one of my oldest comic book friends and teacher at SCAD Atlanta. The four of us crash in the same room. Shawn and I share the bed. We sleep head-to-toe so it doesn’t count.
-The Westin bar is expensive so we brought our own booze and kept returning to the room for refills. There’s no punchline hereI just think everyone should know how smart we are in our ability to screw over hotel chains.
-Rob, Black Chris and I head out for a 3am dinner. We keep asking the waitress to give Chris a side order of dicks. She laughs but fails to produce the dicks. Then we order Black Chris a larger plate of Black dicks. More laughter. We give her a great tip for putting up with us.
-We meet our other friend Chris Dibari. In the last post I talked about him as “the other Chris” and called him a Wop. Dibari tells me that I misspelled Wop as “Whap”. We laugh our balls off at how dumb I am for not knowing how to spell Wop. For the rest of the weekend I call him Whap.
-I refrain from telling Whap (a huge metal head) about Black Chris not knowing who White Zombie isbetter to save that one for later.
-I run into Mark Brooks at the art auction. Mark’s a great guy and I look forward to talking to him whenever I see him at shows. He was wearing a hot pink smoker’s jacket for the auctionanyone who sells over a certain amount of money wears one. I was about to comment on it, but then realized that Mark pulls it off well (like Tyler Durden in Fight Club with the robe). Next time I’ll make sure to grab Mark for some drinks and pick his ear a bit about surviving in the industry.
-Someone grabs my nipples from behind. I turn around to see Tim Townsend. Tim is like 6′ 12″ and 250 pounds of muscle. Dan Panosian (also ripped) is with him and both of these guys look like bouncers. I’m glad they’re my friends even if it means a nipple twist every now and then. I feel bad if someone outside the club ever tries to get in on their nipple twisting.
-I meet 4 students who went to SCAD Atlanta because of my rant on SCAD Savannah. At $40,000 a year for tuition, I figure that I cost Savannah $160,000 with that rant. Too bad it’s meaningless because it all goes to the same SCAD corporation.
-Chrissie Zullo and her mom stop by and chat at the show. Chrissie approves of my ability to draw women. That makes me feel more secure with the Vampire art because Chrissie draws girls very well.
-Jason Latour and I get into a 45 minute confrontation about my post “The Bullshit Meter” from a few months ago. We agree to disagree and meet the next morning to smooth everything over. I did my best to turn him into a friend, but who knows.
-Rob, Black Chris and I head out to dinner with Ryan Sook and John Arcudi. I only met Arcudi recently, but I feel like I’ve known him forever (check out BPRD). Sook is an artist whom I’ve never met, although I know his stuff VERY WELL because it’s gorgeous. At one point during dinner, I admit to not “getting” artist X’s stuff. Sook knows artist X and, within 5 minutes, turns my opinion around. Not only is Sook a great artist, but a hell of a conversationalist.
-Black Chris and Australian Rob are somewhat known via these blog posts. A few SCAD students light up when they finally get to meet my friends.
-I do around 14 commissions for people. 75% of them look good, but the rest look rushed to me. But the buyers don’t seem to care. I wish they all came out good but what can you do.
-Over the weekend, two people tell me that I look like Christian Bale. I’ll have to memorize his Terminator rant.
-Tommy Lee Edwards and I swap art. He tells me about his original Bernie Fuchs and Bob Peak art. Damn am I jealous.
-Tommy also shows me a cover he digitally inked. I totally can’t tell that it’s digital. He seems to prefer doing it old school, but the deadline was tight so he made an exception. I hope Tommy doesn’t turn into a “Guitar Hero inker” like so many others. But I doubt he willhis appreciation for original pieces of art is pretty solid.
-I see Eric Canete in the hotel gym. I debate running over and spotting him without warning. But he’s only using a medicine ball for sit upsnot much need to spot there. I could put my hand on his stomach, but that would just look odd.
-I see Eric later and wink at him in passing. Apparently it was a good wink, because he brings it up later. He doesn’t feel like he can wink well, so I keep winking at him for the rest of the weekend to rub it in his face.
-I make a lot of sexist jokes at Becky Cloonan. It’s my way of kidding around, but some people don’t always get it. It’s unclear what Cloonan is making of it. Finally I realize that she’s had a few drinks so I decide to leave her alone. I find her table the next morning to repeat all my uncomfortable, sexist jokes. I look at her face to gauge herstill nothing. I’m guessing that Cloonan thinks I’m an asshole.