T Campbell's Blog

Monday, July 11: Arrived in San Francisco without incident, got to see the thoroughly charming Shaenon Garrity and Andrew Farago. Shaenon took me and Greg Eatroff on a tour of the Cartoon Art Museum where Andrew works, and then we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to figure out which Kinko's the Modern Tales banner got sent to. A frantic call to Chris Shadoian and some jogging later, we'd secured the banner design and are on our way to dinner. Shaenon was "on" for most of the evening, as smart and funny as you'd expect Helen Narbon's true mother to be. Still, it was a productive conversation. Good day.

Tuesday: I sneaked onto the Google and Yahoo campuses as research for Search Engine Funnies and discovered, among other things, that it's way, way too easy to sneak into the Google and Yahoo campuses. I mean, I'm sure they've got the important stuff locked up tight and backed up by satellite, but really guys-- think like a terrorist, huh? (Of course, if I had been turned away, I probably would have wondered aloud just what they were hiding. No, you can't win with me, guys, too much power always makes me suspicious.)

Greg got along well-- really, really well-- with our hosts, a lesbian couple, one of whom, well, apparently isn't as lesbian as I thought going in. It wouldn't be the last surprise I had about our sleeping arrangements, but I had no problem with it and I don't think Greg had any complaints. We finished up the day by getting some exotic Asian food (I've already forgotten which country it came from) and driving up a mountain where the Berkeley professors live and getting a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate bridge and the whole city that my camera phone totally failed to capture.

Wednesday: An early departure, and we met up with Dave Belmore in time to take in the San Diego Zoo. This was a great experience-- I'll never forget the sight of a full-sized tiger playing with what looked like a medicine ball, just as if he were a common housecat. Unfortunately, I was beginning to feel sick and going through tissue paper like a campfire. We arrived at the convention for Preview Night and spend two solid hours in line with a CBR reporter. It could've been even longer if we hadn't been press (Dave and I are the Meanwhile guys, and Greg was officially Helping Us Out). And hey, free access!

Thursday: I spent the day fraternizing at the booths and attending a boatload o' panels. The highlight was probably Scott McCloud's three-panels-in-one panel which moved by at such blinding speed that it feels less like a slideshow and more like an animated movie. Yeah, ironic, huh?

Friday: Despite my rapidly deteriorating health, the Modern Tales panel seemed modestly successful. Modestly, because we don't have any really Big Announcements this year, and, well, WCN's still in beta. I think I even turned losing my voice into an advantage, directing the focus onto the other panelists where it belongs (moderators cannot be participators-- learned that lesson last year, thanks).

Dave and Greg were starting to look pretty well-worn, and I was probably worse off than either of them, but I stuck it out through dinner with David Willis and the better part of the Eisner ceremony. The latter was a social thing-- if Steve Bryant won Best Digital Comic, I wanted to be on hand to congratulate him-- but the fringe benefit was I got to hear a lot of great Will Eisner stories. The awards moved along at a pretty good clip, I thought, and bear in mind that I really, really wanted them to hurry up so that I could get home and in bed.

Bed, however, was to be denied me.

We had entrusted a friend of Dave's to give us lodging. However, this friend had neglected to mention certain details-- he was 90 minutes from the convention, he had roommates, his roommates weren't thrilled about putting us up, he couldn't get us a spare key for that reason, and he had a tendency to stay out late nights.

Just as my cold was reaching the level that I actually feared for my continued ability to breathe, we ended up having to spend an extra 40 minutes trying to sleep in the car. When he finally got back to let us in, it was after midnight and I was shivering violently.

Saturday: All three of us were exhausted-- Dave had a cold too, and asthma on top of it-- and since I had no actual commitments we opted to skip a day. Considering I woke up at 10 AM, made a brief food run and then slept from about 12 PM to 4 PM, I'd have to say that was the right call. There were few surprises at the convention, few things that you just had to be there for, so I had few regrets about that-- but I would have liked to make a few more face-to-face contacts snd conversations, especially without losing my voice. Next year.

Sunday: Poor Greg. As the most able-bodied of us, he was the most bored on Saturday, and come Sunday, we had to get up early and could barely grab a few hours at the con. Plus, Greg had left his camera behind and I was too late to retrieve it. Plus, Greg had to carry the box o' comics while I got the car. Plus, I had to make three U-turns in front of the gridlocked Convention Center before spotting him. Plus, Greg almost missed his flight back to San Fran. Plus, he would have missed his flight if he hadn't questioned my misinformation-- somehow my online research led me to conclude we were flying with US Air, not United. Even Greg snapped at me about that, and Greg's one of the sweetest-tempered guys I know.

Meanwhile, I turned the car back in to Avis, realized it wasn't rented from Avis, turned it in to Enterprise, missed my flight, put up with the flight attendants who rescheduled me for a later flight but clearly thought that US Air-United flub was the funniest thing EVER, got on the plane, attempted a last bit of networking with art directors from Lucasfilm who quickly fell asleep, got off the plane, realized I forgot my phone, waited twenty minutes for them to bring it out, then discovered my box o' comics was missing.

However, I did get to see Greg in San Fran before starting the flight to Wilmington, and he was looking a lot mellower. Of course, he had another date with our erstwhile hostess, which would probably have helped my mood, too, were I him. He said he had a good week, but probably won't be back next year. I know what he means: some things are worth the hassle once, but only once.

Monday-Friday: Touched down in Wilmington, North Carolina, a little to the west of Figure Eight Island, where my family was staying. Immediately got pulled over by a cop who couldn't figure out why my license registration wasn't coming up-- until he realized his whole system was down.

Drove out to the Island for four glorious days of swimming, sunburning, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, and recreational reading. I love spending time with my extended family. I'll post more about them later, but this is already running long, and, well, I need to get back to the book!