T Campbell's Blog

Friday morning, I just barely have time to see Margie Lassiter, the family housekeeper, whom I've known almost all my life. Whatever she's done to herself in the last year, she needs to keep doing it, because she's dropped at least 25 pounds and looks my age. But when we hug and she talks, it's clearly the same old Margie-- sweet as molasses in chocolate syrup.

And then I'm off-- driving more or less straight from Virginia Beach to Baltimore for the 3:00 Otakon panel, hosted by Phil Kahn and starring me, Kelly "STrRedWolf" Price (recently of Comic Genesis admin) and Christine Fisher. It's "Webcomics 101." I talk creative, Kelly talks tech and Chris talks legal. Come 8:00, we all end up getting together again for a special writing workshop.

I also make the rounds, asking the last few questions needed for the book and meeting lots of fascinating webcomic people, from the Applegeeks to Dave Roman and Raina T. to oh man so many I can't count them all

All due respect, though, the highlight of the con for me was a lunch date with Svetlana Chmakova, colleague on the Modern Tales network and soon-to-be colleague on Tokyopop (said with crossed fingers). Svet's a charming conversationalist and it's been a long time since I've known the pleasure of a shared meal.

The other big thrill was discovering a National Museum of Dentistry less than four blocks from where Raina was selling her tale of dental misadventure. That has to be fate, right? Raina! Have you called this museum yet???

My biggest surprise purchase was the Disposable Parts anthology. Josh Mirman did an absolutely crackerjack job putting this together. Worth every penny. I hope we see more of these.

Whew. After I got back, things quieted into a work routine. There was a nice museum visit with two old college friends (well, sort of college friends) but I'll tell you tomorrow. Ninight...