This weekend (November 16-18) was the Big Apple Comic Con in Manhattan. I got an email about a month ago from writer/artist Bob Hall saying he'd be in attendance. About 15 years ago, roughly, I used to work with Bob at Valiant Comics, when he was writing and penciling SHADOWMAN and I was coloring. I haven't seen him since. Of course, once I got there, there were many people I don't get to see often/haven't seen in years/never met before, etc. Other Valiant alumni there were Bob Layton, Sean Chen, Bernard Chang, Elim Mak, Maria Beccarri, Carol and Kevin VanHook, Andrew Wendal, Mike Maguire, Stu Suchit, Jorge Gonzales, Andy Covalt, Anthony Castrillo, and Dennis Colero.

Seated not far away was the every-pleasant Jimmy Palmiotti and his talented lady-friend Amanda Connor. It's always nice to bump into Jimmy. He's a real warm-hearted and down-to-earth guy. Also there was the incredibly talented Paolo Rivera, another one of those guys who's great to talk to when you can.

It was great seeing everybody.

My second mission going in there was to meet Darwyn Cooke. Brought along my issue of SOLO #5 and THE NEW FRONTIER Absolute Edition and got his signature. I gave him copies of my recent comic, PARADE (WITH FIREWORKS). I also picked up these two great sketches of Catwoman and Power Girl:





The icing on the cake for me was looking up for a moment and seeing Sergio Aragones at a table that had been empty only moments before. I walked over and chatted with him a bit. His loose, effortless, lively drawing is ever an inspiration to me. Really psyched to have met him.

Afterwards, Bob Hall and I proceeded to drink all the Irish whiskey at Stouts on 33rd street, where Heidi MacDonald had the foresight to book an entire floor for us to do what comic book artists do best: get drunk and sing karaoke.

What a headache this morning.

I finished off my comic book weekend with a trip to St. Mark's Comics, where I took advantage of their 50% off back issue sale. Prize score: Adventure Comics #441, starring Aquaman by Paul Levitz and Jim Aparo.