No Country for Old Men

blog-header-09_21_16LET US BEGIN by thanking the mama’s boys at Mama Says Comics Rock for hosting us. A dark and stormy Wednesday night held all but the boldest away. Thank you, you brave souls, who came out to see Reid Psaltis and Brendan Leach and their books, the Order of Things and Pterodactyl Hunters in the Gilded City. We hid out with the delightful Cade and Davey until the weather turned before heading out for a pleasant evening of Thai food al fresco, power outages be damned. Everyone looks good by candlelight, anyhow.

The next day saw the safe arrival of Gabby Schulz, returning to our fair city to get himself a new driver’s license ahead of the big show. Meanwhile, the young Mr. Psaltis took a trip over to the American Museum of Natural History. Reid, as you may know, interned at AMNH’s Exhibitions Department. Right now, you can see Reid’s very own Mei Long in the great halls of the museum. AMNH, like it does for all New Yorkers, played a huge part in our childhoods, so for Reid and for us,this ranks as one the of the most wonderful things that can happen. Congratulations, Reid!

 

mei-long

 

We took off for the Small Press Expo, locked and loaded and ready to drop Pterodactyl Hunters and the Order of Things on all the beautiful people. After hitting our usual steakhouse, we returned to the Marriott and cuddled up on the fancy new couches on the lanai, waiting for our surprise guest of the show, Sean Ford, to arrive. We played catch up another Secret Acre, MK Reed, and wished our distro-mate, Tom K, a happy birthday and called it a relatively early night of sweet dreams.

We woke up to a nightmare. The Order of Things, every copy of our big debut, was sitting on the curb in New York. Having seen such nightmare scenarios happen to other pals who were left bookless at big shows, horror quickly became desperation. Scientists suggest time travel requires moving faster than the speed of light. We assure you this is false, but we did manage a semi-save getting back to the city, rescuing the Order of Things and getting books on the table before closing time on Saturday. All of which sucked for everyone, especially Reid, and no apologies to him will suffice. Even Annie Koyama refused to be seen with us and hid behind Chris Pitzer‘s enormous thumb.

 

barry

 

Miraculously, we had a very good day, with Brendan’s Pterodactyl Hunters, Gabby’s Ignatz Award nominated Sick and the surprising Sean Ford keeping the crowd entertained. Gabby, alas, lost his Ignatz to Lisa Hanawalt’s Hot Dog Taste Test. He still sports a winning record at the Ignatzes, at least. Better yet, Noah Van Sciver, the biggest loser in Ignatz history, the Susan Lucci of indie comics, finally took home the gold for My Hot Date. When you’ve been working as had as that guy, as long as that guy, a little validation goes a long way. Kudos, Noah.

Speaking of the Ignatz Awards, Nate Powell, the Ignatz MC, talked a bit about hanging around the comics scene long enough to be the old guard. Right after the ceremony, the scene gave way to the SPX prom, now featuring a real live fog machine. Everyone over thirty, pretty much, retired to the lanai, only to watch the youths driven from dancing by a false fire alarm, not long after the prom began. Hopefully, this prom business got someone laid because no one we spoke to would admit to ever having “done it” while at SPX. Liars. Anyway, post prom flameout, Heidi MacDonald, aka the Beat, challenged all the old coots to identify, by image alone, the artists of the SPX badges. Not one person got them all right. Not one. We laughed about this, because we had the bar to ourselves and all the kids had gone to bed. Sometimes, being the grownups is not so terrible.

 

plates

 

We really cleaned the hell up on Sunday, turning a very good Saturday into great weekend. We also came back with some hot shit, like old pal Jessica Campbell‘s Hot or Not20th Century Male Artists, the all-new Leslie SteinTime ClockÚlcera from the Puiupo duo and a double dose of Carlos Gonzalez, to name but a few. Like we always say, no one remembers how much they spent at shows, but everybody remembers reading all the dope books they got. Thanks again, to all of you who got the Order of Things and Pterodactyl Hunters off to flying starts.

Speaking of flying, Secret Acres will be bi-coastal the next time you see us. Your pal, Leon, succumbed to the siren call of Los Angeles, without even getting permission from Cartoon Network. Barry’s heart belongs to Brooklyn still. He and Sean Ford will be manning the Secret Acres fort at Comic Arts Brooklyn, which is coming up sooner than you think. We promise to show up on time with all the books in hand for that one, and we’ll have plenty more to say on the matter, on this here blog, when the time comes. See you in a few…

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

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