For 3 years, it hasn’t happened. 2019 was the last time we were here. Now it’s called Phoenix Fan Fusion, it’s not a comic con any more; nobody gets to be a comic con except San Diego International Comic Con(TM). We didn’t get our usual spot, out in the general population, we got herded off with the other comics people back to the north forty, crammed in behind 6 foot tables with barricades at the ends of the row to restrict our going & coming. No more 6 foot social distancing, that was great, in Tampa & El Paso. That stuff in the back to my right is Jimmy’s, the guy right next to us.

A lot of folks there, after three years of no not-comic-con, it like built up pressure or something. So out of those tens of thousands of people, we got maybe a dozen Cherry fans, I mean that was nice, they were devoted fans, genuinely happy to see me & shit, but I’m not so sure if this is all that cost-effective, as they like to say.

Here’s a thing I did for a guy there. He said a “Hellish background” & I guess I got a little carried away.

This sketchcover was laying flat on our table there ’cause we were trying to sell it. This woman comes up with a book box out of which she pulls a stack of Cherry comics; her collection that she wanted me to sign them all, which I did. As I’m giving them back to her she piles them neatly on the flat spot on our table which is occupied by that sketchcover, so of course she scoops them all up and stuffs them into her buckled leather book case, she has some trouble getting them to slide in, it’s tight, being as how there’s an extra book in there on the bottom. As she’s leaving, she says “I want to get a sketch, but I don’t have any money, maybe later.” So she’s got her books all signed so she can leave them in that case & never ever pull them out again to look at them & discover the sketch that she got for free. We didn’t get her name or anything, couldn’t find her in the crowd… oh well.