Congratulations to the Kochmans

I'm just catching up today after a long weekend in New York attending the wedding of Editor Charlie and the beautiful, intelligent, and talented Rachel. Karen and I took the opportunity to treat ourselves to a weekend in Manhattan, which we spent doing tourist stuff (one highlight of this trip: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge), blistering our feet, and carrying around umbrellas that we barely used. For all the forecasts and threats of severe thunderstorms, the weather was remarkably mild and cooperative.

Of the wedding itself, I don't really feel like it's my place to say much. I didn't ask permission to blog about it, and Charlie and Rachel deserve their privacy. It was a beautiful service in a beautiful
setting--even lavish, but not ostentatious. Warm, moving, joyful. It was also partly a business trip for me (as far as the IRS is concerned), as I had a chance to talk to Abrams CEO Michael Jacobs and Publisher Steve Tager, and meet their lovely and accomplished wives Sheridan and Mary.

Honestly--they really are lovely and accomplished. I wouldn't just say that because my career rests in their husbands' hands.

I'd actually drawn a cartoon of Charlie and Rachel that they used for the wedding invitation and, unknown to me, blew up into a poster for guests to sign. This gave me a rare and useful conversation starter all day, as even people who'd never heard of my books seemed happy to meet "the guy who drew the poster." I met a few people who'd been moved and helped by Mom's Cancer, which is deeply gratifying. I got the chance to reconnect with some friends and acquaintances both in and out of the comics and publishing worlds (hi, Other Brian and Karen!), and meet some new ones. And I was there to see my friend Charlie go through with the best decision of his life.

Plus I got my first yarmulke as a wedding favor, so that's cool. How I reached my age without a yarmulke I'll never know.

Here I'm talking Batman with two people who know him very well: Paul Dini (whom I'd never met before) and Chip Kidd. Paul was an Emmy-winning writer and producer of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, tons of other Warner Bros. cartoons and comic books, as well as a writer and story editor for the TV show Lost. Chip, in addition to being a top book designer and editor, is also a published Batman expert, with books including one he wrote with Paul on Mr. Wayne's animated adventures and his recent book Bat-Manga.

I name-drop because I can. I blame the fact that Paul looks like he's about to attack me while Chip looks bored into a coma on the luck of the camera shutter rather than something I said. But I may be wrong.

Karen and I spent most of our time with Joe DeVito (left) and his wife Mary Ellen, and Jeff Kinney (center) and his wife Julie. I've mentioned Jeff and his successful Diary of a Wimpy Kid series often. Joe is someone whose work you may not know but should. He's a great sculptor, painter, teacher and writer, an all-around artistic powerhouse who often works in a gorgeously lush pulp style. Check him out. I've had the chance to meet some very accomplished people through Charlie, conventions, interviews, and so forth (see name-dropping above), and they're all very nice, but I'd consider very few of them actual friends. Joe and Jeff are two of the few.

All our congratulations and love to the happy couple. Charlie, I'll save up all my professional gripes and problems until after the honeymoon.

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