Going APE (groan)

Sorry.

I just firmed up that I'll be doing a workshop on "Designing Distinctive Characters" at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 2.

This'll be interesting and, I expect, fun. First of all, APE is a neat off-kilter con: intimate, small-press, undergroundish, literary. Not a lot of Wolverines roaming the aisles.

Second, it was only after I told Andrew Farago (director of SF's Cartoon Art Museum in charge of wrangling workshoppers for APE) I'd love to do it that he revealed there's no AV or projector capability. Nothing but a big pad of paper and an easel. There go all my neat examples and demonstrations. I considered backing out, but Andrew is such a powerfully intimidating figure--he's basically the Bay Area's Godfather of Comics--I didn't have the courage. Still, I like the idea of standing in front of 20 people armed with nothing but my dull wits and a sharp Sharpie; heaven forbid, I might actually have to draw.

Some semi-related disappointing news was announced today: WonderCon, a little sister to the big San Diego Comic-Con that's traditionally been held in San Francisco in the spring, is going to Anaheim for 2012. It got booted from its home at the Moscone Convention Center due to ongoing renovations. I'd just come to regard WonderCon as my comics convention--near my home, inexpensive, and more human-scale than the San Diego asylum--and I'll miss it. Man, I hope it comes back.

(Andrew's actually a nice guy.)

(I don't want to wake up to find Marmaduke's head in my bed, the sheets soaked black with ink.)
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