The Columbus Dispatch

Hi, Everybody!

Auctions:

Dave Sim (Cerebus) IDW X-FILES ANNUAL 2014 comics & art print prototype #1/1

Aardvark-Vanaheim STRANGE CEREBUS by Dave Sim EARLY PROOF COPY

CEREBUS IN HELL? PACKAGE: Love and Aardvarks, World's Finesse Cerebi, more

And bonecrusher86 is the name to know...

I was gonna do a "Cerebus In Matt's Life", but I got this instead...

Your "pal" and mine, Jefe` Seiler sent in a "road report":

SO:  Last night was night 1 of 3 at S.P.A.C.E, the incredible independents-only comic book convention, in beautiful, crazy, home-of-The-Ohio-State-University-football-team and an all-around great comic book town, Columbus  (word has it that Jeff Smith lives here, but I heard he owns a private island somewhere offshore [that has a bank, offshore] where he spends most of his non-artistic days, honing his boxing skills, just in case).

ANYWAY:  Larry, Lenny, Margaret, and I met up at the baseball game, had some decent food and some great beers (well, two of us did), and watched a freaking blowout.  Now, after ten years of separation, we mostly ate, drank, and talked.   I didn't even keep score, for, like, maybe the third time in my life!  We only occasionally looked up when we heard a loud crack of the bat or a smaller crack when a bat was broken (I think there were 3 broken bats while were there.)

Stolen from Margaret Liss, STOLEN I say!

After Larry arrived and he had been there for a half hour or so, while I was finishing my pretzel that I shared with Margaret and Lenny, the score was 17-4 (I think), in favor of the bad guys.

"What the heck is this?" Margaret's caption on her own photo, THAT I STOLE!

Now, I keep score at every MLB game I go to.  I have hundreds of score cards, archived.  But, Lenny's plane arrived late, and I had to meet Lenny and Margaret at the gate, after the game started.  Larry arrived around 9 p.m. and went straight to the hotel and called Lenny, saying that he didn't think he would make it until nearly the end of the game.

"What. The. Hell." - Margaret Liss Photo: stolen, like THIRD base...

When Lenny, two seats away told me that, I said, "Are you fucking kidding?  The game is only in the 4th inning!!"

So, Larry showed up, about a half hour later.  Lenny took his ticket to the gate and got him in.  Kuddoes, btw, to Lenny, for scoring us free tix in the 8th row behind home plate!
And then, and then!  Indianapolis erupted and, suddenly, the score was 17-4, in favor of the bad guys.  And, it got a bit cold.  So, I boldly suggested that we do something I almost never do, and bolt.  We already had free t-shirts and refrigerator magnets, all around, and had shared a hot pretzel, so Bob's yer uncle.

Margaret and Lenny, Yahoo Group Moderators, wienies, victims of photo theft.

I rode with Larry back to the hotel.  Some of you may remember my infamous driving back to the hotel on the night of Dave Sim's 50th birthday, when Larry, Margaret (I think), Gerhard, and I were driving back to the hotel for a surprise birthday celebration for Dave, for which Matt Dow had commissioned a birthday cake painted with the cover of Cerebus #1.

We four, we lucky four, got lost in the wilds of the Forest Preserve in northern Columbus because I missed a turn.  It was raining hard.  Gerhard was sitting in the right rear seat.  He finally, very politely (because he's constitutionally incapable of doing it in any other way) informed me that the window was leaking and he was wet.

I said, "well, I just got this car and it's used."

He laconically replied (as he almost always does, but a bit sarcastically, as he is wont to do),  "Yeah, I figured."

This has NOTHING to do with Jefe`s "Road Report", this is from 2006, I just wanted to include a picture that is more AMOC related...

We finally got to the hotel, but not before Larry helpfully pointed out that the gas gauge was on E, leading to a white-knuckle ride to the closest gas station out of the Forest Preserve.

I tell you all of this because (stay with me, if you're not already there), last night, when we left the game, Lenny and Margaret took one car back to the hotel.  I said I would ride with Larry.  I pulled up Google Maps and had the route.

Now.

In my defense, Columbus has kind of a whack system for numbering their highways.  I-290 becomes I-690, which becomes I-290, which becomes I-71.  All one big loop.

Nevertheless, while I'm looking at Google maps, following the blue dot, while I'm asking Larry about his family, he asks me, "do we want 270?"

"No, that goes south," I says.  And, in my defense, on the map, where we were, it does.

Nevertheless, in about 5 minutes, I saw a stoplight, and that seemed...odd...for an interstate highway.

In my defense, I was genuinely interested in and inquiring about how Larry's family is doing, since it's been a long time.

But.

Yeaaah.

I got us lost.  Again.  Yeah.  

Fortunately, Google Maps showed me my error before even a half mile, so we were just minutes behind Lenny and Margaret at the hotel.

And, then I invited them all to my room and we a nice catch-up session after 10 years of separation.

More tomorrow:  S.P.A.C.E, and the Sausage Haus, with karaoke after!

Oh!  And Gerhard stories!!!

Regards,
Jeff Seiler

A young Steve Peters, with a guitar. Steve is on a panel with Gerhard on Sunday at 3.

 Thanks Jefe`!

We ALL look forward to a minute by minute breakdown of the next two days!

Next Time: It's Sunday, so Dave, and not more from Jefe`...