I considered a career as a professional comic strip colorist. Some comic strips, like Garfield, are colored in-house. Most of them are colored by a company based in Orlando. I remember calling them up during my last semester of college. It's about a dozen people. They all work from the office. They weren't really hiring, or going to hire anyone in the near future. I was vaguely interested, but the field didn't have much room for growth.
For a few months, I colored the internet version of Guy Gilchrist's Mudpie; we had creative differences in the end. I colored a few pages of Grootlore, until I graduated and got a real job. The folks at Plan 9 Publishing spoke to me about coloring print editions for two comics, one of which was Kudzu. The deal fell through, in part because they were significantly behind in paying me for Kevin & Kell by that point.
So instead I went into tech support. I think that I'll stick with coloring our comics and Kevin & Kell for the future.
The problem is that the PS2 ports and all of the onboard USB ports on my computer died, years ago. I got a USB card, but it's not recognized at that point in the boot. Fortunately, one of the front USB ports started working. I set the machine to not stop on any errors, ever. Is it smart? No, but neither is the alternative. About half an hour later, that same USB port stopped working again. But at least my computer works still, and I can delay getting a new one for a few more months.
So now where does this leave us? Unfortunately I only had two comics sketched out before all this and all the scripts were on my powerless computer. So now I am at work. Namir Deiter has the comic for the 7th up and Grover Hills will have one comic update this week (with three to make up for it next week). I will get the other comic up as soon as I can and two You Say it First comics also up as soon as I can. To make everything better (note the sarcasm), they changed Terrence's schedule on him (last minute and permanent) and instead of being here with me, I was alone in the dark with probably drunken neighbors walking in my bushes (to talk loudly to the workers about when things would be finished) and workers still screaming. To lump it all in a nut shell: this week sucked and I'm broke to show for it (but I have four more boxes of Pop Tarts - never go on an emergency nonperishable food run while PMSing D:).
Now... back to work! Hopefully the power will stay on and nothing by our bed will explode again! >< Once again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience through all this!
Our first stop was the Girl Genius booth. We stopped by and talked with Phil and Kaja Foglio. Girl Genius is one of my favorite comics. I've been a fan of the Foglios since I was in middle school. I had a total fanboy moment and couldn't think of anything to say, besides "It's so great to meet you, I love your work" and "I'll take four books and all of the pins", of course. I got a sketch from both of them, as well. Isabel took a picture of them. Kaja took a picture of us. I'm very, very pleased that they enjoy our comics too. 
From there, I stopped by the Blank Label booth (turn left, take three steps forward). I tried to decide which Schlock Mercenary book I should get. Isabel suggested I get all three. Howard agreed, and I - being outvoted - went along. I got sketches of Schlock, Kevyn, and Tagon in the books and Ensign Ventura in my sketchbook. I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say about the comic, despite finishing a complete archive trawl a few months ago.
I'd say we stopped by the Electric Milk booth but that grossly overstates how intentional it was. We wandered aimlessly for a minute or two, then I was distracted by bright colors of the Tiny Titans comic books. It's the Teen Titans. In pre-school. By he guys who do Patrick the Wolf Boy. I picked up the entire run and headed back to the webcomic area; I already had sketches from Art and Franco.
Next stop - Keenspot. I got a Funny Farm book and a sketch by the elusive Ryan Smith. Funny Farm was one of those comics in the Class of '99, like Unlike Minerva and Namir Deiter. It amazes me how many people who started back then are still doing comics. John Troutman was there too (one of, perhaps, six people who has a sketch by me. If you saw me draw, you'd understand why demand is so low). He introduced himself, after I kept staring at his badge. He looked familiar but I couldn't bring myself to ask who he was. I'm still not sure who was there from Keenspot or if I missed anybody there.
I circled the webcomics section once more, stopping at the Dayfree Press booth for a Dr. McNinja book and sketch. Every time I think that comic is as awesome as it gets, it gets a little more awesome.
We were heading out and I spotted the Amelia Rules booth by the door. There are four comic books that I buy - Usagi Yojimbo, Acredale, and whom I had met back at DragonCon 2000. He recognized me, and I recognized him, at least by name. I showed him the Apathy Kat sketch in my book. I spent a moment pondering how unlikely it is to coincidentally run into someone at a con with over 100,000 people. He introduced me to Jimmy, and I got a very nice sketch of Amelia (I was seriously considering asking for Pajamaman but chickened out at the last minute. I hadn't read the comic in a few months and wasn't sure that was really his name).
And with that, we headed back home. Did I miss a few things? Plenty. There's part of me that wanted to walk through the floor and see what was there. Folks, when I was in the middle of the exhibition hall, I couldn't see either end of it. I had originally meant to go through Artists' Alley, but my bags were getting heavy and my wallet was getting light. There was anime, but we decided to head home and watch Pom Poko instead. There was gaming, but I'd rather try to find a local group than a pick-up game at a con. I think there was a panel about superheros or something, but I didn't look at my program too closely. So we left.
We had a great time. If you'll notice, this is a lot more upbeat than most of our previous con reports. I'm happy just to show up and fanboy for a few hours.
When we were thirty minutes away from San Diego, we realized that we could've gone to see Stan Sakai. But that's for another con.
Disguises, which is a 24-hour comic book that I did a few years back, and the Namir Deiter 2003 Fall Newsletter. We've also added King Me (an Unlike Minerva flashback), Brisbane's Quest (a wordless 7-page story Isabel did for Valentine's Day in 2005) and iPod to my Heart (A wordless 8-page original story Isabel did for Valentine's Day in 2007). There's also a new ND Talk podcast.
Thirdly, we got back from Comic-Con! We had a great time and got to meet some very talented folks who we've been wanting to meet for a very long time. There'll be more of a con report later on, most likely in my blog.