Note From The President, Cerebus 163, October 1992
Copyright 1992 Dave SimWashington was the biggest one yet. Front page of the Lifestyle section of the Washington Times including a colour illustration. Interview on Nostalgia Television a nationally-syndicated cable show (thanks, Tom), Channel 8 covered the convention, City Paper did a half page, University of Maryland Diamondback did a half page. Radio interview with Wes Johnson, a super-nice guy at WHFS-FM, which aired the morning of the convention. The turn-out at Jim Dodson's Closet of Comics was huge. The notorious Beltway Traffic made us an hour late and they were lined up out the door and up the stairs. Even when I set a limit of one head-sketch and three autographs, the line-up never seemed to get any shorter. It easily took four hours even limiting the number of autographs.
Then the convention on Sunday was the same way. The line-up was blocking a dealer's table so we moved around the corner to the table that was reserved for Colleen Doran (she had to go to New York instead) and the line-up still blocked the guy's table. Every half-hour or so Ger or I would turn around and the line still wasn't any shorter. The last half hour was a nightmare; one head sketch and one autograph per person to make sure everyone got something.
Maybe it was just Washington. I hope so.
But there's the new policy; if we're running out of time we'll try to get everyone one autograph and one head sketch. It's impersonal as hell and I apologize for that, especially since the last batch of folks have waited the longest but ...there you go. Get there early is the best advice, I guess.
Maybe it was just Washington.
Thanks to Jim Dodson for all his hard work (Closet of Comics missed matching their "best ever" day by thirteen dollars), to Jon Cohen of Collector's World for taking such an active interest, to Rick Ralsten (Why? Check his letter this issue), and to Thomas Kintner, Doug Ohlandt and Charisse Scott (the children's book illustrator) for the great hospitality.
If you ever find yourself at a place called the Brickskellar, order a Mamba beer (native to the Ivory Coast) and get someone else to drive you home.
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Having stupidly lost Ken Viola's phone number, I have been unable to badger him about the autographed Mick Jagger caricature. Just as I was sitting and staring at my legal pad wondering what to write next, Ken gives me a call! He talked to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and both agreed to autograph a Glimmer Twins caricature to be auctioned to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Ken had shown the Prince Mick issues to Mick Jagger before, but this time he showed him all of the appearances, explained what the book was about and explained the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (Jagger asked to see some literature on it, which we are falling all over ourselves to provide). Looking at the comic books Jagger asked Ken "Does he make money doing this?" I laughed. Then Ken mentioned that Keith took a very dim view of his portrayal (ice water floods my intestines), but once Ken had a chance to explain Cerebus a bit he took a more charitable view. Evidently everyone at the Rolling Stones office had been incredulous ("You're going to show this to Keith?! Are you crazy?") and Jagger as well ("You didn't show this to Keith, did you?"). It serves me right, really. I'm still trying to live down a drug-crazed, drunken reputation from years back and I get very frustrated when people won't let go of that image or are disappointed when I turn out to be "too normal". Anyway. I'm starting on the piece tomorrow and we'll try to have it on the inside back cover before the end of the year. And I'm DEFINITELY bidding on it myself.
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Oh and Ken asked me to correct the impression that he's still a roadie for the Stones. The last tour he did was 1981. He's now a roadie for the Grateful Dead and he informs me that he has managed to turn Jerry Garcia onto Cerebus. Bonus.
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Say, I almost forgot. Lekus & Levine send us a listing of all the media outlets that they had contacted when they bill us for each city's promotion. For Washington, they had a producer at WJFK that they contacted who had proposed to G. Gordon Liddy that he might want to do an interview. Is that wild? G. Gordon Liddy didn't think I was worth interviewing! G. Gordon Liddy said "no". THE G. Gordon Liddy. There has to be some way to work that into the press release, don't you think?
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