"I'm going to get that sock"

Big Man and I attended the Baltimore Comic Convention yesterday. It was his first comic convention: also mine. Many adults with bad posture. More people mumbling to themselves than you usually see in downtown Baltimore, and that's saying something.

I'm very glad I went with a 6-year-old, as the boy was the perfect excuse not to get too close to the tables of artists who draw pinup girls being threatened by zombies, or superheroes covered with lesions, or ... yeah you know. Ick.


What we did get close to was Bob McLeod's table: he signed a copy of Superhero ABC for us, which is a book that I pimp to ALLL the little kids, and which I've enjoyed reading aloud many times. I like using that 1950's Batman narrator voice. Nice man. Big Man was really impressed, went to bed with the book last night. I see from his website you can get t-shirts... ooh, Christmas is coming for my children!


Drawing by Scott Derby

Also we stopped a while at the table of Dave Perillo and Scott Derby, bought some little pictures and flipped through Dave's Li'l Scamp comics - very cute characters making many poo jokes, perfect for the child who has finished all the Captain Underpants books but is not quite ready for Crumb. Dave had a batch of nifty A-B-C drawings (S is for Saucer Man, X is for X-ray specs) that are looking for a publisher. That book would make it straight onto my Children's Books for Hipsters list. Both these guys draw with such clean, appealing lines, and I am absolutely sure I've seen their work before, but I can't figure out where.

The big booth with the big TV screen that showed movie trailers was tempting, but as we were walking by it was Saw IV, and there is no fucking way I'm letting my kid see even a second of that. God, ten years from now he'll probably be obsessed with those things. Among the movie swag were plastic baby rattles promoting Shoot 'Em Up. Mmmm, tasteful!

I saw a couple of titles that I'd like my library system to pick up: Annie Auerbach and Jamar Nicholas's the Grosse Adventures and Amelia Rules by Jimmy Gownley.

I was disappointed that I didn't find David Petersen, the blindingly talented creator of Mouse Guard; and I had kind of hoped for some of the old names I used to read - Evan Dorkin, Mike Allred, et al; plus I'd like to have seen some more thoughtful stuff for middle grade and young adult readers. Babymouse is all well and good, but I continue to think that creators of really high-quality picture books, like Patricia Polacco and Mo Willems and Eric Rohmann and David Weisner, could write and illustrate a juvenile graphic novel with depth and breadth and emotion.

Or? the pigeon could steal a sock. Now that would be a damn funny book.