I spent the weekend at APE, and I had a blast. I met so many cool people and got so much wonderful art and schwag that I thought I would paw through the gigantic pile now on my bed and share with you, my six readers, what I had the pleasure of buying and who I had the pleasure of meeting this weekend:

• Meredith Scheff-King, a dear friend who sold me her amazing giclee “Freaks” cards and a 24-hour comic
• Grant Reynolds, who quietly drew in and signed his book “Comic Diorama” for me for 5 awesome minutes, producing one of my favorite objects I acquired at the show
• Sarah Dungan, whose sweetness and blimp print charmed me immediately
• Bob Fowler, who provided me with the loveliest geekout conversation (and book) about Jack Chick tracts I can ever expect to have in my life
• Erika Moen, who was very friendly and gave us free stickers when we bought every comic she had on the table (and she signed the Dar collection I bought yesterday)
• Stephen Notley, who smiled from inside his flower headpiece, sold me his first “Bob the Angry Flower” anthology and allowed me to enthuse loudly about an old strip of his he had nearly forgotten about
• Amelia Altavena, who sold me two college-ruled issues of “Margin Amelia”, doodles she did while in class
• Fritz Swanson, David Erik Nelson, Morgan Johnson, and the rest of the awesome folks of Poor Mojo’s Almanac(K) (wasn’t one of you named Riley?) who have a beautiful printing press in Manchester, MI (he showed me on the mitten!) and who might not have actually sold me anything because all their cool stuff was free, but I bought “No No Squirrel” and a “(K)” button and a “K” minicomic
• Philippa Rice, who I slightly terrified with my enthusiasm because while talking to her, I remembered someone mentioning her on Twitter, and I had also had a lot of coffee just then and was in a really good mood, but anyway I bought an issue of “My Cardboard Life” and think it is neat
• Will Dinski, who sold me “Errand Service” and gave me a free, beautiful blue ink print of two rather sad people on a freeway seemingly in or near Indianapolis, IN
• Melaina Comics, a charming lady whose anthology “My Year of Celibacy” I am enjoying even now. No, I did not approach her table only because she is cute. Just mostly.
• Kevin Hayes, whose friend sold me his book of photos “Mickey Deez.” and also a book of her own photos, which completely lacks her name or contact info
• Street Worthy Zine
• Jesse Baggs, who drew me an awesome drawing based on my request for “zombie moth teeth” (for you-know-who) and sold me tons of stuff including an “Ecstasy in the Cacophony” T-shirt and who, with his crew, was unfailingly nice to me and my companions (and his compatriot Scott drew my companion’s request for “glass-penetrating ass butterflies“)
• Mr. Wright
• A conglomeration of unicorns unicycling
• Michael John Rawley, who sold me Sped #1, about having synesthesia, and included a free monkey drawing!
• Ground Score #2, whose best feature is a marker sketch of a cat presenting its asshole to the viewer with the words “mommy like??? meow”
• Everybody Get Up #4, a sticker zine with an assload of stickers and interviews with their creators
• Palestine, by Joe Sacco, 20% off
• A metal stop sign that says “POOP”, signed by Chris Yates
• The TopatoCo crew including Jeffrey Rowland, about whom I know many things by virtue of having been a fan since 2003 or so and who shared even more intimate personal details with me and sold me an awesome “The Nature of Nature” print from Overcompensating
• A fetching tote bag from Color-Ink-Book which got me and my sweetie some nice attention as we walked around APE
• Fellow MST3K fan Corey M. Barnes, who drew this awesome sketch of me  and gave me a free Turnpike zine
• Ruthie & Friends zine with attached paper bag puppet (no Internet trace to be found! )
• Sam Carbaugh, who sold me three issues of “These Things Happen” and gave me much and much-appreciated info about how to start cartooning
• Mike Rios, who is a whore, gave us a free bag, sold me a minicomic entitled “War is Gay”, and took a picture of me and my companion with his live felt mascot, who had a gigantic pink felt penis

Looking forward to next year and to Comic-Con!

Update: Kate Beaton, someone who can actually draw, did an APE wrapup too, much more prettily.

opposite century

pollution creates buildings!