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I’m Just a Dude February 7, 2003

The Alternative Press Expo was held last Saturday and Sunday in San Francisco. This year’s show was to be a pretty big one for us… as you’ll recall, I write and publish comics under the AiT/Planet Lar banner… and at this year’s APE not only were we going to have thirty trade paperbacks to offer up to the discerning crowd that attends APE… not only were we hosting Rob G. and Rick Spears of Teenagers From Mars fame (Rob did the art on The Couriers out February 19th)… not only is it held pretty much down the street from the AiT/Planet Lar World Headquarters, so I can sleep in my own bed at night and only lug stuff across town instead of across the country… … but APE is professionally run by Fae Desmond and David Glanzer and the fine crew who stage the San Diego Comicon International, so all the various strata of the comic book landscape are optimally showcased. Everything from fat graphic novels to first-timers with their number ones to xeroxed handmade zines are there. What’s not to like? Rob G. of Teenagers from Mars stares at an indie rock chick until she takes money out of her wallet, Bri Wood accepts the thanks of a grateful Jim Mahfood, AiT/Planet Lar publisher Mimi Rosenheim restrains AiT booth bunny John Lee, while Larry Young talks to AiT counsel Kenneth F. Levin. I had to admit that I was pretty bummed, first thing Saturday morning, since the shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry. One of our flagship series is the Astronauts in Trouble books, and we thought it’d be imprudent to display our usual con backdrop of our prop costumed spacesuits, con sidering. Just didn’t seem respectful. As it was, because I’m "the space guy," a million people asked me what I thought of the Columbia’s destruc tion, anyway. "I’m just a dude who makes comics," I’d say. "Real people died. That’s all I’ve got to say about that." And we’d go back to the funny books. We brought all of our Astronauts in Trouble comics, though, anyway. I fig ured we’d not sell any or we’d sell out of ‘em all. Because we had just amazing booth placement and the draw of New York City-based comic book warrior/priest Brian Wood and his brand new Channel Zero prequel, Jennie One , we sold out of our stock of several books on Saturday. This isn’t the panic it would be if it were to happen at, say, San Diego, because we can zip back to the HQ and restock, or, at worst, tell folks we’ll have more the next day.

We had to restock AiT: Live From the Moon, CZ: Jennie One , and Tom

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