92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

man’s a machine!

And of course, it’s always fun to see folks I only see a couple of times a year, like Bat Lash and Jackie Estrada, of Supernatural Law, and Jon and Terri Hastings, of whatever the hell it is that Jon’s working on now. I could list off a big run-down of all the folks I talked to, like the wildly-talented and must-draw-for-us Eric Canete, or the electric bon vivant Brian Scot Johnson, of www.khepri.com fame, or the crew from Oni, or Jeff Nicholson, or Scott McCloud, or Shannon Wheeler, or any of the few dozen other cats who sweat blood onto the page, but I’d just make you all jealous that you weren’t there, and no doubt you’ve read many reports of the success of APE already, anyway.

Which is a lesson for you, if you’ll see it:

You really ought to start making plans for next February, to see the best show of the year. The Alternative Press Expo really is that fun. The sense of community, the feeling that we’re all in this together, well…

…it just makes me realize how much I love comics.

A Column Title Suggests Itself March 2, 2001

Your turn will come.

Yet another in the long list of reasons why San Francisco is the best city in America is its proximity to the superior vineyards of Napa Valley, and, by extension, to the number of local vineyards who love to come into SF and throw wine-tastings. I went down to my local purveyor with every intention of picking up two six ers of Red Stripe to go with the Black Angus filet and salad that I was going to make for myself for dinner that night, when I stumbled into one of the periodic tastings this place will throw to spotlight a local vineyard’s bot tlings. These soirees are usually unadvertised, because, even to the unini tiated, “wine tastings” translates into “free booze.” But they figure a knowledgeable vintner exposing his wares to customers who were coming in anyway is an added-value service which will pay off in the future, in either more sales, increased foot traffic, or, at the very least, positive word-of-mouth for the shop.

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