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and the unavoidable "dollar boxes" you hear so much about nowadays, and I signed books for a while, as well as helping to sell a few Ministry of Space T-shirts…

…but then I went around the floor and saw what I could see.

I particularly enjoyed hanging out with our man Augie De Blieck, Jr., and his faithful pal Dani, whom I seemed to run into nearly everywhere I went. Perhaps it’s those stunning CBR shirts we were wearing. Who can say? A very high point of the show for me was talking to one of my heroes in comics, DC Marketing poo-bah Patty Jeres. Patty is one of those folks who knows what time it is without looking at a clock, I can tell you that, and if she hadn’t just got a well-deserved promotion, I would lead the charge for getting her a raise, because she and her folks are doing the Lord’s work, and that’s a fact. A highlight of Saturday for me was hanging out at the hotel bar with Image publisher Jim Valentino, Diamond Comics Brand Manager Chris Schaff, and then later with New Dimension Comics owner Todd McDevitt. It seems to me that, at conventions, a whole lot of actual business gets done while folks have a glass of beer or a shot of whisky in their hands. At one point on Saturday night, Diamond folks Chris Schaff and Jim Kuhoric, Electric Girl creator and publisher Mike Brennan, retailers McDevitt and Donley, and Augie and Dani and me were all in the same place at the same time, solving the problems and curing the ills of the comic book industry.

And that is the appeal, to me, of the new (and apologies to FDR) deal in comics:

…a coupla folks with a dream of how things should be run can roll up their sleeves, get a few like-minded people on their side, and put on a show.

It’s enough to fill a cranky bastard like me with the milk of human kind ness. I Love It When A Plan Comes Together May 11, 2001 Chinese educator Tehyi Hsieh was not writing about the comic book indus try when he reported the old proverb "Harmony would lose its attractive-

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