Never mind the Drink N'Draw, let's have some Food N'Toons
Seattle Drink 'N Draw (now with its own blog) was last Friday, and was a pretty darn good success. We packed Shorty's, which admittedly does have great atmosphere and hot dogs, but which I'm not sure we want to have the next D'n'D. Very loud very quickly. It is somewhat cosmopolitan, despite the clowns-eating-hot-dogs theme, so it's nice to have an upscale place for out-of-towners, but I think I'd rather have a quiet place with more tablespace where we can all actually talk and chill instead of perch and shout.

I went to the Emerald City Con on Sunday (I would have gone on Saturday, but I got called into work (halfway through a plate of Pierogi at the Polish Home Piergoi Festival) and was there until after ten that night, meaning I missed Jordan Crane down at Fantagraphics. This actually disappoints me greatly). I have mixed feelings about Cons, where most of the mix is "I do not like them" and the other part of the mix is "They're only okay." It is very nice to see friends, meet some artists whom I admire, but the trumpeting blare of hucksterism and waving banners of clueless mediocrity kind of get up my ass with cleats on, if you will.

My favorite thing about Cons is the insatiable optimism of novice creators getting their stuff out there for the first time, all their enthusiasm, how they consider it a victory every time someone stops at their booth, talks to them a little, or - holy moley - BUYS THEIR BOOKS. Some of these shiny-brand-new types will walk on air if they clear three copies of their book at the end of the day.

What I dislike about Cons is that it won't do them any good and no one can help them. I'm distrustful of Cons and what I consider their dubious value for the indy and small-press publisher; I've spoken with too many creators who are delighted to simply meet their expenses for the table, hotel and travel, meanwhile giving up the time they could spend working or promoting themselves on any field greater than a one-at-a-time face-to-face greet with something like a 1000:1 ratio of creating dedicated readership.



Anyway, conversation for another day. More to the point, I did a little cooking yesterday - Kate mentioned that she'd never had baked Mac and Cheese, so I took it on myself to whip up the preceding mess for her. I have to tell you that I do not really know what I was using by way of proportions, but honestly you don't need me to tell you - when it's creamy and cheesy, then you will know it's time to bake it. I used a box of rigatoni and copious amounts of Monterey Jack as my base, then flavored it with about half as much Raclette (du Haut Libradois) and a block of Parmagianno Regianno about the size of a postage stamp cubed, plus a couple tablespoons of this feta I've been marinating in blood orange and rosemary. You may have trouble finding blood orange marinated feta, and I just don't know what to tell you about that.

Baked the whole mess for about half an hour at 350 degrees (or until browned) with some crumbled bacon on top, and the result will give a Silverback gorilla a fatal deep vein thrombosis at forty paces. The accompanying brussel sprouts are just sprouts 'n butter baked alongside the mac and cheese, and the result is probably tonight's leftovers and a double bypass.

I surely did more than cook, and in fact ... I DREW! Oh boy! Drawing! I received my first commission stemming from the recent Lord of the Rings Masterpiece Series 2 trading card set (whew, saying that twice is a lungful), which was a full-color family portrait of the entire Fellowship. They had to take this photo twice because Gimli blinked.



And that's kind of it! I'm glad that this week has fewer things to do, to be honest, because I'm fuckin' exhausted and could use the downtime to work on Zayde Todt and Jeremy and/or sleep.

Oh yeah, and I finally read Promethea this week. That's Alan Moore's best dialogue in years, hands down. Well, the exposition stuff is maybe a little stilted, but whenever the ladies were actually just talking rather than setting up Crowleyism 101, it was a fuckin' delight. Also, is it wrong that I found Bill to be the hottest of the Prometheas? Probably ...