From: tyg@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Tom Galloway)
Subject: Jim Drew's San Diego Con Report
Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc
Reply-To: jrd@lynx.frame.com
Organization: Interleaf, Inc., a company that lets its employees post
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 18:13:44 GMT

Due to problems with the ucbvax mail-to-post software, Jim asked me to
post his con report for him. I'd just like to point out that in addition
to having a better document preparation and management system than Frame,
Interleaf allows its employees to post [sorry Jim, couldn't resist the
opportunity here...:-)]

tyg   tyg@hq.ileaf.com

This is very long, and includes all sorts of details about the con, often
much more than you might want to know.  (Some details have been left out,
including the names of two gay comics professionals who have not been "out"
in print or on con panels before, to my knowledge.  Side-stepping the issue
of "outing," I'll provide further details on any events listed here, including
their names, via private e-mail.)

This report is being posted to rec.arts.comics, comics-l, and, in reduced
form, to soc.motss.

Hit "n" now, or forever hold your peace...

CON REPORT
----------

Con:	San Diego Comic Con 22
Place:	San Diego Comic Convention
Date:	August 13-16, 1992

			Pre-con events:

* I decided to drive down to the convention.  It is an 8+ hour drive, so I
	was going to leave on Wednesday the 12th, spending the night in Santa
	Barbara.  Coming back, I would spend Sunday night with a friend in
	L.A., and drive back on Monday.  To this end, I decided to get my car
	tuned up.  Mistake!  I evidently have an oil leak, and drove the car
	into the tune-up shop with no oil.  When they added oil, they
	overfilled it, and some splashed into the 3rd cylinder, contaminating
	the piston.  The long and short being that I had to rent a car, and
	mine now needs a new engine.  I'm in the process of finding out if I
	have decent grounds for a lawsuit.  (Looks like I don't.  Looks like
	I have to get a new engine.  Looks like I need $2000.  Ouch.)

 	(As an aside, Karen Williams and I shared the drive down last year.
	We took my car because we were going to take hers, but she went to get
	it tuned up, and they botched the job, and she sued to get her engine
	replaced.  Let this be a warning: get tune-ups *after* San Diego.  Or
	fly.)

* Karen and I (and Eric Elliot) were going to share a room at the airport
	Holiday Inn, but Andy Mangels had an extra room reserved at an
	inexpensive rent-by-the-week hotel two blocks from the Convention
	Center.  After some quick reshuffling, Karen and Eric stayed
	elsewhere, and I took the offered room.  About a half-dozen people
	from APA-TDNSIN were also in the hotel.

* The drive down went very nice -- nicer than it would have otherwise because
	the rental car is nicer than mine.  Santa Barabara was flooded with
	Germans, though, so I had to take a double (the last room in the
	hotel) in Carpiteria.

			Thursday:

* First thing after arriving in San Diego, I checked in at the hotel.  I was
	the last of the con folks to arrive, at 2:00-ish (traffic was hell on
	405 through L.A.).  Then went and registered at the con.  (Next year,
	I'll register early, if not often.)

* First person I ran into was -- no, not Andy Mangels, saying, "Hey, you, in
	the cowboy hat.  Come here!" (that was last year) -- Sharon Cho, from
	Star*Reach.  It turns out she and I had been at the same rodeo in
	July.  She invited me to go country-western dancing with her and some
	friends and clients on Saturday: John Dennis, Craig Hamilton, etc.

* I paced through the aisles, looking for familiar faces and Squid shirts.
	Ended up in Artist's Alley, where Roberta Gregory was sharing a table
	with Colin Upton (rather than Trina Robbins, as in years past).  Donna
	Barr was at the next table.  (I said, "Hi, Donna."  She said, "Hi.
	Oh, it's the maniac!"  Roberta also recognized me: she did the cover
	for Ciao! #5.)  Donna was looking more professional than I've ever seen
	her, but also less harried; she's a producer now (The Desert Peach
	musical plays in Seattle in November; the cast has members of the
	Seattle Opera as performers.)  Karen Williams ran into me there, said
	she had seen someone in a Squid shirt.  (Turns out it was probably
	Jerry Stratton.)

* I cruised though more of Artists's Alley, and I ran into Bill Sherman.
	While there, I heard my name called, and turned to see Andy Mangels,
	talking to Jody Haynes (Craig Hamilton's lover).  Turns out Andy
	nearly called out a "You in the cowboy hat" line again this year, but
	realized it was me just in time.  B-)

* While talking with Andy, Kim Yale came up.  The three of us talked about
	assorted subjects, including Silence of the Lambs and the AIDS
	awareness red ribbons which most of the DC booth staff were wearing.
	(I say most: it turns out that they decided not to even *ask* Paul
	Levitz to wear one.)  Neither Kim nor Andy had ribbons, but, presto!
	I had brought 80 or so as a giveaway to publicize Ciao!, so I supplied
	them.  (If you saw people at the con with ribbons, about 75% worked
	for DC, and the rest got them from me.  A few had ones the brought
	from other sources.)

* Next up was a zip through the art show -- some nice stuff, a lot of the To
	Be Expected work.  Very little non-general audiences.

* The "Lost Genres" panel featured Barb Rausch [Barbie], R.A. Jones
	[Scimidar], and Doug Murray [The 'Nam], discussing why genre comics
	(romance, western, etc.) were once so popular, why they died, and
	whether they can be brought back.  Given my involvement with mystery/
	humor and soap opera, it was a must-see.  Afterwards, Barb and I got
	to talk for a few minutes about romance comics, and specifically a
	soap opera comic proposal by Marc Lynx that she has expressed interest
	in being involved with.  (Proposals are out at several publishers;
	full script is being worked on for submission to Dark Horse [and
	should be complete in a day or two].)

* Back to the hotel, and I ran into Kathy Li.  We had more time to talk than
	last year, when I nearly ran her down in the halls.  I went to "La
	Salsa" at Horton Plaza's "fast food of all nations," and then hit
	Donna Barr's audience-participation of Desert Peach #17 (Udo's
	wedding).  Roberta and Barb were there, as were RAC'ers: Tom Galloway,
	Kathy Li, Elizabeth Holden, Jerry Stratton, and Bill Sherman.  After
	the reading, we went out for some of the RAC'ers to have dinner: back
	to "La Salsa!"  (My flash evidently failed, and the photos of Tom and
	Bill didn't come out; the ones of Jerry and the "Caution: Keith Haring
	Art Ahead" pylon came out fine.  Go figure!)

* That evening, I went bar hopping with Joe Montano and Jamie (don't know the
	last name), friends of Andy's.  (Jamie was his roommate at the con.)

			Friday:

* Andy wanted to get up at 8 am, so I provided his wake-up call.  We went to
	Horton Plaza and found him a copy machine so that he could make
	copies of several proposals.  Included were several plot idea for
	JLA stories, character sketches and art from "Jack in Blue" (a Jack
	the Ripper vs. the porn industry series, with art by Stan Shaw), and
	a proposal/sale listing for Gay Comics.  (Gay Comix was origianlly
	published by Kitchen Sink, editted by Howard Cruse.  Bob Ross of the
	Bay Area Reporter bought it, and Robert Triptow edited it in the late
	80's.  Andy took over as editor in the 90's, and has brought out three
	issues and a special in the last year.  It is selling better than it
	has in years, but not well enough, and has been cancelled.  Andy is
	approaching other publishers about picking it up: both Caliber and
	Tundra have made preliminary indications of interest.)

	McDonalds for breakfast. (Ugh.)

* The "Fanzines" panel was at 10:30.  Mark Lucas (Comics Critics Cavalcade) was
	on it, as were other folks, mostly APA'ers (BAY APA, CAPA-ALPHA, etc.).
	They primarily fingered the rise of the computer bulletin board as the
	cause for the decline of the 'zine (comics and SF).  (Maybe there used
	to be more, but I'm currently publishing a 'zine and contributing to
	an APA and an APAzine, and in the process of contacting another APA --
	they're out there, if you want them.)  After the panel, I met Mark
	Lucas; he recognized me from the Dave Sim signing at Golden Apple in
	L.A., back in March.  The CAPA-ALPHA folks then went to lunch.

* Kathy Li came in with Elizabeth Holden (who then went to the CA lunch), and
	stuck around for the non-furry furry panel: feathers, scales, leaves,
	etc.  Panel members included Jim Groat (Red Shetland), Paul Kidd
	(animator, Australian children's book author), and Jefferson Swycafer
	(author).

	After the panel, someone (don't know the name) approached me and
	mentioned that there had been another police raid on a comic store
	somewhere (I don't know where), and this time the owner was gay, so
	there may be extra implications.  (Has anyone else heard this rumor?)

* Fast food of all nations (FFOAN) for lunch, again.  Chicken Teriyaki and
	Rice.

* I spent some time prowling the dealers' room.  Before the con, I had
	promised myself I wouldn't buy any back issues (and I did a pretty good
	job: three underground [for review purposes] and one still-on-the-shelf
	after several years, from the publisher).

* 4:30 pm saw the "Gays and Lesbians in Comics" panel (following on the heels
	of Trina Robbins' "Women in Comics" slide show; I got to meet Lee Marrs
	before the panel, briefly), one of the better attended of the
	non-fanboy panels (Stupid Marvel Tricks, William Shatner's Toupee, Do
	Artists Need to Get a Life?, etc.).  Nonetheless, the con committee
	almost did not do the panel, because this was the fourth year they've
	done one.  "Is it still needed?" they ask.  ("If you have to ask,
	then, yes, it's still needed."  or  "So long as as the Fundies keep
	fighting about it, so long as Northstar and the Pied Piper keep having
	to come out of the closet, yes, it's still needed.")

	The panel consisted of Andy (moderator), Tim Barela ("Leonard & Larry",
	Gay Comix Special), Lee Marrs (Wimmen's Comix, etc.), Roberta Gregory
	(Naught Bits, Dynamite Damsels, etc.), Scott Lobdell (X-Men, Alpha
	Flight #106), and Chris Cooper (Asst. Editor on Alpha Flight #106,
	writer of Darkhold; Chris is black, for those who care about such
	things).  I've got the panel on tape, and will be transcribing it
	for Ciao! #7.

	Cute lines included Scott Lobdell's (Scott isn't gay, for those who
	care about such things) comment about the rumor he was fired from Alpha
	Flight for writing #106: "Now I'm writing X-Men.  If that's my
	punishment..."  He also said at least two female Marvel characters can
	be expected to come out in the next year or so.  (One being Mystique,
	no doubt; the other may be the Montesi woman from Darkhold.)

	After the panel, a prominent DC/Marvel inker (I'll only tell the name
	in private e-mail) verbally abused Andy in the hall for once again
	asking him to come out and be on the panel.  The inker claimed that
	Andy just wants to exploit his name.  (In a way, that's true, but it
	is exploitation for the best of reasons.  It won't further Andy's
	career any, but might better the industry's reception of gay and
	Lesbians in general.)  The inker also said that Andy's claims of
	publically coming out harming his career were unfounded, that there
	were other factors at work.  (Again, maybe true.  What has more likely
	hurt Andy's career has been being political about being out, rather
	than quiet and, essentially, closeted.)  The inker also argued against
	the need for the panel; I piped up that, among other important
	reasons, the panel provides a safe space at the convention for GLBO
	fans and creators.  When you figure that Kinsey says there were over
	1500 of us at the con...

	Also caught up with Fred Burke (formerly of Eclipse) in the hall, and
	gave him a copy of Ciao! #5, because of the Tapping the Vein review in
	it.

* And back to FFOAN for dinner: pizza.

* Trivia!  Back at the con for the Black Ink Irregulars intended triumph at
	the trivia contest.  We (me, Roger Klorese, Tom Galloway, and Dani
	Zweig) were there in full squid-shirt regalia, and we proceeded to
	have a score of -5 after the first 10 minutes or so of the game.
	Deciding that it wasn't wise to commit sepukku so early on, we
	rallyed our wits, and proceeded to win the first round.  The team
	of bigger-names-than-us (Dwight Decker, Jeff Swycaffer, etc.) won their
	heat (and *they* got the chance at the Legion questions!  Pfbbt!), to
	meet us in the finals.  [Roger says he thinks they may be the team
	that beat us last year; I don't recall.]  In the finals, we trounced
	all over them (naturally; do you think any of us would be alive to
	tell the story if we hadn't won?  Good BII's know better.)

	We didn't even need to use the audience participation callback from the
	Suicide Squid animated cult-favorite short film: "Drown in front!"

	The trivia contest organizer recommended that we (primarily Tom, I
	think) run the contest next year, if for no other reason than so he
	could participate.  While tempting, I expect we'll pass.

* Returning to the hotel, I visited Andy's room, where he introduced me to
	Marco, the editor of Edizione Star, an Italian magazine which a version
	of Andy's "Hollywood Heroes" column appears in.  We three decided to
	go out to Wolf's (San Diego's leather bar; Andy wore a rather revealing
	set of long red underwear, boots, and a hat -- but that's how Andy is).
	Andy had friends he was meeting there, so Marco and I talked for about
	45 minutes, about soap operas (what else? B-).  Joe and Jamie soon
	showed up, as did Ted and Grey, more APA TDNSIN folks.  We also met a
	few other folks from San Diego and elsewhere: Colum (who showed up at
	the con the next day), and Bob (from St Louis, who didn't; didn't what,
	ask me in e-mail B-).

			Saturday:

* Hah-hah!  No FFOAN for breakfast!  Farmer's Market deli for a banana and a
	muffin, and grapefruit juice.

* Again, prowling the dealers room.  I left a proposal with Slave Labor, and
	talked to cat yronwode, who recommended sending proposals for Eclipse
	to editor Valarie Jones.  Also picked up a number of giveaways from the
	Eclipse table, including a postcard with a rose on it and an
	autographed Ken Steacy card.  Bobbie Chase was in at the Marvel table;
	she and Peter David should both now have copies of the photos I took
	of them at WonderCon.

	Wimmen's Comix #16 was out at the Rip Off Press table, and they were
	having a signing: Trina Robbins, Diane Noomin, and three of the other
	contributors.  Also freshly out was the final issue of Good Girls,
	Carol Lay's entirely wonderful, extremely bizarre soap opera comic.
	(Look for reviews of both of these in Ciao! #6.)

	Sabin Grey passed me a invitation to his (notorious) Jem party.

* I was impressed enough with Farmer's Market that I went there for lunch,
	too.  I ordered turkey with cheddar, and got ham with no cheese.  Oh,
	well, I like ham.

* I hurried back in time for part of the "9-Panel Grid" panel, which was
	supposed to have Brandon Peterson (LSH) on it, but the only ones who
	showed were Brent Anderson and Ken Meyers, Jr., who didn't get onto
	the subject I was interested in until after I had to leave to go to...

* The Gay Comix/cs signing at the Last Gasp table: Andy Mangels, Donna Barr,
	Roberta Gregory, Tim Barela, Brad Parker, and Daerick Gross, Sr.  The
	con staff refused to announce the signing; they wouldn't announce
	anything of lesser importance than the level of the William Shatner
	panel, evidently (given the number of things that come across the PA
	at WonderCon, this isn't entirely bad, but something between the two
	needs to be hit, I think).

	Gay Comics #16 was printed in time for the convention, and is among the
	best issues yet.  In addition to a Donna Barr Desert Peach story (an
	expansion of the one she did in her limited audience fanzine, Krauts
	[reviewd in Ciao! #5]), there is work by Ivan Velez (Tales from the
	Closet) and Andy Mangels (Nightmares on Elm Street) and several other
	GLBO cartoonists; Lesbian Survival Hints and the Berlin-originated
	Safer Sex Comix strips are very funny.

	Julie Franki (scheduled to be in Gay Comics #17, if it comes out)
	stopped by, and was amazed that I recognized her name.  Seems that
	Lesbian Contradiction (reviewed in Ciao! #5) is about the only place
	she has been published so far.

	Philo Barnhart, a Disney employee, came by, with happy news: Disney
	now has a gay and Lesbian employees group, sanctioned by the folks at
	the top (whether this is the studios, the parks, or everything, I don't
	know).

	The signing took place in the Cherry corner of the booth, and a couple
	people came by asking which of the signers was Larry Welz.  Oops!

* More prowling.  One dealer had a copy of the rare Gay Heartthrobs #2 for
	Andy, and I picked up a copy of #1, and Wimmen's Comix #1 and 6, for
	future review material.  (Now to get Andy to photocopy GH #2 for me.)

	Ran into Sharon Cho, confirming that evening's dance outing at Kickers.

	Found Matt High at the Antarctic booth, and picked up my copy of
	Wildlife APAzine #1.  A pretty good first issue, and I'm looking
	forward to future issues.  (Yes, Matt, I'm working on my submission
	for #2...)

	Grabbed updated Dark Horse submission guidelines, and a free Grendel
	pin.  I'll get the former on-line, eventually; the latter is mine and
	mine alone.

	Planet Studios had some new cloisonne pins (I bought an Oz one: an
	interlocking O and Z) and a raft of new bolo ties (I bought a red-and-
	black X-books "X", which is really quite fashionable; it went over
	well at Kickers, although maybe people were looking at the shirt I
	wasn't wearing, instead).

	Left a proposal with Gary Reed's wife, at the Caliber table, and made
	an appointment to show some Russian comics material to Greg Baisden at
	Tundra, on Sunday.

* The Jem party, an annual event for the APA That Dare Now Speak Its Name
	(ATDNSIN, aka "Attitude and Sin") and friends occured in Sabin Grey's
	room, just down the hall from my hotel room.  About 20 of us showed up,
	to snack and talk and dish, and be completely mesmerized by Sabin's
	Jem videos.  It was a "Totally Outrageous!" party, and we did have
	fun freeze framing some of the videos, tearing up some of the male
	character designs (*purple* hair?!  Give me a break!).  And then there
	was the group (not grope) photo, which, if it comes out, should be
	grandly funny.

* The party broke up at about 7:30, and most people went off to the Masquerade
	(not me; I really wasn't interested in it this year, perhaps becuase I
	wasn't *in* it this year).  Back to FFOAN for dinner, for grilled
	mahi-mahi and vegetables on a stick.  ("Fast food" isn't always "bad
	food.")

* I got up to Kicker's (several miles north of downtown, in Hillcrest) at about
	10:00, hoping that Sharon and crew would still be there.  No sign of
	them; I hoped they hadn't left already!  Determined to have a fun time
	anyway, I danced my fool head off.  (Has anyone seen it?)  Sharon, her
	lover Lisa ("the most wonderful woman in the world"), and their
	con-roommate, Mark (from Los Angeles) showed up by 11:00, and the rest
	of them eventually showed up by 11:30 (Craig Hamilton and his lover,
	Jody Haynes [it was their 6th Anniversary that evening], P. Craig
	Russell, John Dennis, and a DC editor (again, name via e-mail only).
	We all got along very well (I successfully suppressed fanboy gush
	urges, even when I was alone for a moment with Craig Russell, talking
	about what work he is doing [his adaptation of some Oscar Wilde fairy
	tales should be available in October from NBM, in time for Christmas
	gift giving...]), talking about comics and country-western dancing and
	ages and body types and dishing pros (the editor dished on Andy
	Mangels a bit; fair enough, since Andy had done the same on him,
	earlier) and whatever.

	Sharon and Lisa left by about 1:00; the rest of us stayed until
	closing, and then headed to Wolf's for after hours.  We only stayed as
	a group for a few minutes; Craig and Jody quickly decided that it was
	*not* their type of place, so they and the editor left pretty soon,
	as did Mark and the other Craig.  John and I stuck around for another
	fifteen minutes or so, and I drove him back to his hotel, and took the
	wrong exit off the freeway, ending up near the San Diego zoo with no
	way to get back on the freeway, but we eventually got back to downtown.
	I don't think I got to sleep that night until 4:30 am!  (Ugh!)

			Sunday:

* John and I went to breakfast on Sunday (McDonalds, yipee).  He has expressed
	some interest in a couple projects I'm working on, and wanted to see a
	copy of Ciao!  John had to fly out at 12:30; naturally, both P. Craig
	Russell and Sharon Cho asked after him later that day, and were bummed
	that he had left.

* Prowling around the dealers area again, I found the Double Diamond booth,
	and picked up a second printing of my missing Hepcats issue.  Martin
	says they are working on the Omaha/Hepcats print: there was a nasty
	personnel change at the print shop which has delayed the printing,
	but he is getting a discount as a result, which will give more money
	to the Reed Waller Crisis Fund, which is for the best, in the end.

	Cynthia Martin was visiting with Liz Schiller over by Roberta Gregory's
	table.

	I managed to miss meeting Jeff Lang, the writer of Roadways, but
	talked to Ted Slampyak (excuse the butchered spelling), the artist.  I
	also failed to remember to look up Roland Mann, as I had promised.  Oh,
	the horror, the shame!

	Caliber's Book of the Tarot is out, with tarot designs from Vince
	Locke, Matt Wagner, John Dennis, and several other artists (mostly
	known from Caliber productions).  Sadly, most hold fairly tight to the
	Rider-Waite designs.

	Red Shetland #6 is available from Graph-X Press.

* Gary Reed of Caliber looked over some of the Russian materials I had with me
	to show to publishers, and said he might be interested in publishing
	some of it.  Details as they come available.

* For lunch, I again tried for a turkey and cheddar sandwich.  This time, I
	got it.  Frankly, the ham was better.

* Greg Baisden of Tundra also looked at the materials and was very interested
	in some of the artists' works, and suggested I show some of it to Mark
	Martin (20 Nude Dancers 20, editor on Hyena).  Mark wasn't available
	on Sunday, so it has to be sent in.  Details as they develop.  (There
	may be some rescripting-from-translation work coming out of this.)

* I had promised to take some pictures of Craig Hamilton and Jody Haynes,
	anniversary photos, if you will, but had to wait until Craig finished
	his piece for the art auction: a Prismacolor rendition of Tinkerbell
	from Peter Pan and Wendy (Craig on art, Andy Mangels on writing; due
	from Tundra some time next year; book one is done, after four years of
	work, and it is *beautiful.*  Very art nouveau/Mucha inspired [my
	favorite art style]).

	In between more con wandering, I gave Craig a brief backrub and
	marvelled over the art-in-progress (I should have a photo of it, once
	I get the film developed).  Jim Spivey (Dark Horse Presents' "Pilgrim
	Souls" [the Lana Lang story]) stopped by Craig's table, as did Frank
	Gembeck, Jr. (Touch), who showed off some photos of his work (also
	very nice).  I also got to meet Linda Medley (JLA) and Mike Kaluta and
	Bernie Wrightson.  (Craig, Charles Vess, and Mike Kaluta were together
	in Artist's Alley; it was like "Great Artists Row" or something).

	Jody was proudly showing of some of Craig's art to interested parties.
	Included was the original art to the Sea Woman portfolio ($25), lots
	of pages from Peter Pan ("It took Craig three weeks to do this one."),
	and some erotic works, including a satyr daisy-chain, a nude Hawkman,
	and a satyr-fairy encounter, all of them exquistiely rendered.  If you
	ask nice the next time you see Craig, he'll probably show you some of
	his portfolio.

	The Tinkerbell piece eventually sold for $1500, and Craig Russell
	bought the satyr-fairy tryst, I think for $750 (just to show you how
	much Craig Hamilton's originals go for).

 			Post-con:

* I drove to Long Beach, where I was to meet a friend, at a country-western
	bar called Floyd's.  After spending the night at Steve's house, I
	got to drive home to find out all the bad news about my car.

* As other people have said, Dark Horse has strict guidelines, involving full
	script for writing submissions by unknowns.  With luck, a Straight from
	the Hart soap opera script will be ready to go by the middle of next
	week.  (It is 2/3 scripted now.)  Then we get to see about artists.
	Barb Rausch has expressed interest; John Dennis has asked for a script
	sample; copies of the proposal will soon go out to Lee Marrs, Trina
	Robbins, Carol Lay, Mike Raabe, Maach Allon Dyson, and Cherie Daniels.

***** ***** *****

Who was there that I haven't mentioned?  What sort of a memory do you think I
have?  Here goes, though (these are only people I actually *saw,* not heard
about).  In absolutely *no* particular order:

	Maggie Thompson, Don Thomspon, Diana Anderson, Marv Wolfman, Doug
Murray, R.A. Jones, Barb Rausch, Trina Robbins, Lee Mars, Diane Noomin, Andy
Mangels, Donna Barr, Roberta Gregory, Tim Barela, Daerick Gross, Sr., Brad
Parker, Liz Schiller, Cynthia Martin, Martin Wagner, Matt Wagner, Ben Dunn.
	Craig Hamilton, P. Craig Russell, John Dennis, Elaine Lee, Mike
Kaluta, Charles Vess, Frank Gembeck, Jr., Jim Spivey, Linda Medley, Mark
Wheatley, Rob Liefeld, Chris Cooper, Scott Lobdell, Peter David, Bobbie Chase,
Gary Reed, Greg Baisden, Ken Steacy, cat yronwode, Dean Mullaney.
	Valarie Jones, Fred Schiller, Heidi McDonald, Julie Franki, Stuart
Stanard, Bill Koeb, Mike Richardson, Diana Schutz, Anina Bennett, Don Vado,
Scott Saavedra, Richard Pini, Jim Lee, Jim Salicrup, Andy Helfer, Sharon Cho,
Fred Burke, Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Jack Kirby.
	Will Eisner, Mart Nodell, Brent Anderson, Ken Meyers, Jr., Steve Rude,
Chris Marinan, Ted Slampyak, Eric Elliott, Rod O'Reilly, Jim Groat, Melody
Rondeau, Chris Bachalo, Al Gordon.

(If you don't know who any of these people are, just ask...)

Other tidbits:

* Mike and Laura Allred have recently moved to Springfield, Oregon.

* Milestone Media is a new company connected with DC.  They will be courting
	(to some degree) minority creators, including blacks and gays and
	Lesbians.

* Both Tundra and Palliard are looking at producing a full reprint collection
	of Tim Barela's "Leonard & Larry" strip.

* I know I've forgotten something important, so don't be surprised at an
	appendix to this post in a couple days...

* My opinions: Best looking pro (male): Jim Spivey (woof!).  [P. Craig Russell
	as runner-up.]  Best looking pro (female): Cynthia Martin.  Best
	looking couple: Mike and Laura Allred.

***** ***** ****

Next Con Report: Probably some small local con, maybe OryCon 12, maybe BayCon
	11, for sure ConFurence 4.

------------------------------
                             |     I was the only one to hear Art and Val.
Jim Drew                     |     "You've been getting tested regularly?"
jrd@frame.com                | asked Art.
(Furry: Randy Puritan)       |     "I promised you, didn't I?" said Val. 
"Innocent, but not naive."   |     "And...?"
B2h t w- c k s g+(p) rv p    |     "Don't *worry,* Art.  I'm negative."
S8/5 g l+ y+ o+ a+ u++- j++  |     "Are you sure?"
{opinions: mine != frame's}  |     "Positive."
                             |		- Marc Lynx, "For Art's Sake"