I broke my exceptionally cool camera in San Francisco recently and am mightily bummed. So I borrowed a friend�s for San Diego (thanks Laine Poo! You are a very sweet cranberry!!).

I roomed, as I have this entire con season, with the RED STAR cats, whom I do hold close to my wee little heart.

So without further ado, I give you the majesty of�

Team Red Star…

Chris Gosset sketching at the new Red Star super-booth which, no doubt, played a factor in them having record sales at the con this year, despite no new product.

Goss Passed out on the outdoor patio of the Hilton after a hard scrabble Video Game Industry meeting where he was forced to knife-fight to the death with ex-executives of the now defunct Activision to retain the rights to the “Red Star Interactive Experience”!! All hail the victor!

awwww… de sleepy-time babies…

The beautiful professional fashion designer and ex-CIA assassin who wrote the book on “seduction n’ slash” techniques, Adriann Helton, hocks Red Star crap to unsuspecting suckers. Her political cartoons can be found in TEX: GEORGE BUSH AND THE FINE ART OF CHARACTER ASSASSINATION!

I didn’t get very good shots of the rest of the team, so I’m dipping’ into my archives for images of the others. The following photos were not taken in San Diego this year…

Dr. Jo Olson keeps the Red Star afloat. One of the most powerful women in the world!! BURN HER! She’s a witch!! That’s her sister Sam in the background.

Jeff Henderson, walking the mean streets of San Francisco. He’s a complicated man and nobody understands him but his woman.

I don’t have any decent shots of Pauly or Snakebite, though they’re incredibly important to the team… sorry guys.

And now for the rest of the con!

CAPTAIN GRAVITY AND THE POWER OF THE VRIL

Sal Velluto and I are just part of the creative team that’s giving you you’re Golden Age WWII super hero fix, baby!

Sal is highly placed in the Italian arm of the Mormon mafia, so watch yourself.

THE VERTIGO DINNER

Every convention the ultra-hip of the sub-mainstream (and, well, me. I’m not exactly sure how I got into this club, but I’m sleeping on their couch till they kick me off) gather in some posh-ass place and get merry on Warner Brothers’ dime!

Dean Haspiel (THE QUITTER) and his amazing, Leftist mother. It is my very fond wish that Dean and I will be working together soon. I think he’s fucking great.

Glenn Fabry (NEVERWHERE, barely visible on the left), Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN, center) and John Watkiss (TRIGGER). Three artists who should be shot for over-excelling at their craft.

Karen Berger (VP-Executive Editor of Vertigo, and patron-saint of those of us desperate to do something different and still get paid) and her husband Richard – who’s a very cool guy.

Karen and I. By publishing this photo of Karen I almost guarantee that I will never work at Vertigo again

And at the dinner were the cats behind SWAMP THING.

El Maestro! The man who draws the world’s nightmares! Enrique Breccia, artist on the current run of SWAMP THING. I dare say, he looks harmless enough.

Father and son. Enrique and Martin Breccia. Martin is the amazing colorist on SWAMP THING.

The youngest of the Breccia art clan. Brother to Martin, son of Enrique. A writer, and no doubt headed for brilliance. Soon to be breaking American girls’ hearts in Brooklyn.

OTHER CREATORS

Anderson Gabrych (BATGIRL). Quite possibly the hottest man in comics.

That’s me with my arm around one of my absolute favorite artists working right now, J.H. Williams (PROMETHIA). His vignettes in WILDGIRL were worth the price of the whole book. That’s his wife on the left. Who’s name I can’t remember. Sorry, She completely deserves to be known as more than just somebody’s wife, but what can I say. Just after this photograph was taken I spilled her drink. Because I’m that cool.

The incomparable Glenn Fabry (NEVERWHERE) keeping his fans happy while…

I sit next to him, having my own signing to which three people showed. Because I’m that cool. (Bob Wayne, VP of Sales at DC, took this photo)

Glen Fabry and Martin Breccia back to being friends after a brief fist-to-cuffs in the parking lot.

And because he wouldn’t let me take a picture of him this year, I’m forced to dig into my archives and unearth this shot from last year’s Comic-con…

Marc Andreyko (MANHUNTER) wears his sun glasses at night. I can’t imagine why.

THE “DEAR GOD, JEFF MACEY IS LEAVING US” DARK HORSE PARTY.

I met Jeff years ago when he was working for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and took an immediate liking to him. He has since moved on to Dark Horse’s marketing department. Apparently this was his last con as an industry insider. He’s quitting to get a law degree so he can be a better soldier for the Left. “After the election,” he told me, “I just couldn’t sit back and keep selling STAR WARS books anymore.” Jeff receives my “Coolest Fucker at the Con” award for that sentiment alone. He will be missed on the circuit. To top it all off, his wife is about to have a baby!

The man, Macey, out of focus and moving on to nobler pursuits.

Scott Allie, a recent father himself, and one of my favorite editors in the industry, raps with some really nice Dark Horse employee that I met, yet can’t remember her name.

THE TOKYO POP GANG

Luis Reyes, editor of original content… and rock n’ roll legend. He is most assuredly doomed to die early.

Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, an editor at TOKYOPOP, believes that when you take her picture you steal a piece of her soul. So I clicked quite a few.

Christine Boylan and I. I’m the one with the cavernous nose and oddly shaped head. Christine had done some work for TOKYOPOP but has moved on to greener pastures. Actually the bitch has been in LA less than a year and has her first film script being shot. Now she’s a writing assistant on THE GILMORE GIRLS which they tell me is on TV. Apparently Adult Swim and The Daily Show isn’t all that’s transmitted into my cathode chaos box. Christine is an old friend, and if I’m not mistaken she has a SUPERMAN story coming out soon.

Felipe Smith (center, MBQ), me and some very cool stranger. Felipe’s book is truely tight and should be read by all.

DC STAFF!

Fletcher Chufong, Manager – Events and Retailer Services, fires off a sexy pose for the camera.

Eddie Berganza, editor of the Superman books, looks trapped and panicked as I beg for a job writing the Sun God Ra… uh, I mean Superman.

Paula Lowitt, Senior VP-Business & Legal Affairs, checks to see if the poor drunk fucker sprawled out on the floor of the Hyatt elevator is dead (he’s not). Just after this picture was taken Geoff Johns stole his hat, which is hilarious to me.

AND ALMOST LAST BUT FAR FROM LEAST

A very poor attempt, by more than one of us, to capture the beam of light that is Amanda Fisher, owner of MUSE COMICS, a store in Missoula, Montana.

LAST, AND ACTUALLY LEAST

Me, passed the fuck out on Sunday night. Finally done with the whole moveable feast. I have no idea who took this picture with my camera, but since there were five of us in the room… it could’vd been anybody.

Ahhh, and now, in a matter of days, I leave for WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO.

No rest for the wicked.

CHA CHA CHA.

Peace, love and hippie shit…
Joshua