Fans of Silver Rage, the strip I did years before All New Issues, may remember Jason’s Longbox Throne. I thought it’d make a nice sketch, harkening back to those good old days. Enjoy!
- Bill
Hey Everyone,
We’re back from Seattle. We want to thank everyone who came by the table and said hi. It was so exciting to meet all of you. It still blows my mind that people read the strip. Then you get to meet them in real life, hang out, and in some cases play Magic with them. (By the way, that totally made Bill’s Sunday)
And thank you to everyone who bought the book, got a sketch from Bill or put a donation in the tip jar. We really, really appreciated it. As you might know, we hail from the east coast and this trip was not cheap. You all helped us out a great deal and even though the show wasn’t profitable for us, you made it worth the trip out. It seriously means the world to us to have such awesome readers. Conventions can be very stressful, and tiring. You’re on your feet all day, handing out business cards and trying to peddle your product to the masses. It’s this balancing act of trying to engage people, but not be pushy. It’s something I’m still trying to get a hang of. Add on top of that the stress of flying across the country and crossing all your fingers and toes you make back enough money to pay at least your hotel room and it can lead to an emotionally exhausting experience. It’s a learning experience. One that can leave you crawling under your table to stave off an anxiety attack. Not that I would have any first hand experience with that.
I guess what I’m trying to get at, without being too incredibly sappy, is that it really does mean the world to us that each and everyone of you came up to say hi, and that you enjoyed the strip. It makes every moment of doubt, stress and exhaustion worth it.
Ok, enough with my sap. Let’s talk about our trip to Seattle and how much fun we had, cause we did have a ton of fun. We got to hang out with friends we don’t get to see very often, and meet new ones. And we finally got to meet the father of our fictional kitten, Mr. R.K. Milholland of Something Positive. I still feel bad I made you walk a mile for tacos.
Speaking of food, Seattle might have the greatest food and beer. Everything is organic and freshly baked and locally produced. It’s filled with food I dream of, and I wanted to eat it all. I’m telling you, if the sun came out more than a few months a year I’d consider moving there. Thank you to everyone who gave us food recommendations!
On Thursday, after we checked into the hotel, we walked down to the Public Market. Interesting fact, Bill had no idea what the Public Market was, or that they threw fish around. I think he thought I was making that up till we saw some guys slinging fish. (I didn’t. – Bill) We ended up having lunch at the Pike Brewing Company and had some delicious beer. Then we walked around some more, and promptly fell asleep at 5 in the afternoon. In our defense we only got 4 hours of sleep and were up at 3:30am east coast time to catch a 6am flight.
Friday, Bill walked down to the market and got us crumpets from the Crumpet Shop, down by the Public Market. They were so, so yummy. We then set up our table and grabbed lunch at a place called Evolution on Pine Street. The food was easy to grab, healthy and yummy. (And I think somehow connected to starbucks. That’s how it came up on my debit card, anyway.) I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for kale, quinoa and beans. And the coconut pineapple water I had was delicious. Not worth the $4.95 I paid, but yummy none the less.
Friday night found us walking around trying to grab a quick dinner before the Kirby Krackle concert. We discovered something incredibly mind boggling to us. Everything around the convention center closed at 8pm. The mall, the fast food places, just about anything that looked like you weren’t going to go into debt eating there. It was crazy. We ended up eating at this little dive place called Ludi’s on Pike. Gotta say, the food was cheap and not bad. And we were able to get to the concert and see Paul and Storm and Kirby Krackle.
Saturday Bill walked down to a bakery called Specialty’s Bakery. (I think it’s on Union and 5th. Don’t quote me. – Bill) He grabbed both breakfast and lunch so we wouldn’t have to leave the table. Both meals were of course delicious. The turkey sandwich I had was so good. For dinner we went to the Yard House. If you go to Seattle, go there. The beer menu was 3 pages long. 3 pages?!?! There were so many taps. Just a wall of them, going down the bar. It was a beautiful sight. After dinner we ended up at this cozy little bar called the White Horse Trading Company on Post Alley. They have a very limited selection of drinks, but it’s worth it just to hang out in there. The ambiance is incredible.
Sunday found us having breakfast again at the Crumpet Shop. Unfortunately they messed up my order and forgot our scone. I had a sad face, but the crumpet was still good. We didn’t venture out for lunch since the show as closing at 5. After we packed up, we met with a small group of people and walked a mile up a hill to go to Tacos Chukis. A reader recommended it was a good place to go for Mexican and they weren’t lying. It’s a small out of the way place with limited seating and a limited menu. It was authentic tasting Mexican in Seattle and I think we all agreed it was worth the walk. Plus, on the way back to the hotel we got to stop at a pinball arcade and play some pinball. How awesome is that?! Then it was back to the hotel bar to hang out with friends and to meet some new ones. We had a great little table and Bill was excited to secretly geek out over the people he was meeting.
Sadly we had to leave Seattle on a 7am flight back to the east coast. This is when our weekend took an awful turn. After getting 2 hours of sleep, I was tired and accidentally left my iPad in the taxi cab. I had it, and some other things, in a canvas tote bag over my shoulder. It seems at some point during the ride it must have slipped off my shoulder and I didn’t notice it was missing till we had checked our luggage. Lets just say there was a lot of cursing, some tears and a lot of being upset at myself. Thankfully the story seems to have a happy ending. Someone did turn in the bag and the taxi service called my dad, he was listed in my contacts, and Bill spoke to someone in lost and found. We’ve sent a prepaid box to the company and hopefully I should have my iPad next week. I won’t be fully relieved until I have it in my hands, but the fact that no one stole it is amazing. It gave me a little hope in humanity.
And made me realize I now have to buy an over the shoulder messenger style bag for the ipad. I won’t be letting that happen again.
Ok, that’s plenty from me. I’ve been writing for over an hour and wanted to go to sleep 2 hours ago.
See you on Monday
dani
