By Frank S. Gilliam
It is likely that most ecologists have their own stories regarding the annual meetings of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the world’s largest organization of professional ecologists. Some revere it, whereas others may criticize it. There is, however, truth in numbers—growth in attendance has been seemingly exponential since my first meeting in the early 1980’s. So, it is without debate that the annual ESA meeting remains an integral part of the professional life of many ecologists throughout the world.
This year’s ESA meeting will take place in Sacramento, CA. Image credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
My first ESA meeting was at the Pennsylvania State University (note: we were small enough to meet on college campuses then) in 1982 while still a Ph.D. student at Duke University working with Norm Christensen on herb-layer dynamics of pine forests of the southeastern United States. I was understandably wide-eyed at seeing the actual human forms of ecologists walking around, giving talks, drinking beer—all of whom had only been names on papers and books I had read as I was writing my dissertation. Despite logistical errors regarding my talk (the projectionist insisted on placing my slides in the tray, rather than allowing me to do so; then promptly put them in backwards), my first ESA was an unmitigated success, allowing me to meet folks who would become lifelong friends and colleagues. Small surprise that I not only attended the next year, but have attended all meetings since then, save two—1991, when I could not afford to travel to Hawaii, and 2012, when my son was entering the United States Naval Academy.
Although I still recall high points of virtually all meetings through the years, the ones that stand out the most for me are those when I collaborated to organize symposia. There have been three of these: 1993 (University of Wisconsin—Madison), 1998 (Baltimore, Maryland), and 2006 (Savannah, Georgia). Although they were of somewhat contrasting themes, I took the same approach to all of them—I always thought that topics/presentations worthy of an ESA meeting were also worthy of some type of formal publication, whether in a peer-reviewed journal or a book.
My old Duke office mate/best friend/collaborator, Mark Roberts, and I organized a symposium on the effects of disturbance on plant diversity of forests for the 1993 meeting. Highly successful at the meeting, with very high attendance and vigorous question/answer periods following each talk, this symposium resulted in the publication of a Special Feature in Ecological Applications in 1995.
Mark and I used that first symposium as a kind of template for the one which was part of the 1998 meeting, well into the period where the number of attendees had outgrown college campuses, relegating ESA to convention centers. The 1998 symposium was on the ecology of herbaceous layer communities of contrasting forests of eastern North America. We had assembled what we felt was a very good group, including the late Fakhri Bazzaz, who was actually the first person I had contacted prior to writing the proposal for the Program Committee, also very successful in terms of attendance and questions. We were also pleased with our efforts on this topic following the symposium.
For the 2006 meeting, another friend and colleague of mine, Bill Platt, and I organized a symposium on the ecology of longleaf pine ecosystems. This experience was especially rewarding in that it was so closely connected with both the meeting theme of that Savannah (Uplands to Lowlands: Coastal Processes in a Time of Global Change), and the meeting’s geographic location in the main region of natural longleaf pine—the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. We published these talks in a Special Feature in Applied Vegetation Science.
Oh, there was another high point for me—one not related to symposia. It was with great pride that I accepted the nomination to become the Program Chair for the 2010 Annual Meeting of ESA in Pittsburgh, PA. I chose the following for the scientific theme: Global Warming: the Legacy of Our Past, the Challenge for Our Future. At a time when eastern US venues were not nearly as popular for attendance as were western ones, attendance at this meeting was surprisingly high. I was especially pleased to be able to thank the Society publicly and collectively when I addressed them at the beginning of the meeting.
Since my arrival in 1990 here at Marshall University—a public school small state (West Virginia ranks 38th among the 50 United States) and with limited direct access to colleagues doing similar research—annual ESA meetings have provided me a lifeline, if you will, connecting me with ecologists, especially biogeochemists and vegetation scientists, from throughout North America and, indeed, the world. Most of my contributions to the field of ecology, including peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and books, have been products of this event that has not only become an annual summer tradition of mine, but also has been invaluable to my career as a plant ecologist.
It’s 2014, folks—see you in Sacramento!
Frank S. Gilliam is a professor of biological sciences, teaching courses in ecology and plant ecology, at Marshall University. He is also the editor of the second edition of The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America.
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The 8th annual Kidlitosphere Conference, aka KidLitCon, will be held October 10th and 11th at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in Sacramento, CA.
KidLitCon is a gathering of people who blog about children’s and young adult books, including librarians, authors, teachers, parents, booksellers, publishers, and readers. Attendees share a love of children’s books, as well as a determination to get the right books into young readers’ hands. People attend KidLitCon to talk about issues like the publisher/blogger relationship, the benefits and pitfalls of writing critical reviews, and overcoming blogger burnout. People also attend KidLitCon for the chance to spend time face to face with kindred spirits, other adults who care passionately for children’s and YA literature.
This year’s theme for KidLitCon is: Blogging Diversity in Young Adult and Children’s Lit: What’s Next?
Members of the Kidlitosphere have been talking about the need for more diversity in children’s books for several years now, starting back when Paper Tigers launched with a view of discussing multicultural children’s literature. There was outrage within the community when the cover of Justine Larbalestier’s LIAR was whitewashed, and discussions of other books followed. More recently, children’s and young adult authors have used blogs, Tumblr, and Twitter to make a much louder demand for more diversity in publishing, through the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. Other bloggers are listening and responding. Pam Coughlan just announced that the focus of this year’s 48-Hour Book Challenge at MotherReader will be on reading diverse books. The Cybils organization has been combing through past shortlists, to come up with lists of diverse titles. The pictures and posts on this topic are too many to count. And that’s a fine thing.
What we would like to do with this year’s KidLitCon (along with our usual goals) is discuss what book bloggers can do to make a meaningful difference in increasing diversity in children’s and young adult literature. This year’s keynote speaker will be Mitali Perkins, an author whose focus has long been on “books between cultures for young readers". Among other things, Mitali will talk about how bloggers can be agents of change in the conversation about diversity in children’s and young adult literature. Shannon Hale, who has written eloquently on the need for writing non-neutral characters, and who helped launch the Great Green Heist Challenge, is also expected to participate in the conference via Skype.
We will talk about other issues of interest to children’s and YA book bloggers, too. But it is also our hope to make a bit of noise on behalf of diversity in children’s literature. It is past time for that.
The Tsakopoulos Library Galleria is a beautiful meeting space, located in California’s State Capitol. We are finalizing details on a room block at a nearby hotel. Registration information and a call for session proposals will be published soon. While we do not have the final schedule yet, we are planning to have sessions starting mid-morning on Friday and going through Saturday, with evening events Friday and Saturday nights.
We hope that you will mark October 10th and 11th on your calendar, and start thinking about how you would like to contribute to the conversation on children’s and young adult book blogging. Please help us to spread the word. Thank you!
Tanita Davis and Sarah Stevenson, Finding Wonderland
Jen Robinson, Jen Robinson’s Book Page
Please help by spreading the word! Be a fan on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! This announcement is also posted at the Kidlitosphere Central website, where we will be sharing the registration form and call for papers soon.
By Bruce Lidl
The Sacramento Wizard World convention was an opportunity for comic fans in Northern California to gather and celebrate their passions with other fans and celebrities. It was also a chance for Jimmie Robinson, a veteran Bay Area comic book creator (and frequent commentator at The Beat) to meet his readers and spread the word about his on-going all-ages Image series, Five Weapons. I was curious to get a creator’s insight about this new convention, but we ended up chatting about a variety of topics, so I decided to make a separate article in its own right. As a long-time participant and observer in the comics industry, Jimmie has a great perspective on what is really happening right now, and he was very generous of his time to speak with me on the show floor.
Robinson was quite positive about the Wizard show, the staff, and the vibe around the convention center. Everybody was seemingly happy with the turnout and the enthusiasm of the attendees, especially the local downtown merchants. I was curious to hear how his convention schedule played into his work-time and income, and whether he was seeing the kinds of returns on paid sketches, commissions and appearance fees that some artist superstars like George Perez have experienced. According to Robinson, conventions, even well attended ones like Sacramento Wizard, are not “real money makers” for him, as he still has to pay his expenses, including travel and lodging. The worst thing about conventions for Robinson is not the expense, though, it is the time taken away from his work of actually making comics, something he much prefers to do if possible. In general, he limits himself these days to shows he and his team (wife Gail and dog Eli) can drive to, including the Reno Wizard show and possibly San Diego. For him, conventions remain all about “spreading the word” about his books, particularly Five Weapons, his current title from Image/Shadowline, an all-ages tale of the one pacifist student enrolled at a school for assassins (broken up into 5 weapon-themed houses, kind of a killers’ Hogwarts). He emphasized just how “tough” a sell an all-ages title can be. Currently at issue #7, in the second five issue story arc of the title, he has a commitment from Image to publish a third story arc, taking him through issue #15. Depending on how these story arc sell, he hopes to publish at least through #20, which would complete the initial narrative he conceived for the title.
Eli manning the booth
Robinson was “very appreciative of the huge support” he’s received from Jim Valentino and the Shadowline imprint at Image, particularly with a book that may not be the most marketable. And he “regretted” not being at the January ImageExpo, where the homogeneity of the creators on exhibit was negatively received online. Robinson had only complimentary things to say about his experiences with Image.
While Robinson appreciates the personal outreach opportunities conventions give comic creators, he is also “very enthusiastic” about the growth of digital comics, both from a sales perspective but also from a creative viewpoint. Digital sales of his older Bomb Queen title have been “very good” and he has seen bumps in sales of older issues when new ones come out and re-ignite interest. He is also an outspoken fan of comiXology’s Guided View reading enhancement, although he does struggle somewhat with making sure that his books look good when they are going to be converted to the new format. The process of conversion is quite “mysterious” to Robinson, and he does not have any insight at all into who actually does the work at comiXology, but he’s “very conscious” when he is drawing of what kind of panel layouts work best with the new technology.
His one major criticism of the current digital comics trend is the lack of transparency into the data generated by digital sales, as any data he does get from comiXology is basically limited to royalty statements and is usually “way old, usually from two quarters behind.” He is eager to see if he is able to get quicker and more detailed information from the shift at Image to selling directly and without DRM (Five Weapons #1 is available right now for free in either PDF, EPUB, CBR or CBZ formats). Robinson is “completely for” Image’s move to drop DRM and is generally really excited to see his work available in as many formats as possible. As someone who first heard Scott McCloud talking up online comics way back in the mid-90s, Robinson knows first hand how far the industry has come in expanding distribution avenues for new creators to attract readers. He echoed the message oft repeated today, that the challenge is no longer to “break into comics but to stay in comics!”
It was a pleasure chatting with Robinson and getting his expert viewpoint on a comics industry that offers both unprecedented opportunities and daunting challenges for even well-established creators like himself. And check out Five Weapons and see how good all-age titles really are these days!
By Bruce Lidl
As the on-going explosion of interest in comics and pop culture conventions continues seemingly unabated, companies like Wizard World are rushing to meet the demand. The first ever Wizard World Sacramento took place this last weekend, making it the first big comic convention in California’s capital city, and likely the biggest show of its kind in Northern California since Wonder-Con moved to Anaheim in 2012. Clearly a success attendance-wise, the show was a sellout for 3-day passes and Saturday passes, and was very crowded when I stopped by on Sunday, with a line to enter that wrapped around two full sides of the Sacramento Convention center. According to Jerry Milani of Wizard, they were a bit cautious when planning this inaugural show, only renting out part of the convention center, but they are confident enough now to already book the entire convention center for their return in June 2015.
Obligatory Stormtroopers picture
To this only slightly jaded con-goer, the show was very consistent with the new culture of comic conventions, with both organizers and attendees clearly influenced by all the recent coverage of the San Diego Comic Con. At one point I overheard Wizard staffers have to explain that they were not in fact the same organization that ran the San Diego convention. The crowd was very diverse in age and demographic background, many families and couples, was heavily sprinkled with cosplayers, and seemed attracted to a wide range of media properties, with strong The Walking Dead, Marvel movie series and Game of Thrones presences. The key marker of this new era of conventions to me, however, was the very large and central role of big-name media celebrities there to explicitly make some money. Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) and William Shatner were featured guests, and they offered all manner of paid opportunities for interaction. VIP fan meetings, paid autographs, paid photo ops, you name it, for a price you could seemingly have any kind of experience with the stars.
Comic books were present, though, with industry legends Stan Lee, Chris Claremont, Chris Golden and Neal Adams appearing. Local comic book vendors were a notable presence on the sales floor, although it must be said, the area set aside for autographs and photo ops with celebrities was probably bigger than the entire area for traditional commerce. There was a small artists alley, with a handful of Big 2 artists and a number of independent and/or specialty artists offering sketches and commissions. I had the opportunity to speak in-depth with Jimmie Robinson of Image (Bomb Queen, Five Weapons) and he thought it had been a “good” show, overall, although not a particularly big money maker for him. (I’ll have more from Robinson in a companion article coming later).
Crowds at Sacramento Wizard World
As The Beat has speculated previously, Wizard World is clearly pushing hard to take advantage of the growing interest in pop culture, comics and celebrities, with a number of first time shows this year in cities like Louisville, Richmond, Tulsa, San Antonio, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Reno, in addition to return shows in St. Louis, Nashville, New Orleans, Portland, Columbus, Austin, Columbus, Philadelphia and Chicago. According to Wizard’s Milani, the key attributes that determine their choice of a city include available venues, a market that makes sense for their offerings and their existing show calendar. He admitted that they do pay attention to avoiding conflicts with other comic book conventions (they don’t have any shows at all in July to avoid San Diego issues, and their new Atlanta show will be three months before the long-established Dragon-Con) but it was clear that they consider their shows to be different from more locally organized efforts.
The key element Milani cited was Wizard’s ability to bring a large number of celebrities of a certain level to regional cities. Matt Smith of Dr. Who fame will be a featured guest at their next show in Louisville, Kentucky, and fans can have a VIP experience with him for $349, a photo op with him for $99 ($195 for a dual photo with co-star Karen Gillan) or an autograph for $99. The seem like pretty high prices to me, but they are not too surprising when appearance fees for big stars like Smith and Hemsworth may be as much as $100,000. Milani told me that Sacramento had courted Wizard aggressively, with a great deal of enthusiasm from Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office, and numbers released by the city after the show claim an economic impact of $2 million dollars for the weekend.
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Well, WonderCon’s continued presence in San Francisco remains in doubt, as seen here, and mentioned here back in March, as the Moscone Center gives WonderCon the Cinderella treatment. What’s in store for WonderCon, and what are their options?
As in 2012, WonderCon will once again take place in Anaheim, scheduled for March 29-31, 2013, which also is Easter weekend.
WonderCon, originally held at the Oakland, California, Convention Center, moved to the Moscone Center in San Francisco in 2003.
In 2012, Moscone was under renovation, making space a premium. In 2013, that renovation should be complete. So what’s happening in April, 2013, at Moscone?
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Moscone West cannot accommodate a weekend show, as the midweek shows require at least one day of moving out and moving in.
Moscone North/South? It could host WC the weekend of the 6th and 7th, or the 27th and 28th.
But Moscone can host whomever they wish. As a public venue, they are susceptible to public pressure, so perhaps a grassroots effort could be made to convince the village elders to accommodate a local cultural event. Perhaps Jerry Sanders could call Edwin M. Lee and clue him in to the amount of money being lost to Anaheim.
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So, in 2013, WonderCon will once again take place at the Anaheim Convention Center to the east of Los Angeles.
Here’s the plan of the convention center:
Last year, WonderCon used Hall D for exhibition space. (Here’s the exhibitor map.) That’s 221,284 square feet. It’s a huge building, with over 813,000 square feet of exhibition space (Halls A-E). Moscone has 538,000 sq.ft. of exhibition space; San Diego, 525,701 sq.ft.
In 2011, WonderCon used Halls A-C of Moscone South for the dealer’s room. That’s 260,560 square feet of space. 2010 had the same footprint; in 2009 it was Halls B & C.
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So, if Moscone disowns WonderCon like a single mother tossed out into a snowstorm, where could they relocate to?
Well, there is Anaheim, which will have hosted two shows. Comic-Con International has filed to claim “Anaheim Comic-Con” as a trademark. (They have also filed for “Los Angeles Comic-Con” and “San Francisco Comic-Con”.) There is a lot of space to expand, both in the Arena which can host “Hall H” media events, as well as a large ballroom on the Third Floor.
I attended the annual conference of the American Library Association here last June. There are numerous hotels around the area, mostly due to Disneyland. I had no trouble finding an affordable hotel room, and though the trek was a bit long, the weather was pleasant. There was no “fighting” with Disneyland tourists for hotel rooms or restaurants. The convention center was easy to navigate, both horizontally and vertically. The length of the center was not weary to walk, even on the last day of the show. I especially liked the outdoor courtyards built between each hall. There were 20,000 attendees, yet it wasn’t difficult to walk between hallways. (Of course, surf the web for reaction to last year’s WonderCon in Anaheim.)
—
But, where else could it go? Some local fans are criticial of Comic-Con International moving out of the Bay Area, wondering why they do not move the show to another regional venue.
What exists?
First, there’s the Oakland Convention Center, which originally hosted the show from 1987-2002.
It has 48,000 square feet of exhibition space. That’s one-fifth of what WonderCon used in 2011. There’s also not a lot of space for programming.
—
San Jose? Located on the south side of the San Francisco Bay, it once hosted CCI’s Alternative Press Expo at Parkside Hall before it was moved to the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco.
The San Jose Convention Center has 143,000 square feet. 54% of WC ‘11.
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Santa Clara? 112,775 sq.ft.
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Now, what if WonderCon went back to its fan-based heritage, and followed the hotel-centric layout of Dragon*Con?
What’s that? A major regional convention which doesn’t use a convention center? YUP! Dragon*Con is a science-fiction convention which has grown to epic proportions! They embrace almost every fandom, and like smaller conventions, rent conference space in various hotels, decentralizing everything. Exhibitors and dealers are housed in three separate ballrooms.
Our host hotels for 2012 will again include the familiar surroundings of the Hyatt Regency Atlanta along with the legendary Atlanta Marriott Marquis, the Hilton Atlanta, Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, and the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.
They sell out the hotels, usually a year in advance! Which is what convention bureaus love! 46,000 fans attended in 2011, according to Wikipedia.
Could that happen in San Francisco?
WonderCon could use the Marriott Marquis, the Westin, and the Four Seasons for events (with the W and St. Regis for overflow), bypassing Moscone completely. The three main hotels are all in the same block just north of Yerba Buena Gardens (and two blocks north of Moscone).
WonderCon had about 39,000 attendees in 2011 in San Francisco (the latest year I could find). WonderCon is similar to Dragon*Con in scope and size, so let’s see what space D*C has available [click on the hotel name to go to the hotels' meeting space pages] :
The Grand (hotel) total: 379,200 approximate square feet.
Now, realize that Dragon*Con has three exhibition spaces:
- Dealers (retailers) are in the Hyatt’s International Hall (9,150 sq.ft.)
- Exhibitors (companies) are in the Marriott’s Marquis Ballroom (21,983 sq.ft.) and the Imperial Ballroom (15,640 sq.ft.)
—
Now, what if we tried the same thing in San Francisco?
That’s a grand (motel) total of approximately 86,000 square feet, all on the same city block.
Add the nearby St. Regis (13.3K) and the W (7.4K) and the total is 107,000 square feet. That’s a tight fit. The Marriot Marquis could host the Exhibitors space, the Westin could host the dealers. Meeting rooms might be a concern, although there are smaller boutique hotels with smaller (but not numerous) meeting rooms. Of course, that all depends on the major exhibitors. If Marvel, DC, Capcom, and/or Nintendo balk, then the show might suffer by their absence. (Of course, fans could view it as WonderCon returning to their fan-based heritage, ignoring the hyperbole which fuels Comic-Con International: San Diego.)
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But there’s another possibility, further north. Sacramento.
Sacramento, the capital of California, has two major exhibition spaces:
- The Sacramento Convention Center
- Cal Expo
The Sacremento Convention Center has 134,006 sq.ft. of exhibition space, which is smaller than San Jose. So that’s not worth the trouble of moving outside the Bay Area.
But consider Cal Expo. What’s that? It’s the site of Big Fun, the California State Fair.
It has a complex of buildings which could be utilized for a large convention, turning it into a “comic-county fair”!
Think that’s crazy? Consider CeBIT, held every year in Hannover, Germany. Held at Hannover’s Messegelände (fairground), that electronics trade show uses 5 million square feet in 27 different halls and attracted 312,000 attendees in 2012 (850,000 during the dot-com boom). CCI:SD caps attendance at 130,000.
So, what sort of space does Cal Expo offer? Here’s the map of the fairgrounds. Specifically, Buildings A, B, C, D, the Pavilion, the Cove, and the Expo Center. The PDF of building specifics is here.
- Building A 27,700 sq.ft., with 8,600 sq.ft. on the mezzanine. [Connects with Building B]
- Building B [identical to Building A]
- Building C 28,000 sq.ft. [column free, connects to Building D]
- Building D 20,000 sq.ft. [column free]
- The Pavilion 98,000 sq.ft.
- The Cove A shaded seating area, seats 4100, stage measures 48 x 40 ft. (Think “Hall H”.)
- Expo Center 58,870 sq.ft. Eight buildings sharing an outdoor brick plaza.
- #1 = 7,549 #2 = 5,987 #3 = 7,929 #4 = 7,860 #5 = 7,934 #6 = 7,832 #7 = 7,931 #8 = 5,848
That’s a grand total of 277,470 sq.ft. of space, larger than the 260,560 sq.ft. used in Moscone South.
The column free space of Building C and D would be perfect for the larger exhibitors. Each Expo Center building could cater to a different fandom, grouping retailers together. Or the Expo Center could be one big miss-mix-mashed bazaar, encouraging attendees to wander from one building to the next, and congregating in the middle.
Hotels? There are many north of the fairground, so shuttle buses would be used, just like at every other comic con in the country. Big Fun lists local transit options to downtown. Or, unlike most other shows, you can camp in your RV. Parking? 15,000 spaces, $10 a car.
What about the weather? According to Wikipedia, the average temperature in Sacramento for April is 47-72 degrees Fahrenheit. San Francisco? 50-64 degrees.
Will people travel from San Francisco? Well, to drive from Moscone to Anaheim takes 6 hours, 45 minutes. From Moscone to Cal Expo? 1 hour, 35 minutes. Lots of parking!
The Big Fun Map. The Golden1 stage is The Cove.
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So, those are the most likely solutions for WonderCon. I’m hoping that Moscone and CCI can come to some agreement, while Anaheim can become another great regional convention.
I had every intention of posting a review of this fabulous book to the right today. It's going to have to wait until tomorrow, however, as not just one, but two audio books had me glued to the ipod.
First up was John Banville's Christine Falls. This is a mystery he wrote under the pen name Benjamin Black. I loved Banville's The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. Loved it. But I have to say that Christine Falls--a mystery, no less--may have even been better. Hands down, Banville's use of POV in Christine Falls was the most skillful I've seen in years. It's a slow read (or listen), because it's fairly dense, but immensely rewarding.
Next up was Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin. I purchased this one before the Virginia Tech atrocities, so was reluctant to read another school shooting novel. But...it gripped me from the first moment. Unlike Christine Falls, in which multiple POVs conflict and contradict one another, there is only one point of view in We Need to Talk About Kevin. A one-sided epistolary novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin is compelling from start to finish. And, there's a reason almost every critic used the world "unflinching" in regards to this novel. Narrator Eva is not perfect--she's arrogant, yet critical of herself. She's impatient, yet tries as best she can as a mother. She's almost a genetic copy of her son, but can barely tolerate him from birth. 15 hours and I listened to it all--including the interview at the end. ** And, while I had imagined the ending as one of possible outcomes, it didn't bother me in the least.
Tomorrow I'll be back, I promise. I lost a day to stories.
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**I will mention here that the audio of We Need to Talk About Kevin was, in some ways, a trial. I could hear the narrator's every swallow, every intake of breath, every drink of water. The narrator herself was quite good, but the editing, obviously, left something to be desired. Read this one instead if extraneous noises between sentences bother you :)
I agree with Jimmie — digital sales are the channel you’d think we’d have more data about than any other! It’s curious how that’s evolved.
I have held back from buying digital since it still feels like you rent not own in most cases due to the portability that still is lacking with the major avenues. It sounds like Image and Dark Horse are taking steps to allow for true free reading of the comic once you buy it.
And Jimmie loved issue six and seven is in my to read pile. I know you don’t travel too far for conventions but would love to see you come out to something like the MSU Comics Forum next year as a speaker.
I really like Five Weapons. Enjoyable to read a series with a main character who uses cleverness as opposed to the usual brainless brawls you see in so many others. I think it’d make a great animated series too.