The highlight of the weekend for me was really getting to meet all kinds of people whom I talk to on the phone every day for the first time! That was kind of amazing. I finally met Hilary Price, whom I have been working with on stuff for a year and a half now, and I was sitting next to her when she won her award for best comic panel! And I met dozens of other people who were all totally awesome (I am not listing out lots of folks for fear I might forget people) and had an amazing time. (By the way, King Features cartoonists swept Best Comic Panel, Best Comic Strip [Zits], and Cartoonist of the Year)

My friends Shaenon and Andrew came in from California and I got to see them for the first time in two years, and then they spent the week with me, which was pretty great!

Friday was a cocktail party which was mostly full of introductions and cookies! Then Saturday, Brendan, Rina, Alex, Alex’s boyfriend Duncan, Terri and I went into the city, had a nice walk around and went out for really amazing pizza.

Then we went back to the hotel, got all dolled up and went to the Reubens, which started off with an hilarious Godfather parody starring lots of famous cartoonists, and ended with drinks at the hotel bar and then the afterparty, where I mixed drinks and stayed up till a very embarrassingly late time of night, mostly hanging out with Jay and his girlfriend Kate, who were both super awesome.

Then Sunday, Rina, Brendan, Jay, Kate and I went for a nice walk along the Hudson, and went back in time for Rina to participate on the Six Chix panel. And then we went home!

All in all, it was a really cool weekend and I got to dress up and meet all kinds of awesome people and spend time with awesome friends!

More pics after the cut!

Beetle Bailey is going to be 60 years old on September 4 of this year! Because of this, Beetle’s Website got a nice little facelift, courtesy yours truly.

There is also a contest running on the site where you can win an original Beetle Bailey strip, and a poll where you can pick the Beetle strips that will run in the two weeks while Mort Walker is on vacation. You should all go check it out!

Tomorrow is the “official” launch of “Velia, Dear,” Rina’s new webcomic. But the site is up today! And you can look around, there are preview comics up!
Her portfolio site, RinaPiccolo.com, is up TODAY.

Go look! Her art is adorable and funny and the websites are not too bad, either, if I do say so myself! You should all read it!

I am especially pleased by all the nice comments! Eeeeeeee.

Also, I have an item up for bidding in Help Haiti, a Haiti relief auction being run by Heidi.

You can bid on a hat made by me here: Clickie. Starting price is $15 and there are no bids yet.

Also, whoever bought my hat from the last auction, I totally have it finished and keep forgetting to mail it! This made me remember and I will try to mail it tomorrow

Dustin is about Dustin Kudlick, a 23-year-old college graduate who moves home after college when he can’t find a job. His parents are both ultra-overachievers: his dad is a powerful attorney and his mom is a popular radio personality. His kid sister, Megan, is a supergenius who wants to go to Harvard. Simone, the head of Dustin’s temp agency is a businesswoman who built her company singlehandedly from the ground up. Dustin is surrounded by people who are ambitious go-getters, but he sort of likes sitting at home watching cartoons in between attempts to launch totally unrealistic careers.

We just got it up online as well so you can read the first three strips here:

And that means Popeye totally got a Google call-out:

Sweet, huh?

In other news, I upgraded the King Features Cafepress Stores just in time for the holidays! Not to turn this into a sales pitch, but there are tee shirts and mugs and tote bags and all kinds of stuff from twenty of our comics. There are still a few glitches with the pages but I am going to be talking to CafePress today to get them ironed out. The buying stuff part works!

I have more exciting work stuff that will be coming up soon!

Mallard Fillmore doesn’t exactly align with my personal politics, but I have a great deal of admiration for Bruce, so I was really pleased to get to work on this site. He’s always been up there on my list of “people I disagree with who still make me laugh,” since long before I worked at King. I am so stoked to have gotten to do this! Congratulations on fifteen years, Bruce!