Inspiration from Old Friends

"This town's not big enough for both of us,"I thought when I saw that the circus was pulling out of town on my return home to NJ/NY.

I'd been at Wondercon, a smaller-but-significant comic book convention that occurred this year in Anaheim. I'd been a little anxious about going—I'm on the periphery of the comics biz these days—but while it wasn't my heyday in San Diego or London's UKCAC, I really did have a wonderful time.

I ran into a bunch of people I hadn't seen in years, sometimes just walking through the hotel, other times in line at the registration booth or even on my flight home.

Comic books are tricky business these days. They're suffering growing pains as companies try to sort out the next wave in digital publishing and how to take advantage of new mediums, and there are contractions as sales of paper products go sideways or a little down. But of course there is so much opportunity in this new wild west frontier. Who knows what comes next?

I sat with Steve and David at dinner on the first night and we talked. No, we brainstormed. And then, by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around and David was driving me back to LAX, I knew what to do.

I have to try my hand at the digital end of things. I have a story—MariesWorldTour.com 2011. Now all I have to do is make something out of it.

I must've been feeling pretty confident when I got off the plane in the morning and saw that I chased out the circus.

Today, I'm less confident, but I still can't wait to try to create something new. Thanks to Steve and David for setting me straight. I'd been waffling and uncertain since I returned home from my ten months abroad.

Now I'm going about getting grounded.