Monday night we had a  presentation and signing at FNAC, a major bookstore, music, DVD chain. The room is full, with people standing at the back and on the floor around the sides.

On the left is popular Spanish cartoonist Mauro Entrialgo . His cartoons regularly run in the humor magazine El Jueves , and he has a bestselling book called How to be a Son of a Bitch.  I thought he had come to do a signing with me, but all he wanted to do was tell the Spanish crowd how much he liked BONE.  He said that compared to the standard 44 page albums that Europe is known for,  BONE was a revelation. A long form work with enough room to explore characters and story.  I hope I have that right, because it is very nice, and it would be embarrassing if I had my translation was wrong.

The highlight of two days in Madrid had to be seeing BONE racked with all the other new fiction bestsellers.  

I was suspicious that FNAC had put BONE on the fiction wall just for my visit, but they assured me it was the second best selling book in the store. Not of graphic novels, but of all books! Even Lauriano was surprised.

The next day, we had a signing in a different downtown bookstore called Casa del Libro. Once again we found BONE racked with the new bestselling fiction books.

Later that afternoon, I went to the final signing of the visit at Madrid Comics, where the que wound its way up the stairs. 

The people of Madrid are friendly, enthusiastic, and they love comics. We've done enough publicity to last for weeks, so everything's looking pretty good for our Spanish launch.  Right. Off to Barcelona… 

In downtown Madrid, I meet my spanish publisher Laureano Dominguez from Astiberri.

Let me start off by saying that Spain is off the hook. The amount of national radio, TV and newspaper interviews I do is unbelievable. 

Twice, while riding somewhere in a cab, Lauriano receives a last minute request from a major newspaper and he hands me his cel phone so I can answer five minutes worth of questions. The main thing most journalists asked me: Why comics, why now? (A question I assume to be some kind of reference to both the universal invasion of Manga and the hype in Spain around the BONE release) They also want me to explain how I have created the most successful comic book in the world.  I assured them that I wouldn’t know, but it was nice being asked!

Here is the Spanish book surrounded by promotional material and reviews. 

The Astiberri editions are beautiful; Laureano's designer has put a snow white cover underneath the dust jacket that really works. Tonight we start a marathon series of signings with an appearance at the large downtown chain store FNAC. We hope there's a good turn out…

Dinner Saturday night before the Babel Festival is an adana kebab. It’s an incredibly tender mixture of lamb and beef.  And it comes with a roasted chilli pepper.

We know the festival will be unbelievably crowded so we arrive around 9 and start right in. The rock music playing outside is thumping out a good groove and I can feel the bass in the seat of my chair.

The que is pretty long. Everyone is enthusiastic, and the bad signing on Friday is becoming a memory. Our supply of books is dwindling. We sign until the festival closes at Midnight. Exhausted, we go straight home after the show.

The next morning I am in a cab going to meet Chuck Sperry, the rock poster artist I met at the official dinner on Thursday. We’re going to explore some of the ruins around the city.  On the way, I have a surreal moment driving through the twisting streets of Athens while listening to Hank Williams Sr. 

Chuck and I start in the marketplace and head up.

We aren’t going to the Acropolis today; we’re heading up one of the hills opposite – - we’re going to the Hill of The Muses.

On the way we find the old democratic assembly, the birthplace of democracy.  The Wikipedia says: "The word democracy was coined in ancient Greece. The Athenian democracy is today considered to have been a form of direct democracy. In theory, all the Athenian citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state."  The podium where they could in theory speak was right where I’m standing. The Greeks used to vote by putting a mark on a tiny bit of tile.  I think this piece I found might be a hanging chad.

This was a sobering sight; the prison of Socrates. Socrates was imprisoned and forced to drink poison for corupting the youth (teaching them things the government dissagreed with) and being an atheist.  From the birthplace of democracy to the site of its first setback.  

At last we reach our goal: the original alter to the Muses. In the chamber on the right, you can see the thick smoke stains of sacrificial fires.  We both make an offering to our personal Muses.

We lose track of time and have to make our way directly to the Teknopolis where the final night of The Babel Festival is already underway. 

We stop at the bar and have a drink with Lefteris, who reports that sales of the book at the fair and around Greece are far greater than he expected. I walk Chuck to his exhibit area where he finds people are waiting for him.  Then I head over to my area.

The Sunday night crowd is delightful. The beauty of The Babel Fest sinks in…it's a bunch of young, friendly people, pleasantly buzzed, wandering around listening to music and reading comics. Like you can ask for anything better than that. All in all, I had a great time here, and it looks like BONE is in good hands in Greece.  Thanks Lida, and Lefteris. You must be as exhausted as I am. Tomorrow morning I fly to Madrid…

 Fifteen minutes into my signing at a big downtown bookstore at noon on Friday I knew we had a Spinal Tap on our hands.  The store is empty and stays that way until an older woman asks me to help her find a book on philosophy. A strange feeling of embarrassment washed over all of us. That’s when I knew. I thought it would be a good idea to set the timer on my camera and take a picture for the blog. 

I'm not sure Lefteris understood why I would want to take a picture of such a horrible moment – - he's really gritting his teeth here. Everyone feels bad. I feel bad because I wasn’t able to attract any customers, Lefteris feels bad  for putting me in this position, and the young woman from the bookstore apologizes a thousand times, which makes everyone feel just terrible.  The manager however is dismissive and rude. Turns out he arranged this signing just three days earlier and wouldn’t listen to Lida’s suggestions that the signing be after work or at a more favorable time.  We're not clear if he told anybody about the signing. It doesn’t really matter now, though, so we pack up and leave early.

We go to a little café to meet a journalist named Kostas from the country’s biggest music magazine Pop & Rock. Pop & Rock is planning to make a Bone soundtrack CD and shrink wrap it to the front of the magazine. The soundtrack will be made up of tracks from popular albums that Kostas and the editor have personally picked out while reading the comic. He is meeting us today to interview me for the issue. This is some pretty big exposure (and one of Lida's ideas, of course!).

I order the pork with sides of salad, hummus, and sardines with olives. It’s crazy good.

After lunch, Lida and I, along with her friend Kostas, a Greek artist from the exhibit, walk up the long sloping road to the Acropolis.

It’s a beautiful day and we wander around the antiquities talking about comics.

Not a bad way to spend a day. Back at the festival that night, the crowds are growing strong and generous.

The signings are slammed. I don't get a break for two hours. Leferis tells me they have sold hundreds of books, and the book stalls want more to make it through the weekend.  We’re back on top!

We all go out to celebrate with lamb chops.

This is Lefteris’ son Stavros. He wanted to stay up late with us. He and Kostas draw pictures together. Stavros presents me with this drawing he made of The Hooded One leaning in the window asking Phoney Bone for his soul.  Pretty cool. 

With our bellies full, and a sleeping Stavros in the back seat, Lefteris heads his car out onto the sea side road to drop me off at my hotel. It turned out to be a better day than it started out. Maybe the best news of all is that the airline found my luggage and delivered it while I was out.

It is dark when I land in Athens – - sometime after midnight – - and yet my publisher Lefteris Staurianos (Jemma Comics ), Lida Tsene, and their friend Kostas (who took this picture) are at the airport to meet me. Olympic Airlines has lost my luggage, but I'm too tired to care. Lida and Lefteris offer to take me shopping tomorrow to buy some new clothes. We have a drink and they drop me off at my hotel where I collapse into deep sleep.

The next morning I woke up to this view from my hotel. Not bad!

Lefteris and Lida pick me up around noon and take me downtown to buy a new shirt before the festival tonight. Lida is the head of Comicdom, a very well organized group of fans, artists and academics. This is the second trip to Greece she has arranged for me. We are about to bite into one of the best gyros I’ve ever had. The pita is toasty and the lamb is hot, crisp, and juicy. 

Lida hands me an impressive packet of press clippings from the past couple of days that she and Lefteris have put together. There are a dozen(!) articles in newspapers large and small, and some feature articles in the free weekend papers. Jemma’s edition of BONE is making a big splash here.

The book looks beautiful. The amount of news coverage is surprising and a bit of a relief. We are all a little nervous. BONE has never been translated into Greek before, so we still don’t know how the public is going to react to it.

Around seven that night we head off to the Babel Festival at the Teknopilis, a converted old factory yard complete with brightly lit smokestacks and out buildings. This plaza will be swarming with people listening to rock music and wandering around looking at comics in about two hours.

I check out the BONE exhibit. This is only the second time I have allowed a collection of original pages this large go out on loan. Too many things can go wrong – -  I decide not to think about it. I wander around to see the other exhibits. Some of them are really good.

These pieces by Oscar Chichoni were one of the highlights.

The wild colors of San Francisco rock poster artist Chuck Sperry are eyecatching.

While I was making some purchases in the small press area I ran into Vasili Lolos . Vasilis has worked with Becky Cloonan, and was in the anthology FLIGHT. He is also the artist for the much talked about new book Pirates of Coney Island from Image Comics. Sorry about the red eye, Vasilis (Somehow I don't think he would mind).

Around nine o'clock, I sit down to start signing.

It was a very nice crowd and sales of the new book are much stronger than we’d hoped.

The reaction to BONE is positive and sales at the book stalls are brisk as well. 

After a two hour signing, we cross the now jammed festival yard to join the organizers for dinner. I tried to take a picture of the band on stage, and the crowds around the central smokestack, but these blown out shots were all I could mange.

Chuck Sperry sat across from me at the festival organizers' dinner, and we chatted about home. Tired and happy, Lefteris and I are pleased with our good debut and clink glasses to our success.

If only we knew what was waiting for us at the big downtown store signing the next morning…