We left Frankfurt this morning by train; I love European train stations. It was a lesurely 4 hour ride to the northern port city of Hamburg.  I checked into my hotel and read e-mails.  I call Vijaya to see how things are going back home. It seems Steve and Kathleen are buying lots of toys for our dog Preston and he is going to the office everyday and getting lots of attention. I miss Cartoon Books. Vijaya will be joining me soon in Paris, but for now I can only read e-mails and talk on the phone.  Vijaya had a few tid-bits of Cartoon Books news for me:

Tony Packo's restaurant, the Toledo chilli dog place made famous by Klinger on the TV show M.A.S.H., mounted my hot dog bun on the wall. I visited a couple of months ago while talking to an art league there, and the manager asked me to sign a roll. The walls are covered with buns signed by presidents, singers and actors. Very cool, and the hot dogs are great! Spicy and covered in hot pickles. Sorry I don't have a picture of my hot dog for you, but I hadn't started my compulsive food picture taking yet.

More good news is that Telltale has launched a Mac version of the Bone downloadable games! Huzzah!! There is an eye-popping feature article up on Apple's home page that includes a link to a side article called "Bone Expands an Art Form."  Sounds interesting.

And The New York Comicon has officially announced me as one of their guests of honor. Go to their site and check it out. This show made waves last year and it is going to be big! Book your plane tickets now.

That night, the two Steffis  (Schnurer & Schrader) took me down to the Reeperbahn because they know I'm a Beatles freak. 

The highlight of the evening was finding the Star Club where the Beatles played in '62.

This a poster from the Kaiserkeller club advertising a show by "Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, with The Beatles fromEngland – Liverpool". My brother Randy, who lives in Seattle, is a Beatles-head too – - this one's for you, bro!

The next day we had an easy signing at the Hamburg Train Station.  Of note was one fan who reads the blog, and brought me two of the biggest knives I've ever seen. He'd read that I like to chop vegatables, which is true, I do, and he thought these were the best, sharpest knives on the planet. TokyoPop is shipping them home for me, since I probably shouldn't take them on the plane in my carry-on. But one set of knives is enough. This is not an attempt to get people to bring me cuttlery!

After the signing, some of the TokyoPop staff took me out for a farewell dinner. It was an Argintinian Steak House called The Arizona Steakhouse, and the restaurant's owner made us all get up and dance under his sparklers while the waiters sang and played guitars. A wonderful way to end the German leg of the tour.

This is the Third Steffi. The third Steffi shared her cigarillos with the group. All three Steffis were instramental in setting up not just the German part of the tour, but coordinating many things for the whole trip. My thanks also to Anna, Claudia, Joachim, Michael, Elke, Stefan and everyone at TokyoPop Germany, and special thanks to Steffi Schrader who shuttled me around Hamburg and sat with me while I did  my laundry, and to Christina Gossel, who along with Steffi Schnurer, took a lot of pictures I used on this site.

It was alot of fun, and I will miss them all very much.  My publishers in Greece have a lot to live up to…