This was a big show – - bigger than I was expecting, anyway. The Javits Center is an emormous convention hall, two or three cold, windy blocks from Mid-town Manhattan where many of the show’s guests were put up. This is from inside the atrium.

Directly across the street from the center was a cart that made great $2 dollar dogs – - which more than made up for the cold walk – -at least for me. The bun was fresh and a little toasty, the grilled onions were delicious. If you’ve read Shazam! MSoE #1, you can guess that I love hot dogs from a cart (I prefer the onions in the spicy red sauce, but these were a good substitute).

This is what our booth looked like all clean as we set up for the show.  It was the last time we saw it like that!

Tom Sniegoski, who wrote Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails with me, happened by just in time to sign some copies! 

I had a couple of signings on Friday, the first at my own Cartoon Books booth, and a second one that evening at the DC booth.

Both signings were crowded, and I think everyone at DC was surprised by the amount of kids that showed up. This last kid was DC Senior VP and Executive Editor, Dan Didio.

I also had a Spotlight panel Friday afternoon where I read from ten pages of MSoE#2 seen for the first time in public, and when I turned to the page where Mr. Mind makes his big entrance, everyone gasped, and the kids in the audience shouted out “Holy Moley!” A brief description of the panel can be read if you can link to Arthur Trebbel's report for Comicmix.com.

The floor was only open to the public for 4 hours, and I've already signed hundreds of books! 

We ended the evening by having dinner with our editor from Scholastic, Mr. David Saylor, seen here having a martini with Vijaya. A good time was had by all. 

And incase you haven’t figured it out yet, Shazam! MSoE#2 does not ship today – - but rather on March 7th.  Apparently both dates were published, but the real one is the 7th. Apologies for the confusion.

A couple of weeks ago, Vijaya and i attended The International Festival de la Bande Dessinee in the medieval walled city of Angouleme, France. 

Vijaya and I only flew in for a day, but man, what a day! Dinner with our publisher Guy Delcourt included Jessica Able, Matt Madden, Aaron Reneir and Joann Safar, seen here while he was drawing pictures of me during the meal. 

Mr. Sfar is the artist of the Dungeon books written by Lewis Trondheim, one the most popular series in France. And one of my favorites, as well!

Me and the Artbabe, herself, Jessica Able.

As we wander out into the cool night air, Aaron Reneir is fascinated with his first visit to the winding backstreets of Angouleme’s city center. Aaron won critical acclaim last year with his first book, Spiral Bound.

Later in the Mecure bar, we ran into Lewis Trondheim and shortly after that,Craig Thompson, the cartoonist of Blankets and Good-bye, Chunky Rice.

Lewis Trondheim, in the middle here between Aaron and I, is a brilliant cartoonist whose work is flat out hysterical. He is one of the founders of L’Association, a publishing house as famous for its brilliant personal work as it is for breaking rules. Lewis also won last year’s Grand Prix, the highest comics award in France, which makes him this year’s President of the Festival…

 …a very prestigious and dignified honor.

Guy Delcourt, my publisher, and Matt Madden, who did A Fine Mess for Alternative Comics.

Jessica, Vijaya and Craig Thompson.

The next day was filled with media interviews, and  I had a really fun signing at the Delcourt booth with Charles Burns that lasted for almost three hours.

Charles’ new French edition of Black Hole won a top prize at the show. Afterward I went to the Cartoon Museum in the city center to see the Jim Woodring exhibit – - which was amazing! Jim’s work is beautiful, terrifying, and pulled from somewhere deep inside. Seeing the originals was inspiring.

While walking around the Woodring exhibit, I ran into Jason, the cartoonist of Hey, Wait… When I saw this photo of us I thought, man, we look like our drawings! 

Outside the museum, many of my heroes have left their marks in cement. Seeing Will Eisner’s handprint was the perfect ending to our visit. Vijaya and I then reluctantly hailed a car to the airport. All in all it was a memorable 24 hours at one of the most unusual festivals in the world.

Tomorrow, it’s back to Shazam! MSoE#2 ships February 28!  I have more web links, including a crazy on-line interview with some Canadians, and Entertainment Weekly’s Five Reasons to Live.

The World Tour continues this weekend Feb 23 – 25 at the 2nd Annual New York Comic-Con – - see you there.

Just a quick post about Fantagraphics announcement that they are going to publish The Complete Pogo. I am working with Fantagraphics and Carolyn Kelly to design a series that is worthy of Walt Kelly. You can read the full press release at The Beat.

I used to collect Pogo books when i was a kid, and I had dreams about going into old dusty bookshops and finding this exact thing:  complete collections of the daily and Sunday comic strips. I'm pretty jazzed about this project. The image above is not the final cover, but one I had to pull together quickly once the contracts were signed and a press release was going out.

Man, we have a lot of snow and ice here in Columbus, O! It was minus-one degree when I took this picture. And I’ve got a lot of blogging to catch up on, but between finishing MSoE #4, doing interviews,  and getting ready to ship our booth out to the New York Comic-con, I’m way behind.  Here are this week's Shazam web links:

This photo appeared earlier in the week on CBR’s blog. It is Brooklyn teacher Joe Rice’s students holding up their Shazam comics. The blog is full of great pictures of the kids reading. If this doesn’t warm your heart, you’re a member of the Monster Society for sure! Check it out.

An interview at Broken Frontier. This is the interview that I took the picture for of a Golden Age Captain Marvel comic folded up in my pocket.

New York Magazine put out their Approval Matrix for this week. Somehow, the release of Shazam! MSoE #1 ranked as an event on their cultural calendar. It was brought to my attention by Melissa Bloomfield, who lives in NYC and works at Scholastic. She describes the feature this way: “New York Magazine is a weekly magazine and “The Approval Matrix” is a regular feature which is a snarky analysis of the week’s events. They call it ‘our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies’.”

My favorite mention on the Matrix was “Hot for Grandpa!” referring to the announcement that David Lee Roth would be touring with Van Halen this summer. Click here to see the whole Approval Matrix!

Thanks, everyone for all the kind words and support for MSoE #1.

The second issue, Shazam! Monster Society of Evil #2 will be coming out February 28, which is only two weeks away!

Shazam! MSoE #1 went on sale this week. Hope you were able to brave the weather and get a copy.

Here are some SHAZAM! MSoE links on the web:

Wizard Universe has an interview and some full page shots from MSoE #2! Including Mary flying for the first time.

TwoMorrows has a new podcast. Host Christopher Irving interviewed me about MSoE. We talk about Billy’s age & the Trials of Shazam, among other things.

I wanted the inside covers to look a little like those old movie serial posters where the inset images get replaced with each new chapter. And like the original Monster Society comic book serial from the Golden Age, the new chapter titles are written in secret code. You can decode them by going here, to DC Comics and using their Secret Decoder. Rm gsv ozhg hvmgvmxv lu gsrh yolt blf droo urmw kvirlw. Xorxp lm rg zmw dzrg uli z Nlmhgvi Vtt gl wldmolzw!

This is the rough layout I sent to DC’s art director Louis Prandi.  Louis did a great job putting the whole package together!.