On the last day of SPX 2007, after a year of traveling back and forth to Europe and  around North America, I ended my world tour crammed in a tiny room filled with happy, young cartoonists dancing, sweating, and singing at the top of their lungs. It was a cathartic release, and I joined in with gusto. For an excellent overview of the show and the karaoke night (complete with links to Youtube), visit Liz Baillie's site.

The Marriott exhibit hall opened for business at 2pm on Friday. Turn out was good. The room hummed for two days straight with people shopping for small press comic books, and from what I could gather, many were purchased. 

Among the indie cartoonists was Xeric winner GB Tran.  

Jim Ottaviani & Carla Speed McNeil.  

Gilbert Hernandez.  

Liz Baillie.  

My basic duties as a guest of the show were to do a couple of signings at the CBLDF table, and a Spotlight Panel.  You can read about the Spotlight Panel on these blogs: Comics Alliance and USA Today Techspace.

Aaron Renier with a copy of MOOMIN no. 2 from Drawn & Quarterly tucked under his arm.

Highlight of the show #1: James Kochalka breaks into song within three minutes of us walking into a small private party together. Larry Marder, Chris Pitzer and Greg from the CBLDF listen. It was a great song about James' neighbors, one of which is a murderer and the other is a meth dealer. Or something like that. Only at SPX, people.

Speaking of James, I ran across a great SPX photo blog that is perfect! (thanks to Tom Spurgeon) 

Next morning, Steve Hamaker was back at his booth hawking Fish 'n' Chips and his webcomic Still Dead. 

On the left is Lola Akinmade with her Office Supplies comics, and John Hankiewicz whose book Asthma was nominated for an Ignatz Award. 

Matt "Obi-Wan" Wagner.

Chris Pitzer at the AdHouse Books booth. 

After my spotlight panel,which was moderated by The Beat's Heidi MacDonald, we posed for pictures with one of the show's other guests, Rutu Modan. I met Rutu not long ago when we were both guests at The Vinetas desde O Atantico festival in A Coruna, Spain.

Raina Telgemeier.

Here I am with two young turks ready to conquer the world. This is Andrew Greenstone and Alex Bullett (and Dan Morris snapped the photo). This picture was taken just moments before Aaron Renier convinced me that karaoke would be fun and I should go. I can't believe I went - - and I can't believe how MUCH fun it was!

Folks started gathering in the Marriott parking lot, and I climbed in a car with five other people and we headed off in search of a karaoke bar. This drawing was done by Joe Quinones. That's Joe and his wife in the front seat,  Alec Longstreth, Liz Prince, me, and Aaron Renier in the back.

This wasn't what I pictured, which would be one person singing in front of everybody else - - instead it was 50 people singing! All crammed in a little room, while one person held the mike. And all fifty of us sang at the top of our lungs!  What a blast! I was exhausted by the end of the evening.

Alec Longstreth tearing up the karaoke machine.  

Liz Baillie. 

Alec again, and just in front of him (to the right) is Liz Prince.

Douglas Wolk, the comics critic and author of Reading Comics, blew the top off the place with his spot-on rendition of Prince's Kiss.

And highlight #2:  Meeting Christopher Smith (no relation). Christopher visited me in line on Friday, and came back on Satuday to give me this drawing. 

Well, since I began the tour back in October of last year, I've visited 11 countries (Spain & France twice!) simultaneously launched the new colorized version of BONE in 15 launguages, eaten the best meals of my life, finished the 4 issue mini-series SHAZAM! The Monster Society of Evil (the deluxe hard cover comes out TODAY! ), debuted a 6 page preview of RASL, and had a crazy good time.  

Many thanks to all the publishers and festivals that hosted me, and special thanks to Kathleen Glosan who spent a year setting everything up, then another year holding it all together.

If you'd like to retrace the World Tour, you can click here.  

Finally sorted out the technical difficulties that have slowed done my blogging.  Sorry about that…back to Spain! The Vinetas desde O Atantico Festival kicked into high gear on the weekend. There are many outdoor exhibits and booths. Waiting to greet me on the mall was my old pal Tintin.

When I arrive at my signing there is a good crowd waiting.

In this picture you can see the young woman standing next to me behind the table. That's Elena, one of the translators who helped me tremendously at both of my signings not only with speaking to people, but name spelling and even crowd control. Thanks, Elena! 

This guy brought all the old b & w Cartoon Books volumes. I used to see that all the time, but it's rare now with the color versions and  One Volume edition.

Afterward, I sat down for a little interview with Alvaro Pons, who I met on my earlier swing through Spain. Alvaro runs the most read comics blog website in Spain, La Carcel de Papel.

Vijaya and I met Mark Buckingham and his wife Irma in the lobby. Mark, of course, is the artist of Hellblazer and Fables, and he lives nearby here in Spain. 

We had dinner with the Mayor, and it was a big deal, with people buzzing around and having us go here and there, getting our pictures taken. The Mayor,with the blue tie, gave a nice speech about the tenth anniversary of the festival. He was especially immpressed that Yoshihiro Tatsumi was there - -a contingent from Japan. Even the Mayor of A Coruna has heard of manga! 

Our host, Miguelanxo Prado, head of the Festival responded with his own remarks. After which, the food was served!

At diner I sat next to Carlos Portela, co-organizer of the festival. He has also written several comics, the newest one is called A Contra Atras with artist Sergi San Julian.

The next morning's paper had a two page spread dedicated to the show.  

And of course we had seafood and tapas galore. This dish was a highlight: navajas, or knife clams straight out of the sea, served with butter and garlic. I've traveled quite a bit, and you can believe me when I say the seafood here is as fresh as any I've ever had. 

However, this is the dish that I couldn't get enough of. Fried peppers covered in sea salt.  Unbelievable. Juicy, hot and spicy. I ordered this appetizer at every possible opportunity.

On my way in to my official panel, Laureano and I stop to stand with Torpedo, the character originated by by Alex Toth. 

The panel was a lively question & answer session, and the crowd asked great questions. My old friend Diego (in the orange shirt, and also in a better photo here.) was doing the translating, and he did an amazing job.  I would forget to keep my answers clipped, but he didn't miss a beat, even waving his arms and doing funny voices whenever I did.  I first met Diego about seven years ago when I was a guest of another comics festival in Spain. Muchas gracias, mi amigo! 

I can't reccomend this festival enough. If you are a comics professional and you enjoy travel, other cultures, good food, wine & company - - and  an appreciative public - - this is one of the best. If  Vinetas desde O Atantico invites you over, do it. I'm sure Tim Sale, Mark Buckingham, Jean-Louis Tripp, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi and all the other guests would tell you the same.

Well, I can't believe it, but my year long world tour comes to an end next month at The Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. The schedule for the event has been posted by Heidi MacDonald over on The Beat. Heidi herself will be moderating my spotlight panel - - I'm really looking forward to that. It'll be fun to get back to my old stomping grounds, especially now that I'm working on RASL, my first indie book in three years. Hope to see you there.

Last month I spent a week in the seaside town of A Coruna, Spain where they celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the comics festival known as Vinetas desde O Atantico .

First thing I did upon arrival was show up for my press conference. 

After which, Vijaya and I were taken to dinner by the show's founder Miguelanxo Prado (center, next to Vijaya), whose cartoon album Trazo de Tiza was a huge crittically acclaimed hit in the mid-ninties and then again when it was published this year by Norma and NBM; Tim Sale and his wife Christina Zietsman are in front at far left and right.

The city streets were lit up as we walked back to our hotel. 

The next day, the festival bussed us to the nearby city of Santiago to visit the medieval Cathedral of Santiago de Compstela. Behind me is Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi and his wife. Yoshihiro is the guy who started alternative comics in Japan. Directly in front of me with the hat is French (but living in Montreal) cartoonist Jean-Louis Tripp and his wife Danielle. Jean-Louis and Danielle were two of the funniest and most pleasant people I've ever met. Jean-Louis' work dates back to the early issues of the original Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal).

The festival arranged to take us behind the scenes at the church. Here we are looking down on the main sanctuary from the sequestered walkway that only the monks used. 

This is Roberto, one my hosts, who I'm pretty sure was a monk in his past life. 

Then we were led through an ancient doorway out on to the roof. This is where pilgrims in the dark ages were whisked on their arrival - - pilgrims who had walked thousands of miles through all kinds of weather and rough villages; and whose clothes were tattered, bloody, smelly, and probably full of parasites.  Out here in the open air, they would ritualistically burn their clothing. Kind of makes sense that they'd bring the cartoonists out here.

But what a view. 

To get out on the roof we used the same key that they used in medieval times!

This might not be as interesting to anybody else, but I'm into things like cool, old stone blocks covered in moss… 

…or a shuttered up old merchant's stall. This is the kind of stuff I was always looking for when I was working on Bone. 

With Yoshihiro Tatsumi. He spoke very little English and no Spanish, but the festival found someone to translate just for him. Despite the fact that we couldn't communicate verbally, we had no problem understanding each other's drawings. We had a lot of fun scribbling on napkins during meals. 

Meanwhile, Vijaya spent the day on the beach. 

That night, my Spanish publisher, Laureano Dominguez of Astiberri Editions cooked dinner for a few of us over at cartoonist David Rubin's flat. Laureano's cooking is notoriously good; Craig Thompson even mentions it in a chapter of Carnet de Voyage, his 2004 travelogue book. 

David's new book is called La Teteria del oso Malayo, and he also drew the cover of Astiberri's 2007 catalog below.

Well, we've been in Spain for two days at this point and everything's been great; the weather, the beach, the food, our hosts, the team of interpreters, the company of the other guests…and the only work I've had to do for the festival so far was that press conference when I first got here! The best is yet to come…

I know it’s a little late, but here’s my photo journal of this year’s big show, starting with the Dead Dog Party on the last night where everyone gathers to celebrate and unwind. 

Here I am enjoying a stogy with Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and DC Batman editor Bob Schreck.

Pals since the early days, Larry Marder and Jim Vallentino…

…David Scroggy, Bryan Talbot, John Davis (of the late and lamented Capital Comics Distribution), and the magnificent Bob Burden of Flaming Carrot & Gumby fame.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the…BONE World Tour 2006-2007 at the San Diego Comic-Con!

Fone Bone made the rounds almost every day, visiting with people and posing for pictures. In costume form and in stuffed animal form!

The Scholastic signing was packed. The line went out the door of the convention and out into the hall.

When the Fone Bone costume bumped into the Sam & Max costume, there was a huge trafffic jam. For a couple of minutes, there was craziness completely blocking hallways in four directions.

Chatting with Publishers Weekly journalist Calvin Reed. 

Fone claps his hands and accidentally crushes a small child. 

At my Spotlight panel, I did a reading of my latest project RASL, and from the new color BONE 6: Old Man's Cave. Comic Book Resources did a feature on the panel, here.  

Tom Beland, who has a new collection coming out of his True Story, Swear to God comics. 

Jim Lee, Matt Wagner, Terry Moore and I ganged up to draw pictures for the CBLDF Sunday morning Live Art Jam.

Below you can see Jim drawing under the camera while CBDLF's Charles Brownstein eggs on the crowd.

And speaking of the CBLDF, Jake Talley had the winning bid ($3,200) in Saturday night's CBLDF Comic-Con Auction for the original art page from Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil. 

Vijaya and I had a spicy Tai lunch with Bryan Talbot, cartoonist of Alice in Sunderland and One Bad Rat.  

I was on my way to have a coffee with Kazu Kibuishi (Flight, and the upcoming Amulet ) when we ran into McCloud women Ivy & Winter with Kurt Busiek.

One of the CBLDF Live Jam winners, Gary with his pencil drawing of Fone Bone and Thorn.

I did a signing at the Dark Horse booth to promote the release of their Art of Bone coffee table book, one of the surprise hits of the show. We brought boxes of the things and were sold out on Saturday.

Sunday night Charles Vess and his wife Karen Shaffer went up to LA for the premier of Stardust , the movie based on the book that Charles co-authored with Neil Gaiman. The next day, he rented a  sailboat and took Terry & Robin Moore (Strangers in Paradise), and Vijaya & me out for a beautiful afternoon breezing around San Diego Bay. 

Left to right: Karen Shaffer,Robin Moore (down low with the sun hat), Terry Moore (at the wheel), and Charles Vess. 

Can't beat this with a stick. See you next year, San Diego. 

First cartoonist I ran into on the convention floor was Sonny Liew, one of the Flight artists, and artist of Wonderland from SLG. Sonny lives in Singapore, so running into him was a treat.

I wasn't in the hall on Preview night (my first signing was Friday morning), but it looks like RASL did very well. This might be a good year for Sci-Fi. Here is what  Publishers Weekly said:

"Two of the biggest stories of Preview Night were the announcement that Roaring Brook's First Second imprint will publish a graphic novel collection of Paul Pope's cult sci-fi series THB; and Bone creator Jeff Smith will self-publish a new series called Rasl, a stark, sci-fi series about a dimension-jumping art thief with personal problems. The series will start as a b&w periodical next year, published in an oversized edition and sold initially through comics shops before it's collected at a smaller trade book trim-size in full color. "I'm trying to mix the old comic book market with the new book market," said Smith."

A dimension-jumping art thief with personal problems. I'm going to use that!

For more RASL coverage, you can check out Heidi's blog at The Beat, read an interview I did with News-a-rama, or  ponder Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter list of Day One Observations - always worth reading!

On Thursday, I signed once at Cartoon Books booth (#2207) and then at Dark Horse.  

The stuffed Fone Bone finds some friends… 

For more signing & panel times, click here.