RAT BASTARD

Okay, so we’ve been to MoCCA Fest, Asbury Comic Con and Wizard Philly — all completely different.

MoCCA Fest 2012 came and went so fast I never got a chance to take any pictures. Judie snapped this one of comics ace report Heidi MacDonald of The Comics Beat, a plump, long-haired version of me, and the always entertaining Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man and The New Yorker Magazine fame. It was long couple of weeks, doing Boston Con, working on the MoCCAFEST.org site up until the last few days (I’m a volunteer), and then jamming everything into the car again and heading in NYC for the weekend. We had a great dinner with Rick Parker and Jim Salicrup (sorry, no pictures while we’re eating), and that’s all I can remember. All a blur. So when Heidi invited us to join Fred Van Lente, Ben McCool, Brian Heater, Torsten Adair, and old pal Shannon Wheeler, I was ready to kick back for an after the con pint. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much and so hard. Shannon does that too me. What a great way to end a con.

Then on May 12, Rob Bruce and I threw our own con — Asbury Park Comic Con. It was probably one of the oddest venues for a con: the rock club The Asbury Lanes, which is actually a bowling alley built in 1963 and looks like a time machine.
We had special guest Evan Dorkin (pictured above), Sarah Dyer, Jamal Igle, Steve Mannion, Danny Hellman, Fred Van Lente, Ryan Dunlavey, Charles Soule, the pictures are on a disk somewhere — thanks Dad for taking those shots.

Here’s a few by Dan Mozgai: Good shot off exhibitors and fans having a great time at the first Asbury Park Comic Convention.

And just as the con was beginning, the venue, The Asbury Lanes was getting a facelift after hurricane winds at the beach mangled the iconic sign.