Two More!

Two More!

Kind of a quick update the time, as I’m between the GalaxyCon New Orleans (which was great; more on that in a moment) and the four-day GalaxyCon Raleigh on July 23-26.

I’ve had two more shows announced, likely to last two announcements for the year, but you never know. On Oct. 25, I’ll be at my local show, Albany Comic Con. Run by my buddy John Belskis, Albany Con is very much an old school, one-day comic show: no celebrities on the guest list, just creators. John always assembles a great guest list of pros, including a lot of my close friends. I don’t charge for autographs at Albany Con. Instead, I collect donations for Hero Initiative, the comic-oriented charity that aids creators in need.

I’ll also be at Grand Rapids Comic-Con on Nov. 13-15 in Michigan, my first time at the show. Grand Rapids is likely to be my appearance for the year, though as I said, always possible something else pops up.

GalaxyCon New Orleans gave me a chance to finally visit the National World War 2 Museum, which has been on my list for a while. As I’ve mentioned before, my father was a World War 2 veteran (I was a late-in-life baby for my parents), so the visit held personal meaning for me. The museum was a stellar – sobering, inspiring, beautifully put together. Accompanied by my Green Lantern co-conspirator Darryl Banks and fellow writer (and ex-journalist) Ethan Sacks, we were able to spend about four hours in the museum before we had to head to the show. Nowhere near enough time, of course, as we could have spent two days exploring everything.

My father was a tail gunner in a B-24 Liberator, stationed in the Pacific theater, both Australia and Borneo. He flew his full compliment of 25 missions, was awarded a Purple Heart, and came home to court my mother and eventually start a family. Like most of the soldiers of his generation, my father didn’t talk a great deal about his experiences. But later in life, he did tell me some of the stories. I put those tales in a short story about him and the war, illustrated by Rick Leonardi, Andy Lanning, and Ross Hughes. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of. At some point, hopefully next year, I intend to gather a bunch of the short stories I’ve written for various places and collect them in a crowdfunded hardcover.

You can read my CBR column about the story here:

https://www.cbr.com/flying-with-my-father/

New Orleans might be my favorite American city, so the rest of the trip was a joy (thanks in no small part to the GalaxyCon crew always taking exquisite care of their guests). We had great dinners every night, thanks to the guidance of my friend and New Orleans native Gavin Guidry, currently drawing a great Flash run for DC. Gavin also made Crawfish Etouffee for his friends, which might be the best thing I ate all weekend. There was also, of course, coffee and beignets at Café Dumond every morning.

As I’ve said before, life is about experiences, and I’m blessed that convention travel gives me such wonderful opportunities. But it’s always a balancing act with travel and work. I’ve got a number of projects on my plate, most of which aren’t announced yet, so I need more ass-in-chair time for the second half of the year and into 2027.