"Why Weren't You There?"

A good question. Phil: it was a good stupid question. "You've been pushing the Small Press and self publishing over 30 years and you weren't at Comica Comiket?"

Firstly, until last Tuesday I had not even been told or heard that there was a "Comica Comiket" -I thought Comiket was a Japanese event.  It is but this London event is obviously not in London. I'm quick.

People self-promote themselves and their events and though I might have tried a table at the event I found out too late.  It's not a law that people have to tell me about these things even if they are acquaintances.  It would be nice but they don't.

I mean, I am the 'most difficult' person in comics to contact...if you are deaf, dumb, blind and have never even bothered trying!

So, Phil, that is why I was not at Comica Comiket and I do apologise if my not being there was deeply distressing to you but I'm sure you'll survive.

You can probably guess there was more to his email than this but he did seem to be very pushy on this one thing.

On happier news I will be getting back to more art work this coming week. My A3 Mustek scanner caused me problems in that it refused to scan A3 art and was not even registering on the computer.  All the wires were in and I had to face the prospect of having to buy another ridiculously expensive A3 scanner since I have over 400 A3 sized pages that have to be scanned.

Anyway, I was working on some war games terrain and a brush dropped behind the computer.  Move wires.  Move junk. There's the brush.  And....what's this??

The Mustek scanner had not been plugged in.

I know. Can you even imagine the number of swear words that came out of my mouth?

See, I unplugged the scanner a couple weeks back when I moved stuff about.  It turns out I had the A4 scanner plugged in -but unconnected to the computer hence there was nothing to tip me off to the fact I screwed up.

"Oh, you silly sausage, Terry!" I said.

So, this week I can get back to finishing the strips that need doing before The Green Skies has to be completed and once it is all out of the way I will heave the biggest sigh of relief ever. The last year has been awful to the extreme but at least I can see an end to my last mega project.

And WELCOME BACK to CBOs Chinese visitors!