Enter Harry The Hotel Door

Friends,
Let me introduce you to Harry The Hotel Door, taken with a ghost camera at - not the Overlook hotel - but the Empire Landmark Hotel in Vancouver. This spooky distant cousin to Thomas The Tank Engine - which, incidentally, I vaguely drew in a lunchtime break for the young son of the owner of Red Skull in Calgary - is, of course, not a manifestation of the spirit world, or my next foray into the world of creativity, but merely an amusing trick of the light. His face is merely that of the hotel notice and fire instruction. But a comforting presence nevertheless. A stout fellow to depend on in an emergency...
Had an excellent time in Bristol, and then Canada afterwards, marred by an absence once more of Kickbacks to sell to people, due to - in Bristol - Diamond only having 8 copies in the ENTIRE COUNTRY, and - in Calgary - Red Skull not being able to get ANY from Diamond, and - in Vancouver - the Con not being able to get ANY from Diamond. The store I signed at in Victoria - Legends - managed to get lots of them and they were all sold ahead of the signing with more ordered. Yes, yes, I know - Diamond has to order stocks of books that are regularly ordered by the comic stores because there's no sense in having books in stock that the stores are not regularly ordering, and this makes me just as equally direct my dissatisfaction at all the stores throughout the UK and Canada and the US for not realising the value of keeping copies of Kickback always in their stores, putting them next to Vendetta, which is what everyone knows me from and appreciates me from, and then taking the money from the customer who will more than likely recognise it's worth and buy it - meaning they benefit, I benefit, and the customer benefits by getting a very good book to read. It's a win/win situation. But I guess I'll be still be saying this til the earth freezes over because hundreds of stores just do not see the value of that book, and/or don't see it as a graphic novel they should always have in stock as a key example of it's kind. It's that or they're still are unaware of it's existence, as many non-comic store owners are : (
Lastly, on a brighter note, the next stop on my current signing itinerary is the major festival in Erlangen in Germany - the biggest in the country - running from this Thursday, June 3rd to next Sunday, June 6th. I'll be doing my usual stuff there, and, like I always say, if you live in the area or are coming to the show, please come and say hi! I'll have lots of German-edition Kickbacks there, I'm pleased to say. For details go to www.comic-salon.de. Over 300 artists there, including my great colleagues, Howard Chaykin, Mark Buckingham, Milo Manara, Thomas Ott, Matthias Schultheiss, and many others besides.
And that's it for now : )