Well, it's happened: the so-called preview is now as wildly packed as the show used to be on Saturday. Just getting from one spot to another on the 12-acre exhibit floor was a challenge. IDW had a mini-press conference to announce that Darwyn Cooke is in the process of adapting the first four Parker novels (huzzah!) by "Richard Stark" (aka Donald E. Westlake), and I have video of the press conference. And Heidi MacDonald commented that it seemed to be the only COMICS press conference at the show. Dang! I think she's right!

Wrap-up of the evening was a meal at the LOUD Dick's Last Resort with Christine Valada, Len Wein (who had his own con announcement; he's editor in chief of the 10-year-old comics publisher BloodFire Studios), Melinda Snodgrass, and Peter David. Our conversation would have been worthy of the Algonquin Roundtable -- IF we'd been able to hear each other. As it was, it was lively and fun to be with them.

I may (or may not) be on CNBC tomorrow discussing the economics of the comics biz. I seem to have acquired a new tagline (picked up by my boothmates), based on the interviewer's repeated remark: "That was wonderful! Now say it again -- but make it shorter!"

Now it's late. Tomorrow, I hear, is another day. Zzzzzzz.

San Diego, here I come!

And Superphone IS letting me post! Huzzah!

There's nothing quite like getting political calls when your plan was to go to bed at 4:30 p.m. so's to get up at 11 to begin packing - but I can sleep on the plane, right?

Grim preparation for the show: writing the "In Memoriam" material for Friday's Eisner Awards. I'm paying tribute to 19 people we've lost in the last year. Hey, people, how about staying alive between this year's show and next? Please?

I've spent the morning conversing here and there. So far, I've located two SF digests with my mom's stories, discussed a possible book project with Michelle Nolan, learned that pioneering fan Joe Sarno is seriously ill, bought weird Spider-Man stickers, and on and on: some moments distressing, most fun.

I've finally managed to set up my voice recorder (remember when we just used to hit "record"?) and I've videotaped Gary Colabuono about his company's Wii game, for heaven's sake. One delight of previous years' shows not so much in evidence this year: beat-up Golden Age for $3 or so. Sigh.

Last night in Chicago, Andrew Pepoy brought Mark and Stephanie Heike, artist Scott (argh! didn't catch his last name), and me to the Chicago Tap Theatre's opening performance of "The Hourglass in the Stop-Time Chronicles."

The show will be on June 28 and 29 and July 5, 6, 11-13, and 18-20 at the Athenaeum Theatre, Studio 3, 2936 N. Southport in Chicago.

Co-written by Andrew, "The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen" is a unique (and I seldom use that term) blend of comic-book-style plotline and professional tap performance. (It's also unique in that the performers look for audience input and evolve the performance in the next night's show.) The event ranged from the merely entertaining to the heart-thumpingly exciting. I'd never seen anything like it, and the show will also appear later this year at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Check it all out at www.chicagotaptheatre.com. (One "set" is even a comics shop.)

We have an informal tradition in Iola -- born out of the expertise of a number of Krause Publications editors initially -- of holding a "Whatzit Day" now and then. A bunch of editors sit at tables, and people can bring in their oddball items to get a rough appraisal of those items' possible value. It's always fun to participate, because you have an opportunity to see a variety of treasures and oddments -- and Sunday was a case in point.

For example, I'd never seen a Hopalong Cassidy lamp with comic art as part of the design. It was in perfect shape, as far as I could tell:

But the prize of the day was clearly this panorama (held by militaria expert Fred Borgmann):



Our guess is that it's worth in the thousands -- but how many thousands? Who knows? As Fred said, this is an item that requires selling via a specialty auction house. He'd never seen this item before: an engraving from a painting of Gettysburg by James Walker, complete with a guide (see the pull-out frame on the right) to the people shown in the portrayal. Thanks to the Internet (and my super-phone, since we didn't have WiFi in the building), we tracked down a few details.

The painting on which it was based was commissioned by Col. John B. Bachelder and designed as a panorama of the third day of battle. Completed in 1870, it was exhibited in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington (along with the schematic). Our guess? That the engraving was offered for sale to the public at the time of those exhibitions.