TSDF Signing and Wrap Up

[Me, Camargo, and Sinderson]

This past Wednesday, July 20th in Manhattan, Jim Hanley’s Universe hosted the signing for the Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies with a huge crew of contributors in attendance. It was a great turnout considering it was on the eve of the San Diego Comic-Con, it was smack dab in the middle of the summer, and Chris Ware was speaking somewhere across town. There was no danger of overlapping demographics there, but it was great to see people showing up to get their books signed under such particular conditions.

I envisioned an overcrowded table lined up by the Manga section of the store. Since the store’s renovation and the fact that it was a huge group or creators, the signing was held in the downstairs section usually reserved for Magic and stand-up comedy. It sorta reminded me of what old school conventions must’ve been like: no frills, no bullshittin’, just a direct meat & potatoes transaction going on here. Again, it was wonderful to see many of our fine friends, some new faces, and some true blue Savage Dragon readers! Here we are in order of seating (Pedro, by the way, violently refused to sit down for more than 2 minutes a t a time).

Most of these pictures came from Charles D. Chenet, some were from TSDF contributor Hyeondo Park (strategically absent from any pictures). Thank you, sirs. Many thanks for JHU staffers Aimee and Jeff for running a tight ship. And it was great seeing, although too briefly, JHU staples Nick Purpura, Julie Loo, and Mark Butcher. Big ups to Vito for helping facilitate this event and of course, to all of the contributors who came out to sign and sketch their hearts out. It was fun having you all in one spot, and I can only wish that the rest of the gang was here.

I cannot fail to mention how appreciative I am of Jonathan Chan’s help. He is the Image production guru who helped me out of several pinches and has shown high levels of patience in dealing with neurotic obsessives (me). He also helped design the TSDF book. He deserves a round of applause. Thank you, Jonathan.

This ends the long journey of amassing and editing this book. What I’ve learned in the process is quite a lot, but it’s unimportant compared to the fact that these hardworking cartoonists participated by taking valuable time from their regular jobs and projects and lives and added their unique talents to this anthology. I can’t begin to show my gratitude for that one.