David Peterson was signing copies of his Mouse Guard hardbacks—and giving away the floppies for free, as promotional attractions. The Mouse Guard anthology series launches in May, with single issues out each month through August, followed by a hardcover colection.

Josh Howard sat back during a momentary lull at his booth, where he was busy selling and signing copies of Dead@17.

Jamie S. Rich was looking sharp at the Oni booth, where he was signing copies of his newest graphic novel, Spell Checkers, the story of three very wicked teen witches.

Dave Roman and Raina Telemeier have embarked on a nationwide tour of sorts; they are hanging around Chicago long enough to do a signing at Challengers Comics, and then in Chicago, and then it's off to the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon. Raina's Smile is proving popular with critics, and she said it has done particularly well at Scholastic Book Fairs. Meanwhile, Dave's Avatar: The Last Airbender prequel is due out any minute (he shared writing credit with Alison Wilgus), and he just turned in the final draft of his graphic novel Astronaut Elementary to First Second, so the couple has plenty to smile about.

I didn't get to talk to Art Baltazar, as he was too busy doing drawings and being interviewed. His was one of several booths in the Artists Alley that had long lines on Saturday—I couldn't get close to Jill Thompson's, either.

So, I travel a thousand miles and end up talking to two guys who live ten minutes from my home. Adam and Chris Hebert had a table at the Haven Distributors to plug their comics Lazerman and Vindication, and they claim to be working on an all-ages zombie comic, which seems like a solution without a problem... but we'll see.