Yeah, I'm home from Florida where I spoke and signed books and met an awful lot of people at the Miami Book Fair, which was a load of fun for anyone who wanted to buy books, meet authors and hear most of those authors talk about what they'd authored. I mostly hung out with my friend and editor (two nouns that do not always go together), Charlie Kochman of Harry N. Abrams Books. We were hawking our new tome, The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio, a hefty collection of comic art produced and/or supervised by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby when they were a duo. I signed a lot of 'em as well as other things for which I've been at least partly responsible.
The trips to and fro were not wonderful. Both flights on American Airlines were utterly full and I forgot how uncomfy that can be for a gent of my size. I am one of those people who does not enjoy travel for the sake of travel. When people tell me, "Oh, you ought to visit Australia some day," I cannot envision anything that could happen there that would make up for all those hours sitting in one seat without enough leg room or lateral clearance. I'm usually lucky enough to either have an empty seat next to me or someone else paying for First Class…but not on these flights.
But it was fun to be at the Fair and especially to hang out in the Authors Lounge, which was full of interesting people to look at and maybe talk with. Charlie and I ate lunch at a table where an attractive blonde lady was seated. I recognized her, he didn't…but when she went to get more chow from the buffet, I whispered to her that was Valerie Plame. I don't know why that seemed so surreal but it did. I also spotted a man I think was Lou Dobbs. At least, he resembled Lou Dobbs and looked very uncomfortable being around so many non-white people. And we saw Tavis Smiley and Paul Williams and George Clinton and Dr. Cornel West and Jason Segal and other celebrity authors. Mostly, we were sitting and talking with other folks involved in comics: Denis Kitchen, Ben Katchor, Joan Hilty, Mark Zingarelli, Joyce Brabner and some others.
I don't have any great anecdotes, I'm afraid. It was kind of a 48 hour whirlwind of cabs, shuttles, signings, the Marriott Biscayne Bay and Miami-Dade Airport. Charlie and I went to hear Norman Lear interviewed about his autobiography. I worked on two different shows for Mr. Lear and never met him…and he had enough of a crowd after his talk that things stayed that way. We also attended a good panel that Joan Hilty ran with Denis Kitchen, Box Brown and Ed Piskor, all of whom have published excellent and true biographical works. I did find myself in a lot of conversations about Bill Cosby, none of them flattering to the man.
A lot of folks asked my about my long-awaited, long biography on Jack Kirby and the answer is that, yes, I'm now able to finish it. Just waiting for legal matters to be resolved. I don't know when but it's now on my active "to do" list…so one of these days. Maybe I'll do more book fairs to promote it. I hope they're all as well-run as that one in Miami.