Here’s a slightly belated posting of photos and memories from the insanely fun times we had at the San Diego Comic-Con this year!

Thursday night, Gene Yang (American Born Chinese) and I drove out to the Barnes and Noble in Mira Mesa for a Get Pop Cultured event.

Huge thanks to everyone who came by to see Gene and I speak, draw & perform scenes from our books!

Afterwards Gene and I dashed off to Islands Burger, one of my favorite burger places on the mainland.

Gene then dropped me off at the Scholastic Party, which is always a fun and fancy affair!

I got to catch up with a lot of friends including Kiersten White, the author of the hilarious & spooky Paranormalcy series.

On the way back to my hotel I saw the cast of Game of Thrones just hanging out! The street-level patio was protected by glass shielding, so it was like the actors were actually animals in a zoo. Especially with all of us drooling spectators stopping to gawk at Jamie Lannister and the rest of the beefcakes.

Here I am with publicists extraordinaire, Gina Gagliano, signing copies of Astronaut Academy at the First Second booth.

This awesome kid cosplaying as a TNG Starfleet officer picked up a copy of Astronaut Academy last year and was super excited to pick up volume 2.

Raina and I got to explore the exhibit floor a bit more than usual this year, and delightedly encountered some of our favorite things!

Animal Crossing!

More Animal Crossing!

Pepe the King Prawn!

Luna Lovegood!

Lone Starr & Barf from Spaceballs!

Korra, the Avatar!

The 11th Doctor & Amy Pond hanging out with Thor & Loki!

Gadget from Rescue Rangers!

Bannister!

Jack Mendelsohn, the legendary creator of Jacky’s Diary.

I finally got to attend one of the Quick Draw panels featuring Sergio Aragonés (Mad Magazine), Mark Evanier (Groo The Wanderer), Scott Shaw! (Captain Carrot), Mark Evanier, and Floyd Norman (Disney legend). I’d heard tales of how amazing this panel was, and it completely lived up to the hype. I was seriously in awe of the quick-witted brilliance of these guys. Drawing as the ultimate form of entertainment. So hilarious!

My good friend Johane Matte accompanied me to the Avatar Legacy fan panel. Even though we no longer work at Nickelodeon, we’re still the biggest enthusiasts for all things Avatar: The Last Airbender. The panel featured Jessie Flower (the voice of Toph), Josh Hamilton (one of the amazing writers from both Avatar and Legend of Korra), Gene Yang (writer of the Avatar comics), and both Sifu Kisu and Sifu Manny, (the martial arts experts on both shows!).

Had dinner with the lovely illustrator, Nidhi Chanani!

We bought so much stuff from Rhode Montijo’s booth. But sadly he was all out these “Draw While You Sleep” elixirs. Would be so useful!

We got to congratulate our good friend Faith Erin Hicks on her much-deserved Eisner Award win!

Went to see the graphic novel panel with Lucy Knisley, Jenn Wang, Faith Erin Hicks, & Gene Yang (who clearly has a time-turner necklace because he was EVERYWHERE!!) It was hosted by Lev Grossman (The Magicians).

Had breakfast with Teen Boat colorist, Wes Dzioba and his wife Heather at Buster’s Beach House. I love their Down-Island French Toast with Pog (Passion Organge Guava)!

I spoke on a panel about Heros in comics hosted by Meryle Jaffe with Frank Cammuso, Mark Tyler Nobleman, Matthew Holm, Jennifer Holm and Alexis Fajardo. We made crazy drawings at the end.

Ate delicious cornbread waffles at Cafe 222 at an ungodly early hour.

Saturday night was a KidLit meet up, which was a great way to catch with up so many wonderful people.

Chillaxin’ with Chris Duffy and Jim Higgins!

Sunday was our annual Kids Draw panel! This variation on the Comics Quickfire saw Elsa from Frozen going head to head against the 10th Doctor! Also participating in the fun were Dav Pilkey, Dan Santat, Kirk Scroggs, Jennifer Holm, & Matthew Holm!

This kid got the drawing I did for the panel.

We waited in line for over an hour for the Jack McBrayer & Triumph the Insult Comic Dog panel before we passed out from heat exhaustion & had to give up.

Check out the cool sights and sounds outside the convention center. Trembled before this giant Homer Simpson head.

One of our favorite sanctuaries in San Diego is the Seaport Village. It’s an oasis away from the hustle and crowds and zombie crawls surrounding the convention center.

Taco time…again!

It’s also an annual tradition to have dinner Sunday night with my California cousins, who fill me in on all the pop-culture craziness I missed!

At the end of Sunday night they threw us in Comics Jail for not wanting the fun to end!

Some people said it was hard to find us at the show this year. You just had to know where to look…

The kids room was a bit disconnected from the rest of the show, so we really appreciated every single person who took the time to stop by. We did get to meet a lot of great kids and families. Not to mention practice our crayon skills.

I was passed a note by dreamy comics writer, J. Torres. He’s still nervously awaiting my response.

For the Reader’s Theater panel, I chose a great volunteer to help me read a chapter from Astronaut Academy. He had the perfect maniacal laugh to be a villainous member of Team Feety Pajamas!

And it turned out he was a big fan who brought his well-worn copies of the books to get signed. The ultimate compliment!

Author Rainbow Rowell offered to staff our table while I was away at a panel. With her help we sold all 25 copies of my new Starbunny, Inc. mini-comic by the end of the first day!

An awesome fan made a lego sculpture of a Mountie riding a horse, riding a jet ski inspired by the comic John Green drew for the TCAF program booklet a few years ago.

Here’s a panel from that comic for reference.

The annual Comics Quickfire game show was possibly our most fun yet. The room was packed with cheering folks who helped us create crazy improvised comics.

Here’s an awesome video clip from the Epic Draw finale in which Frank Cammuso takes one for the team drawing his least favorite thing…SNAKES!

Got to go to some awesome parties like Comics Vs. Games at Bento Miso. We headed there with great friends George Rohac and Kazu Kibuishi to check out the 3-D art.

Over the course of the weekend we ran into old friends, made new ones, ate lots of Japanese food & Greg’s ice cream.

Some of the treasure plundered from the show. I’m sure there’s so many great books I didn’t get a chance to pick up. TCAF has the highest density of creative talent on earth!

Our last day in town, I found an awesome hot dog & polish sausage vendor on King Street! A tasty way to end our adventure & say goodbye to Toronto till next time!

For more TCAF goodness, check out Raina’s convention wrap up!

There are a bunch more photos on their facebook page.

Bolt City/Flight Comics is always the shining beacon of the convention. So many great people all in one place. Including Kazu Kibuishi, Jason Cafoe, Katie Shanahan, Becky Cloonan, Dik Pose, Johane Matte, Raina Telgemeier, & Tony Cliff.

Raina and I got to jump into Uncle Scrooge’s money bin to celebrate the new Ducktales remastered videogame.

Loved this family of cosplayers.

Always good to see the Ewoks getting some love!

John Green, Kazu Kibuishi, Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Jeff Smith & Faith Erin Hicks (hanging out after her spotlight panel).

Awesome kids drawing panel with Jennifer Holm, Jeffery Brown, Kazu Kibuishi & Matthew Holm.

I’m not actually sure if No-Face and I are friends or what. He’s kinda creepy at times.

This flute player wearing a classic Star Trek uniform at the Seaport Village sums up my love of San Diego Comic-Con.

Two years in the making… Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry, my latest full-length graphic novel, is on store shelves now!

Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry was a labor of love, and I couldn’t have made it without the support of all my friends and family! I know how lucky I am, and hope that I can continue to keep making offbeat comics for kids for years to come!

Help spread the word (and win cool stuff in the process):

Use the hashtag #AstronautAcademyDay on social media sites like twitter, google+, tumblr, & instagram. Tell people on Goodreads, Amazon, & Facebook why you think they might like the Astronaut Academy series.

You will be entered to win awesome prizes like original art, books, skype visits for schools, and more!

Contest details: http://comicsaregreat.com/aaday

Sometimes working on comics means backyard action poses with the broom!
Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry will feature a lot of Fireball competitions (the sport of the future), so I’ve been taking reference photos behind the apartment. I just wish I could build full-sized replica of the Mecha suits and fire pokers! That would help a lot!

I’ll post some more photos with comparisons to the final drawings when the book is further along!

Comic Festival in Saint-Malo from Dave & Raina on Vimeo.

Raina and I are back from our amazing trip to France! For those of you interested, check out my report about the Quai Des Bulles comic festival for The BEAT

I also played around with iMovie for the first time, assembling a short video that showcases the beautiful town of Saint-Malo, where the event was held. You can watch it at our Vimeo page

You can also check out the rest of our photos from our visit to Paris at our FLICKR page.

Not a huge surprise that we had a great time at the Small Press Expo, since it’s one of our favorite shows! It’s always great to catch up with friends, discover new cartoonists, get completely inspired, and feel good about the future.

(Speaking of the future, here we are with the amazing Megan Brennan!)

(A drawing I did in Nina Kester’s sketchbook)

Kids Read Comics is one of the best small comic shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending, and this year’s event was no exception.

The convention has moved around suburban Detroit a few times during its three-year history, and this year’s event was staged in small-town Chelsea, MI—about a twenty-minute drive from Ann Arbor.

Raina and I were invited to do a kickoff presentation at the Ann Arbor District Library on Friday night, and so we had dinner in town (charming!) before spending a couple of hours talking about comics, kids, our own histories, and why we love what we do. We also had fantastic kid volunteers from the audience to help perform scenes from our comics.

The night continued with a presentation by Kevin Coppa, a video artist who set up a green screen and did some live special effects demos, using kids from the audience and his handcrafted Avatar: The Last Puppetbender puppets.

We spent the next two days in and around Chelsea.

The whole downtown is basically overtaken by Kids Read Comics festivities: two artist alley areas (one for kids and one for teens), a bunch of panels and workshops, craft tables, a bounce house, a rock climbing wall, face painting, etc.

Everything you’d expect from a street fair to draw in the general public, and then lots of comic book content to win them over to team comics!

There was also a gallery showing of comic art at the River Gallery,

More live comics readings!

There was a cartoonists pizza party at Jet’s, and tons of drawing demos with artists stationed on the sidewalks all throughout town!

Raina and I signed books at the Green Brain Comics table next to registration. Dan and Katie Merritt, who run Green Brain, are longtime friends of ours and are always great to spend time with.

The other organizers and show runners are just as delightful: comics writer Dan Mishkin; local librarian Edith Burney; and comic artist-teacher-podcaster-advocate extraordinaire, Jerzy Drozd. Each year I feel we get to know each of them a little bit better, and you could not ask for a more dedicated, passionate, and talented group of people to run a comic event.

Dan Mishkin!

And the other show guests were just as awesome. Lots of friends old and new come from near and far to be a part of KRC.

Ruth signs her delightful Ellie McDoodle series!

This year, the artists included Jannie Ho (former Nick Mag designer turned Children’s Book illustrator), Dani Jones, Brandon Dayton, Kasey Van Hise, Jonathan Griffiths, Mark Rudolph, Barbara Slate, Rob Stenzinger, Matt Feazell, Bob Learned, Thom Zahler, Ruth McNally Barshaw, Zach Bosteel, Paul Storrie…the list goes on and on.

Raina had a lot of Smile fans in attendance, and their parents who were happy to have a free thing for their families to do that weekend. Raina even had one of her high school friends, Susan, bring her family to the event, including her newborn baby and older sons, all the way from Toledo!

And so, an inspiring weekend of comics for kids was had.

Michigan, Chelsea and Ann Arbor, are kind of magical: it stays light way later than it does in New York, the fireflies were out in force, we ate nothing but terrific food, including some fantastic ice cream. The weather held out all weekend, and we were lucky enough to attend some truly fun dinners and after-con hangouts with people we really like.

Brandon, Jerzy, and Anne.

If you’re anywhere at all near the Detroit metro area, and you make comics for a kid, tween, or teen audience, I highly recommend Kids Read Comics.

It’s got a great community feel and everyone is positive and upbeat. As for attending the show: there’s something for everyone age 3 and up, and it’s FREE!

Astronaut Academy fans!

Check out our COMPLETE PHOTO SET