Being a public person is a strange business, particularly when you have spent the first part of your life being taught time and time again that you belong nowhere. I would not trade it for anything, of course, and I was a spectacularly "interesting" employee, so I'm not certain there's really an alternative for me anymore.
When I saw the schedule, I felt originally that three signings was probably too many of those, but it's never worth it to second guess Robert. There are a lot of people who only can only come to one day of the show, and it's nice to have that available to them if they want it - especially if the Q&A questions are being drawn from a hat, and they have no opportunity to Testify as became the norm previously.
You might think it is ridiculous that what we do contains any great profundity. I am occasionally surprised by assertions that it does, but you don't get to choose what you mean to another person. I think we have done a variety of comics on a variety of topics and that occasionally you may find one of use. But the fact that we are here, perpetually here, is important alongside the particulars of this or that .jpeg image. We are here three times a week, and have been as long as many people can remember. We can be relied upon to do so. We have spoken to many soldiers about that, in particular: the capacity of the site to mark time.
People who come to a signing often have rituals which must be iterated, lest they lose their abundant power, and we are invariably deputized into these interstitial priesthoods. They have a Con Sketchbook, perhaps, whose pages must be inscribed only with pictures of a mug they have brought along. There are various Scavenger Hunts whose tenets must be observed. I have for many years written variations on a perverse phrase for one young man, and there is a poster I have signed continuously for a decade. If I have ever been asked to choke a motherfucker previous to this year, I don't remember it. But as the asphyxiant crawled away this strip was written more or less instantaneously, and we thank him. We thank him in his entirety. If we had to focus our gratitude for any reason, though, it would almost certainly come to rest on the throat.
(CW)TB out.
