Well, I'm back in Madison for a few short days, until the madness of GenCon and the San Diego ComicCon International begins.

Feeling a little dizzy and sick right now, but this looks like the only time I'll have to get this newsletter out, to be filed under "better late than never," so here goes (if it starts to ramble, blame it on my temperature)...

The Dork Tower World Tour is chugging along, and I'm being invited to far more conventions than I'd seriously know how to squeeze in. So I guess that means stuff is going well.

Origins (Columbus, Ohio) was spectacular. WizardWorld (Chicago) was even better, despite the worst possible booth location you could imagine. Not only were we in the scenic Back of the Huge Hall for the show, but the WizardWorld organizers didn't even list "Dork Tower," "Corsair" or even "Kovalic" in their program...they listed my publisher's last name. Great.

Fortunately, a huge, canvas-covered PVC-pipe monolith I built the week before sported the Dork Tower logo for all to see across the hall, so both shows were magnificent successes, sales-wise. Sold in the neighborhood of 400 comic books at them, as well as a host of Wild Life books, Murphy's Rules collections, T-Shirts and the fab new buttons.

Origins was a hoot and a half. Sharing a booth with Don Perrin and Margaret Weis was a wonderful experience. I'm glad I could swap war stories and cheese pretzels with these fine folks. Many late nights and many early mornings sandwiched my booth times. Dinner was provided by the kind folks at MagWeb (http://magweb.com) and made for a lovely Thursday evening. The impromptu James Ernest Button Men I drew Saturday (which the Cheapass Games made into actual buttons) seemed quite the collectors item by Sunday afternoon. Thanks to all their for their part in this insidious plan...

("What's a Button Man?" a very few of you may be asking. Check out http://www.cheapass.com/butnstra.html for all the groovy details)

Lots of folks to yak with at Origins. I was very hoarse on my return to

Madison. But I did manage to hit a Waffle House on the way back. Weird fast food seems to be a hallmark of what I consider the better road-trips anymore. I also stopped in at Rockford, Illinois' Beef-A-Roo, following Chicago. I'm not making that name up. They serve magnificent malts and cheddar fries, and mark the point in many trips where I'm only an hour away from home.

One of the two highlights for me at WizardWorld was having Terry Moore (of "Strangers in Paradise" fame) ask me to sign a Dork Tower for him. Terry's got to be one of the very nicest folks I've ever met. It's always cool when someone you admire turns out to be a decent human being as well.

The second -- well, let's not call it a "highlight," shall we, OK, "auspicious moment" then -- happened Sunday, when I was almost run over by Kevin Smith's ("Clerks," "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy") posse, which was hurtling out of the Oni Publishing booth with the velocity and mass (and therefore force) of your average Hollywood Earth-Destroying Asteroid.

On a more enjoyable note, I got to catch up with some friends (thanks for the couch space, Marty!), and dinner with Rich and Sandy Koslowski ("The Three Geeks") and Jason Asala ("Poe") Saturday was every bit as fun as it sounds. There may even be a Three Geeks/Dork Tower crossover at some point in the future.

It was also nice to hear LOTS of stores and distributors remark on Dork Tower's continued success and rise in circulation. Some folks from The Source, a huge, wonderful store in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, came up to me Friday morning and asked "so, how does it feel to outsell the X-Men?"

Now THAT is a great way to start a show! Another store in New York offered to fly me out for a book signing! It seems as if Dork Tower is still in one out of five stores -- but the ones it's in appear to be doing wonderfully.

This month is going to be hellish for me. I'm illustrating a new Steve Jackson card game called "Chez Geek," which looks to be a blast. I've also got seven pages of Dork Tower #6 to finish up before GenCon, as well as some Dork Towers for the Fantasy Roleplayer's Bible (written by Sean Patrick Fannon, to be published soon by Obsidian Studios), as well as nine more full-page Dork Towers for the Comic Shop News. Plus there are the regular weekly gigs (Dork Tower, Murphy's Rules, Beached), and all the editorial cartooning, and just life in general to cope with. Gaaaaaaah.

That's a lot of stuff to do in any month, much less one that includes GenCon and the San Diego Comic Con back to back. Still not sure if Dork Tower will be sharing a booth with anyone at San Diego or not. I'll throw a little bulletin out as soon as I have any info.

Fortunately, here in Wisconsin summer is in full swing. The tomatoes are ripening, the cats are thriving and a flock of wild turkeys has decided to make the woods behind our house their home. It's the coolest thing to see, and makes me very happy I live in the country.

By the way, if anyone knows any good recipes that rely on a LOT of chives, please let me know. I'm not sure WHY I decided we needed four plants this year, but all seem to believe they're practicing for the Chive Olympics, and are threatening to take over the back garden.

It's a shame it won't be until mid-August that I come up for air. But the big news is that I'll be visiting Los Angeles to talk with some agents who are interested in bringing Dork Tower to the small screen. Of course, I'm thinking that anyone with a halfway successful comic book and a pulse will probably have some agent or other on the phone. I'm not holding my breath just yet...but it sure does make life interesting.

Judith and I finally saw "Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me" last night. It was better than most of the reviews I've read suggested it would be. Then we snuck into "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." Seemed much better this time around (I liked it the first time -- better than "Return of the Jedi," anyway -- but thought it was flawed).

Hey! I'm rambling! Looks like it's time to go!

See you next month,