Yesterday, Matt Kindt and I attended POETRY AND TRUTH: A Celebration of the Book at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.  Our panel was entitled “Really Big Comics,” so going into the session, we knew we had to deliver … and how.

Only, the first obstacle was getting there.

If someone had been there to follow the two of us around with a camera, we might have had the makings of a great comedy of errors … something akin to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, only instead of Steve Martin and John Candy traveling cross-country to make it home in time for Thanksgiving, you’d have Matt and me scurrying around the college campus looking for our auditorium.  No one seemed to know where the event was being held.  At least one person (at the college visitor center) told me there was no such event planned for the weekend.  At one point, I thought someone must have been playing a cruel prank on us, and we almost gave up the search.

Eventually, we reached our destination, seconds before the coordinators announced us as no-shows.  We had a nice group in the audience, and we conducted a lengthy question-and-answer session that seemed to go over very well.  

We had such a good time, we started kicking around the idea for a road show of sorts, where we’d travel the world like B.J. McKay and his best friend Bear, only instead of dodging Sheriff Lobo at every turn, we’d talk about the comics industry, indy comics, and writing funny books at colleges and libraries.  Matt and I approach comics from very different places, and I think attendees get a pretty good look at the “whole picture” when we start gabbing.

We’re definitely excited about this idea, and we’re gonna work on putting something together real soon.

But next time we’re going to get better directions.