Inkstuds Go To LA – Part 2 – Naps

As mentioned in the previous report, the first 2 days of driving left us pretty exhausted. I dont have any photo’s from the first morning in San Francisco, since Brandon and I just ended up napping instead of getting more reading done. I had a case of books with me that we read throughout the trip to prepare for interviews. But the tour still continues! Here is part 2, chronically the excitement. 

After pulling ourselves back from the dead (a long fuck you to sonic burger for making us so sick), we made our way to see good friend, Ryan Sands. Ryan is by far one of my favorite people in comics. We used his house to do an interview, and I am very appreciative. It’s kind of a jerk move that we didn’t talk to Ryan as well. The work he is publishing with Youth In Decline is top notch. He has been a positive force in comics, pushing forward great work through Same Hat and the Thickness Anthologies. I have fond memories of visit Ryan a couple of years before, when I went to house for an APE after party, where he made me take a shot of vodka accompanied by a shot of Kimchi. I still haven’t forgiven that part, but spend the rest of the evening bullshitting about comics with some pretty great folks.

Anyways, we are back at Ryan’s. Brandon and I both have giant green tea’s to help settle our stomachs. We were train wrecks.

Simon Roy on the other-hand, was not effected by Sonic for some reason(youth) and spent the day with driver, Shannon, out and about in San Franny. We awaited the arrival of Junko Mizuno. Getting an interview with her, felt like a bit of a coup. I am a huge fan of her work, and having an interview with someone like Junko, show’s just how we are trying to do interesting things with this tour.

Brandon got her to draw in his book. it was a very nice drawing. Because she draws great. that interview was really interesting and took some good turns. Here’s host Ryan Sands with Junko talking about something to do with manga. After that, we went for a walk around the mission district. It was easter weekend, and Junko heard about a chocolate shop that had rabbits that folks could go in and pet. We searched and search but no rabbits were found. We bid Junko a fond adieu and went off in search of food. Ryan took us to a sausage place were we filled our mouths while a hippy smoked weed in front of us on the side walk.

We were next off to Mission comics, for Brandon and Simon to sign books.

The line was nice and long. I can’t say enough about how Mission were great hosts. It’s a really nice store and I am happy we were able to spend some time there. We saw lots of great folks that night, but I started to get lazy at taking enough photos. 

I did see these two handsome men. Both Justin Hall and Roman Muradov, came by just to say hi and have a quick catch up. I like both of them quite a lot for very different reasons. Justin’s history of queer comics collection, is a stellar piece of work. Roman has been drawing up a storm. His new book from NoBrow, coming out this fall, will be fantastic. I have seen a pdf and give it two big thumbs up. 

Someone wanted Simon to get his Dan Fraga on!And Brandon was being a jerk, drawing stuff like this. It was a good night and we were happy to go to bed. Of course, being the monster that i am, we had a very full day ahead of us.

Our first stop was to visit Alternative Comics in Cupertino.

Here’s the painted sign, I think new Alternative publisher, Marc Arsenault mentioned that it was painted by Tom Hart. Marc was a great host, filling us up with stacks of amazing comics. Brandon grabbed a handful of original run, THB issues.

It’s a great little store, filled with great stuff. If for some strange reason, Cupertino is on your trip, pop by. if not, just go to WowCool and order good stuff there. He showed us a ton of amazing stuff, including a bunch of Al Columbia drawings from his sketchbooks. I dont know how Al would feel about me posting 20 year old drawings of his, so until i find out, here is a jam comic with Harvey Kurtzman, Tom Hart, Sam Henderson and Bob Fingerman.

I forgot to mention, while we were waiting for Marc, I saw Jesus walking his dog!!!! I chased after him to get a better photo, but he disappeared! We went for a nice hearty breakfast were Simon got breakfast pizza. I’m sure that was a wise move to get us roaring off to Los Angeles.

The drive down was amazing. We took the coast. Which was really breathtaking.

Shannon ignored my neurosis and made us stop to check out these amazing waves. They were massive, making giant crashes on the beach with a million warnings not to go swimming, BECAUSE YOU WILL DIE.

Look at those Canadians in the sun. 

We stopped to look at elephant  seals. We nearly lost Brandon to his people. I swear he even cried a little. Go ask him about elephant seals.

This guy was a bit of an asshole. 

The rest of the day was just some hard hard driving to Los Angeles. As we drove in LA, I put on  Dr Dre’s Chronic 2001 and we reflected about things just weren’t the same anymore. We stayed at a really nice Airbnb. Really surprising how we could get somewhere so nice without paying horrible hotel rates. It was right downton, in a pretty rundown area.  Having worked and lived in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, it wasn’t too unusual for me. And the heavily gentrified building we were staying, just like the gentrification of the DTES in Vancouver was a reminder of home. On the other hand, the grilled cheese with lobster sandwich that we got around the corner, was from a whole other world. Perfect food to send us off to bed.