I had a GREAT TIME in SEATTLE at SHORT RUN y'all! I love that city, I spent 5 years there and it has a massive tug on my heart.

But THIS TIME, the most amazing thing was meeting SO MANY OF YOU!

(AND---> Hearing so many times how SAW has changed your life. Thank you.) Here are the pics I took!)

This was our small table. Not that impressive, really. It was small and cluttered, hard to curate from 3000 miles away! But still ready for YOU!

First , I saw Jen Aster! Jen is in our Six-Month Graphic Novel Program (the GNI) working primarily with K. Woodman-Maynard on her stories reflecting on childhood of growing up and moving around. A pleasure to meet you, Jen, thanks for stopping by so early and keep in touch and make the Graphic Memoir happen!

Then I met Matthew Shultz, who is in our Year Long Certificate Course (YLP), a real pleasure and he gave me his comic, and I took this HORRIBLE picture of him (and me!), so sorry Matt! But you rock!

And then I saw my old friend David Lasky who is not on these boards much, but is a great teacher and will be running more Friday Night Comics soon. Hello old friend!

This is my old friend Stefano G. who used to ink for Marvel and DC is now a professional mediator. We talked a lot about mediating!

YAY! This was Hanne Williams-Baron and I was so glad to meet her, she did the terrific story that closes out our YLP anthology last year (and was represented on the cover.) We love that story. Yay Hanne thanks for stopping by!

Then I saw Kristina Bartleson who is a regular at Friday Night Comics (FNC)! And says she sometimes does it from work or a local brew-pub with the camera off :) Nice to see you camera on, Kristina!

And then I saw Steve Bakker and I was like, my old pal, Steve, and he was like, actually we never met, and I was like WHA, no way. Steve took our GNI in 2020 and has been doing great work in the Alumni group ever since. I thought we had met already in person!

And yes! Everyone is wondering when did you meet Walter Hudsick and / or jen morris? And the answer is NEXT!

So HAPPY to meet you both, who give so much to the community, thank you both for coming by!

And then I was so lucky to meet Elizabeth Blake, especially since I had just read her amazing story in Troubled Histories, our most recent FLOW ANTHOLOGY! It's a good one, and that link says it's sold out but I bet Karlo Antunes is working on getting it back in print. And of course, if you're not in FLOW AND PUBLISH, join now!

Holy cow then I met Ashley Topacio in person! She did amazing work years ago in our GNI and I haven't really seen her since. So happy to reconnect. We love your comics! Go see 'em here.

And NO, I was not so lucky to meet Laura Garzon was I? YES I WAS, Laura came by next, and we talked about Troubled Histories and all sorts of other trouble... What a world. I told Laura that she is a real source of morality for us here at SAW, thanks Laura! We're going to get Laura on The Terrible Anvil Season 2! Right, Jess Ruliffson??

Um, this is one of my oldest friends in the world, Diane Kennedy so I am putting this here.

And yes, holy cow, we met mia milling who is doing well, in a new apartment and we want her to make some more comics with us. We're here when you make it back Mia! Love to you! This is her great zine, The Magic of Sign Language.

This is GREAT YLP IN PERSON student Bjorn Miner who isn't really in the network much, but I will use this space to tell him I adore him. He's a great, innovative, warm-hearted cartoonist of strange, slightly deranged mythologies. Great animator too. He was in Best American Comics! Thanks for stopping by Bjorn! I loved Doldrums, I'll email you!

And then YES, I met Cheryl Chudyk! A SAW stalwart in a variety of spaces, especially Friday Night Comics! So nice to meet you, hope to see you at FNC again soon!

And as I was packing up, I was so glad to meet Chelsea Akpan but I was so fried I didn't get a picture. Chelsea is a great cartoonist and stylist and is going to be helping us in FLOW and other things at SAW, YAY Chelsea, we'll talk super soon!

Ok y'all THANK YOU, we LOVE connecting with you at these zine fairs and comic festivals. Let's keep doing it in 2025 (and the few more we have in 2024!)

Let's Draw More Comics! ( Emma Jensen's old tag line!)

Talk soon!

Tom