Home again, home again...

Short vacation and Baltimore Con

The truth is, I now realize, I was burned out and absolutely shattered, and I wasn’t getting over it. An eight year sprint on back-to-back comic titles, followed by a move of country, had finally taken its toll, and I didn’t really know how to fix myself. Short breaks weren’t cutting it. The answer, it turned out, was to take a vacation. Good lord, how I needed it!

First stop, Raleigh, North Carolina, visiting friends. Here’s the stunning mill we photographed on our first day. Great food was consumed in Apex, and beer was drunk.

Next we drove down to Charlestown, in South Carolina, past a seemingly endless wall of roadside hoardings calling us to Jesus. My favourite attributed this rather inane and self-evident quote to the ultimate deity himself, apparently:

“Life is short.

Eternity is forever.”

- God.

Charlestown is probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to in the US. Founded in 1670, and named for King Charles II of England, it has a problematic past with its foundations built on the backs of slaves. The city seems over-run with hen parties, but it is brimming over with great bars and restaurants, and despite being a tourist trap it maintains a relaxed vibe. Here you’ll find the grand and the dilapidated side by side.

The drive back to Raleigh was was notable for both the roadside hoardings, now offering wall-to-wall lawyers, and for the tropical storm that hammered us for five hours straight!

Back in North Carolina I found myself volunteering to paint a mural on our friend’s wall. Beers will do that! I painted it over two days, in about seven hours. Turned out pretty well I think!

The flight to Baltimore was straight up and down, and just 40 minutes. We were dropped at the wrong hotel by a dodgy taxi avoiding the local game crowds - a common occurrence it seems - and so had to get a second, but we didn’t make a fuss about it. We got there!

The con itself was memorable for a few things, the first of which was notably sad, as our booth mate, John Cassaday, was no longer with us. We celebrated him though, and honored his work, his talent, his great charm throughout the weekend, and with the little memorial below. My wife, Christina, reminded me about how he once said that, as we now have to charge for signatures (because unscrupulous people would take our free ones and then sell them online, forcing the issue), we should always do our best to make any time spent with us worthy of that fee. John always did.

Other things of note were the fire in the restaurant right next door to the hotel..

The local game crowds that brought the traffic to a halt…

But otherwise, just how chilled and relaxed the show was. Here’s me with my first ever solo published work in 2000ad…

It was, as always, wonderful to catch up with some old friends and colleagues, and I also did some of my best con sketches ever. It’s nice when it flows!

Huge thanks go to the mighty Moy brothers and their lovely wives. We always have an amazing time with Albert, Jaime, Devyn and Janine.

Somewhere along the way I realized a weight was lifting. There are burdens we carry around that we don’t even know are there until they start to dislodge, shucked off like heavy sodden coats at the first blush of sun on our upturned faces. And while I am still a little tired, I can feel that old drive, the paradoxical pleasure/pain of creativity that had waned in me, blossom anew. I had felt like a water tank steadily emptying over time. At first and for an age the fresh flow had been strong, but with only inches of water now left the ebb had become barely a dank trickle. The tank needed refilling.

So, fellow creators, and humans of all walks, do yourself a favour: Take a break. You need it more than you know!