Having a store manager means not having to be at the booth for every minute of the day, and Sunday Gene and I took advantage of that to spend the morning with our respective families, finally rolling into the con after lunch. We signed books and met fans for several hours, then I headed upstairs a few minutes late to the "Business of Webcomics" panel.

There we largely went over the well-trodden ground of our Comic Con Webcomics School panels, but I enjoyed the conversation about offices. Lately I've been enjoying a pleasant (and g-rated) fantasy about getting an office for Unshelved, because I think we'd generate lots more ideas, both for the strip and for other porjects. I also think I'd get more done. Of course there's the minor logistical matter of our day jobs, but a few tens of thousands of readers more will solve that problem. So tell your friends. And neighbors. And strangers in line at the post office.

But back to the panel. Scott and Kris sat next to each other and you could tell how good a team they are, and how much they truly will benefit from working alongside one another. They and (special guest!) Mike/Gabe from Penny Arcade and I talked about the value of writing comedy as a team. It's something I believe strongly in, and they do too. Gene and I couldn't do this strip as individuals. It's the team that makes it happen.

It was a good panel, but my favorite part was that I DIDN'T MODERATE! It's ten times more fun being a panelist because I didn't have to hold back my own opinions, and I didn't have to reign in Kurtz' poop jokes.

After the panel the show was over. It sucks having the last panel of the last day because no one can come to the booth afterwards and buys everything we sell. But ECCC was the little show that could, and we did much better than we expected in sales and signups. Our man Jim runs the whole thing, and he is to be congratulated for building it up from scratch five years ago.

Next stop: San Antonio on April 14th for the Texas Library Association.

This week is our very silly challenge to Sheldon to see who could write the funnier sequence about plastic coffee cup lids. We were trash-talking each other a little at ECCC, but honestly we both think Dave Kellett is incredibly funny and expect him to kick our butts. In any case you should head over there and sign up for his magical and often very random strip.