After everyone said their slightly cliched piece, I ventured toward Shannon Wheeler to say one thing and one thing only. I'm in the vicintity as he talks with a few friends, laughing at the garish Manga ad on the back-cover of his magazine. Eventually, I see an opening, and try to situate myself so that he can easily re-co-mingle with his group.
Me: Hey Shannon.
Wheeler: Uh, yeah, hi.
Me: A decade ago I purchased some mini-comics from you, and
Wheeler: Oh man. Really? Ha ha. Did they arrive?
Me: Yes, but the thing is... they came postage due.
Wheeler: Ha. Well, I guess that comes from being inexperienced.
Me: Right. Actually, you basically just put them in a small enevelope kind of with no real concern for the weight and threw a regular first class stamp on it.
Wheeler: Right. I had a bunch of unused wedding enevelopes that were just the right size for those.
Me: You owe me a quarter.
Wheeler: If I had one I'd give it to you. Those mini-comics... you from Austin?
Me: No.
Wheeler: Factsheet Five? How'd you know about...
Me: You had put out the first regular comic at the time, and...
Wheeler: Oh. Okay. Well, if I had a quarter on me I'd give it to you. I have a dollar...
...
That's really all I wanted to say to Mr. Wheeler. I suppose could've mentioned the Japanese t-shirt and reaction #1 and Reaction #2 from Russia, but I didn't.
I'd be interested in whether the Klingon he spoke to was the man who was the initial Klingon Karaoke performing at Boadacious Classics (and volunteered to be a translator for the state of Oregon that propelled it into a modest national media flap a while ago). But... whatever.
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