The end of the book tour part 2: Manhattan (again) and Brooklyn

Okay, I'm getting kind of confused on the dates here. I apologize, I can't be precise, but the rest of these photos are from Thursday December 1st through Saturday December 3rd. I had a few more book events to do plus I got incredibly sick and lost my voice completely. I knew it was essential that I meet my obligations for publicizing the book, so I guzzled enormous amounts of medicine and soldiered on relentlessly. Which caused everything to blend into a haze of illness, drugs and hallucinations.

Thursday was, I am pretty sure, my only day off. I spent an inordinate amount of time and money at Brooklyn's own Desert Island Comics. I had heard so much about this place and always wanted to visit, but there was never the time. It was a wonderland inside, and I could have spent the entire day browsing. Plus the owner, whose name I never learned, was just tremendously cool. I often worry when I venture inside a store similar to Desert Island that I will be sized up and dismissed as not hip enough since I don't look especially cool or wear thrift store clothes or have an iPhone that I conspicuously flaunt. But the owner was a genuinely cool dude and we talked quite a bit about art, comics, silkscreening and so on. I really liked him. Anyway, here is Desert Island which you should really visit some time...

Thursday night was one of the most surreal events in this long history of surreality surrounding my book. In New York, there is a fine publisher named Archipelago Books and their stated role is "a not-for-profit literary press dedicated to promoting cross-cultural exchange through international literature in translation." Since they are a not-for-profit publisher they depend heavily on pre-sales and other kinds of assistance, and they deserve it because they are really putting out some unique and important titles. Well, Archipelago had gotten in touch with a number of independent publishers, artists, literati and other folks and asked all of them to donate something for an auction Archipelago would be holding at a Manhattan gallery whose name I have truly forgotten. These publishers and artists (me!) and so on all donated books, subscriptions, pieces of art, and other odd things like hours of free art appraisal, a Manhattan lunch date and shopping trip and so on. Right away it was all so strange to me. Rob from Tin House was kind enough to get my wife and I in to the auction so we could watch it all happen. The gallery was packed and there was this huge crush of people at the entrance. People of all sorts too, from what looked to me like wealthy collectors to eccentric art directors to literary folks and so on. It was so strange...

The gallery was an impressive space, vast and lofty with gorgeous raw concrete walls and exposed metal. My wife and I walked around for a while and eventually came across the display of my donation which was a signed and drawn-in copy of the hardcover edition of Moby-Dick in Pictures and a completely new drawing of Moby Dick. Here is the book, with my drawing clipped to a weird metal stand...

Then the auction began. I wish I could remember who all these people were, but I was so sick and delirious from the medication that I don't remember much at all. This guy in the middle here handled the auctioneer chores, explaining each item and coordinating the bids...

There were a whole bunch of items before mine, some of which went for very very good (and high) prices, while others seemed to generate very little interest at all. I was getting freaked out because I felt completely out of place and way out of my league and was convinced my book and my drawing would get laughed out of the place and generate no bids at all. I was starting to wish I had never come, and then it was time for them to bid on my stuff. It was so incredibly strange to see these two ladies hold up my book and my art and parade them around in front of bidders in Manhattan like this. Luckily I don't think anyone there knew who I was so I was able to watch this all with some level of anonymity. Thankfully, there was a great deal of interest in my work, and the auction raised about 5 times more than the original asking bid. I was deeply relieved. And exhausted. So I went back to the room and went to sleep.

The next day, Friday...(and I never thought I would ever in my entire life type or say a sentence like this)...I had a very productive meeting with my agent. This is the outside of his building...

And here is a shot of his office, with one of my own paintings framed and hanging on his wall, which made me very happy...

And here we are together. That's him, to my right (your left). He is such a genuinely decent human being and I feel so incredibly fortunate to have landed with him. I only wish I wasn't so ill. I could barely croak out answers to his questions, but he gave me some great ideas about future projects...

This was on the street somewhere. It was too amusing to not take a photo of...

On Saturday, I traveled again to Brooklyn to meet with filmmaker Dave Shaerf. He's currently working on what looks like it might be an expansive film documenting the continuing relevance of Moby-Dick and its near-constant presence in American culture. He was kind enough to invite me to his apartment so he could film a lengthy interview with me for possible inclusion in the film. I really liked Dave a lot. He was very easy to talk to, had an deep love and knowledge of the game of baseball, and owned an awesome puppy. Here are Dave and I, after the interview...

And here is Dave's puppy Abby, who kept us company during the interview was a really great dog...

Saturday night was the very last event, at Brooklyn's BookCourt...

Someone in the store had prepared this really excellent sign out front, complete with a drawing of Moby Dick...

The staff kind of busted their ass for me, which I really appreciated. They treated my wife and I very well, hustled like mad to set up a podium and a projector and a giant screen and a bunch of chairs, and really talked me up. They were a great crew. Here I am talking about the book...

And of course, drawing in every copy...

A good friend and transplanted Ohioan, Mr. Eric Davidson, lead singer of the New Bomb Turks came out for the event too. It was really good to see a friendly and familiar face...

And here we are hamming it up a bit...

Finally, this is Valerie from BookCourt who was super tall and super nice and made sure that I had everything I needed. Thanks Valerie!

And that was it! All events over, many books sold and drawn in, many many new friends made, and back to Ohio. One last goodbye to the stone puppies from my wife...

I think that probably concludes my book tour. I will be doing something at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota in late January, but that might be the last one. We'll see, and I'll keep you posted.