Book Expo America, New York, June 4-6

Celebrity Signings

Exhibit A was positioned near the DC booth, where some of the biggest signings were held. Here’s Batton with Harvey Pekar and Dean Haspiel, whose The Quitter graphic novel is due out from Vertigo/DC this fall.

Also signing at DC was Kyle Baker, nominated for numerous awards for his Plastic Man series. Batton and Jackie were very impressed by Kyle’s sample pages from his upcoming self-published Nat Turner series.

Frank Miller did two popular signings, one at the DC booth and one at Dark Horse. Here Jackie managed to grab a second with him at the Dark Horse booth.

DC’s other big autographing session was with Brad Meltzer, to promote the Identity Crisis collected volume.

Booth Visitors

Ruben Bolling, best known for his syndicated strip Tom the Dancing Bug, was signing books in BEA’s autographing area.

Evan Dorkin, Eisner Award-winning humor cartoonist, was signing copies of "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure" at the Slave Labor Booth.

And speaking of Slave Labor, Batton visited the SLG booth to schmooze with publisher Dan Vado.

Alex Robinson, creator of the award-winning graphic novel Box Office Poison, stopped by to talk about his new Top Shelf graphic novel, Tricked.

Greg Ketter, owner of Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis, Minnesota, chatted with Batton and Jackie about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

George Seminara, of New York’s Village Comics, stopped by to tell Batton an amazing story. George was close friends with Joey Ramone (of the famed punk rock band, The Ramones) and was involved in the making of the documentary The End of the Century. It seems that in Joey’s last few months before he died of cancer, George would visit him. According to George, Joey liked to have George read two things: Harry Potter books and Wolff & Byrd comics. Needless to say, Batton was speechless to hear this story!

Old Friends

Many old friends stopped by the Exhibit A booth to visit with Batton, including:

Rick Parker, who used to letter the "Wolff & Byrd" newspaper strip for Batton back in the 1980s and1990s. A talented cartoonist in his own right, Rick drew "Beevis and Butt-Head" for Marvel and is currently a freelance illustrator.

John Holmstrom, Batton’s best pal at the School of Visual Arts back in the early 1970s. Holmstrom founded "Punk" magazine and was editor of "High Times" magazine for many years.

Jim Salicrup edited the Topps line of comics, where he gave Batton the opportunity to do a Wolff & Byrd story inked by the one and only Steve Ditko. Jim is now editor of the Papercutz line of young adult graphic novels,

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