I’ve followed Sarah Andersen on Tumblr for AGES so when I learned that she was coming to Johns Hopkins University for a book signing I was like “Um, yes?” and immediately put it on my calendar.

It was pretty cool to see her in person, although I will never stop being surprised that comic artists don’t look EXACTLY like their comic personas.  (Learning that Jennie Breeden  is actually THREE DIMENSIONAL was a shock.)

The event went pretty quickly.  First she read some of her comic strips while they were shown up on a big screen, then there was a Q-and-A, then the signing.  (By the way, her books are FUZZY!)

As someone who’s got a manuscript out on submission half my attention was on the actual proceedings, but the other half was on the framework of the event.  The biggest thing I noticed was that since Sarah had a pretty big draw (I’m bad at estimation, but you could count the crowd by the dozen, so somewhere over 40 and less than 100?) they gave everyone a card with a letter on it and called up people for signing in alphabetical batches.  That seemed pretty clever.  They also handed out sticky notes so we could write our names down if we wanted the signatures personalized.

It went very smoothly and I was impressed.  If I ever do a book tour (The Dream) I hope it’s that well organized.  Also that I have as big a draw as she does.

By the way, yes, that is an instant picture.  I used to scrapbook, but ever since my phone became my camera I stopped doing it because printing is such a hassle.  But I also never look at my phone pictures.  So I bought one of those new, hipster cameras that pops out your picture immediately.

I’m still getting used to it- everything comes out a little old-fashioned looking and lighting is hard to figure out, but I’m really enjoying having instant pictures.  And when we go to Disney later this year, having immediate pictures with the characters is going to be SO COOL.

Does anyone else read Sarah’s Scribbles?  What’s your favorite?  Do you have advice for how to get the best performance out of my hipster camera?  Let me know!

P.S.  I had to start over on MS 2.  Stupid plot being stupid.