Once again I psyche myself up to put up a blog! This time I���ll start with March 8th at the��San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, where we had a panel for Will Eisner Week. I was��delighted to be on a panel with Mario Hernandez, Steve Leialoha, and Gerry Jones,��talking about Will Eisner, the greatest storyteller in comics. Where today���s superhero��comics consist mostly of fight scenes and no plot, Eisner managed to tell an entire story,��and tell it beautifully, in 7 pages every week. If you���ve never been to the Cartoon Art��Museum, make it a priority on your next visit to San Francisco. They have good panels��and great shows! Here we are, with a nice young man, whose name, goddess forgive me,��I have lost. But Nice Young Man, thank you for the great photo! Left to right, Mario��Hernandez, short moi, Gerry Jones, Mister Nice Young Man, and Steve.��

IT HAPPENED IN MONTERREY…

Two days later, on March 19th, I departed for five days in Monterrey, Mexico, and an��amazing convention. Here���s a link, so you can see what you missed:

http://www.ecreativo.com/46cjmc/dibujantes.php

The convention was held in a huge convention center called Cintermex, in the middle of a��lovely park, Fundidora, which has a river and boats you can sail in down the river to a��great Mexican historical museum. The food was delicious! And here are us gringo��guests, enjoying some of that food with the lovely Nuria, our hostess during the��convention, and a very good cartoonist. Clockwise starting from lower left, that���s Kurt,��an animator from Canada, the lovely Nuria, the also lovely and immensely talented Jill��Thompson, editor Jim Salicrup, and yours truly.��

SO MUCH TALENT!

There were so many talented young women at the convention, and most of them draw in��manga/anime style, which at this point I think is a universal style. Here are some of��them: In the first photo that���s me with Eva Cabrera and Claudia Aguirre.��

Next, yours��truly again with Melody Flores. ��

And here���s our brilliant translator, Itziar Cardona,��helping Jill and me at out panel. Itziar speaks English excellently, and made me, with my��pathetic San Francisco Mission District Spanish, shamefully embarrassed.

And finally,��Jill and me with Sophie Garcie Bulle, who also speaks excellent English and regaled me��with Mexican history of which I was shamefully unaware. Thank you for the links and��the YouTube video of La Adelita, Sophie, and note to self: learn Spanish! BTW, that���s��my one souvenir that I���m wearing: a Frida Kahlo tee shirt, the only one in San Francisco.��

AND NOW FOR THE SAD PART:

Winston, the most wonderful cat in the entire universe, has left us for the Great Cushion��in the Sky. Two years ago, at thirteen, the little guy was diagnosed with kidney failure,��and we had to hydrate him, at first twice a week, and later three times a week. In the��beginning and for at least a year and a half, Winston held his own, but finally in January��he started slowly going downhill. By the time I left for Mexico, he was going downhill��pretty fast, and I worried that he might not be there when I got back, but the dear little guy��waited for me! I returned at about 7:30 Monday night, and he died a little after midnight. Winston received and gave nothing but love during his whole life. People would take one��look at him and laugh. I learned that a living creature can be both funny and beautiful,

because Winston was both. And he never knew how adorable he was — he just was! There will never be another like him.��