New York Comic-Con

Greetings from the Beach:

This is our first entry since leaving New York April 23 to return to Heidi's condo on the Alabama Gulf Coast - yes, that's right, Alabama has nearly 18 miles of beautiful white sand beaches.

We were in New York April 15-23 to exhibit at Comic-Con and sightsee in the "Big Apple." Naturally we visited museums: seeing collections at the Frick and Neue Galerie, which opened in 2001 to showcase German and Austrian art and design. In fact, the Gustav Klimt exhibit was No. 1 on our "To-Do List." We weren't disappointed either; Klimt's 1907 "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" was spectacular.

This was Doug's first appearance at New York Comic-Con, and during the 3 days there, he met hundreds of fans. We displayed 9 of his Playboy cartoon originals and also sold personalized copies of his 52-page book - Unpublished Sneyd, a collection of favorite Playboy gag rough rejects since 1963 - to first, second and even third generation Playboy readers. A lot of $25.00 books were also purchased for June 15th. Father's Day gifts!

Besides talking to fans, Doug got to meet fellow Playboy cartoonists V.G. Myers and Mike Ewers; Ron Motta, Playboy senior research editor; Joe Pepitone, Art Director/Archie Comic Publications; Jim Demonakos, Organizer for Emerald City Comicon; and Joe Wos, Executive Director of Toonseum in Pittsburgh. Joe also introduced Doug to Ashley, a stikingly beautiful Bettie Page look-alike. Jeff Peters, Executive Producer/Host of comicology.tv, also stopped by the booth to schedule an interview with Doug. Jennifer Thiele, Editorial Coordinator at Playboy/New York, stopped by the booth Saturday for a blog interview; thanks again, Jennifer, for a tour of the Playboy offices and a delicious lunch at a popular French restaurant on Wednesday, April 16! It was a busy 3 days with talented booth-mate Celia Calle and booth-neighbors Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera from Imaginism Studios in Toronto.